Ordered bed packing module

Abstract

In one embodiment of the invention a catalyst packing module is provided which greatly enhances the vapour-liquid transfer rate in the overall hydrogen-liquid water isotopic exchange reaction between streams of gaseous hydrogen and liquid water. The catalyst packing module comprises alternate layers of plane sheet and corrugated sheet and is produced by rolling at least one plane sheet and at least one corrugated sheet together into a right cylinder in a jelly roll configuration. The plane sheet is a woven, knitted or felted cloth of a textile material which wicks water over its surface and the corrugated sheet is an open mesh of metal coated with a porous matrix of polytetrafluoroethylene with exposed, partially platinized carbon particles therein. This catalyst packing module maximizes the hydrophilic surface area per unit volume of packing for the vapour-liquid transfer reaction and also the surface area of the support material (carrier) for the hydrophobic catalyst. Although the packing is tight, high gas and liquid flow can be used without flooding the bed because the hydrophilic surfaces are separated by hydrophobic spacers and because the hydrophilic surface have a wicking action. In other embodiments of the invention the packing module is used to advantage for any gas-liquid transfer reaction but in this application the corrugated mesh is a metal cloth, does not support a catalyst and is made hydrophobic with, or of, some suitable polymeric material such as polytetrafluoroethylene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polymethacrylate, polypropylene etc.