MENARA BAHAN ISIAN (PACKED TOWER)

Penjelasan umum : Menara paking adalah menara yang diisi dengan bahan pengisi, gambar di atas. Di dalam menara ini, cairan akan mengalir ke bawah (Liquid can be distributed over the packing material by one of three devices: weirs, tubes, or spray nozzles) melalui permukaan bawah pengisi, sedangkan gas akan mengalir ke atas secara arus berlawanan, melalui ruang kosong yang ada diantara bahan pengisi. Digunakan untuk sistem gas-cairan dimana salah satu dari resistansi fasa yang ada mengontrol atau kedua fasa sama-sama berpengaruh. The overall pressure drops across packed towers are usually between 5 and 25 cm (2 and 10 in.) of water. Thus, packed towers are generally considered as medium-energy scrubbers. Bahan isian (packed) Merupakan komponen packed tower yang paling mahal Adapun fungsi bahan pengisi ialah untuk memperluas bidang kontak antara kedua fase (uap cair). Bahan pengisi yang banyak digunakan antara lain cincin rasching, cincin lessing, cincin partisi, sadel bell, sadel intalox dan cicin pall. These strangely shaped pieces are supposed to impart good vapor-liquid contact when a particular type is placed together in numbers, without causing excessive pressure-drop across a packed section. This is important because a high pressure drop would mean that more energy is required to drive the vapor up the distillation column. Berbahan dasar : stoneware, porcelain, or metal, but presently, a large majority are made of high-density thermoplastics (polyethylene and polypropylene).

Contoh aplikasi : Odor removal in organic chemical, meat packing, rendering, fish and general food processing plants Gaseous absorption in steel plants and in fertilizer and other chemical process industries used to absorb inorganic gases into liquid Packed towers are mainly used to remove gaseous pollutants

Packed column are the best options when:

Costs: packed column tends are less expensive than plate column for small column diameter (<0.6 m). Corrosive chemicals handling: cheap ceramic packing material, or other chemicals resistant packing element can be easily used.

Packed towers are most suited to applications where a high gas-removal efficiency is required and the exhaust gas is relatively free from particles. These include removing HCl, NH4, and SO2 gases from a variety of process streams

Packings versus Trays A tray column that is facing throughput problems may be de-bottlenecked by replacing a section of trays with packings. This is because: packings provide extra inter-facial area for liquid-vapor contact efficiency of separation is increased for the same column height packed columns are shorter than trayed columns Packed columns are called continuous-contact columns while trayed columns are called staged-contact columns because of the manner in which vapor and liquid are contacted.

NB : The countercurrent-flow packed tower does not operate effectively if there are large variations in the liquid or gas flow rates. If either the liquid-injection rate or the gas flow rate through the packing bed is too high, a condition called flooding may occur. Flooding is a condition where the liquid is "held" in the pockets, or void spaces, between the packing and does not drain down through the packing. Flooding can be reduced by reducing the gas velocity through the bed or by reducing the liquid-injection rate.