Experimental investigation of the froth height in columns with sandwich packings

Sandwich packings, consisting of alternatingly stacked conventional structured packings with different geometric surface areas, are promising to increase capacity and efficiency of separation columns. Film and froth flow evolve along a stack, which requires comprehensive fluid dynamic analysis. In particular, the froth height is an essential parameter to determine the spatial extent of the flow regimes. Ultrafast X-ray tomography and a 3D-printed pressure drop profile measurement module were applied to independently estimate this parameter. The results are compared with existing correlations.