Evaporative Cooling of Water in a Rotating Packed Bed (Split Packing)

Rotating packed beds (RPB) have been Studied for intensifying mass-transfer processes. This work was undertaken to evaluate the thermal performance of in RPB with split packing for evaporative cooling of water involving simultaneous heat and mass transfer. Higher efficiency was achieved within a smaller contactor volume compared to mechanical draft cooling towers. At all values of the liquid-to-air flow rate ratio studied, efficiency was not significantly affected by rotor speed and decreased with increasing rotor speed beyond a certain limit at low air and water flow rates. A simple mathematical model was used to estimate process parameters from the experimental data based oil the Merkel assumption. The h(G)a/k(Y)aC(s) ratio varied between 0.85 and 1.18, and the tower characteristic of the RPB was between 1.4 and 4.0.