Extruded monoliths for gas separation processes: Height equivalent to a theoretical plate and pressure drop correlations

Abstract

Extruded monoliths are generally adopted in the chemical industry for the advantage of reduced pressure drops at high throughput, but a systematic procedure to evaluate their performance is not readily available. Key performance indicators for a monolith are the height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP) and the pressure drop of its channels. This contribution presents for the first time a systematic approach to the analysis of several extruded monoliths of industrial relevance. A procedure to derive the HETP correlation for an arbitrary extruded monolith is presented, and pressure drop correlations from literature are reviewed. The HETP correlations have been validated against three dimensional (3D) numerical simulations. A reduced-order model is derived from the HETP and is shown to capture the overall dynamics of the 3D simulations with high accuracy without adjustable parameters. Finally, a comparison between the extruded monoliths and packed beds is reported and includes pressure drops.