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Rotating packed beds (RPBs) aim to intensify mass transfer processes by exploiting centrifugal forces. The limited use of RPBs in the chemical industry can be explained among others by missing comparative studies between state of the art equipment (e.g., packed columns) and RPBs to quantify the benefits that come along by the use of RPBs. The effective interfacial area, mainly dependent on the rotational speed, was found to be equal for both rotors (outer packing radii of 0.18 and 0.28 m, respectively) for rotational speeds larger than 20 s–1. The specific energy dissipation per provided interfacial area is newly introduced in order to link the pressure drop with the mass transfer. Compared to packed columns, the moles of CO2 absorbed per packing volume were found to increase by a factor of up to 3 in RPBs.

In rotating packed beds (RPBs) centrifugal forces are exploited in order to intensify the mass transfer between different phases. In order to derive correlations describing the hydrodynamics and the mass transfer in RPBs and to improve the understanding of fundamentals, comprehensive and systematic experimental investigations are required. The present study focuses on the dry pressure drop that was investigated for different packing materials and rotor dimensions. The pressure drop induced by rotation, defined as centrifugal head, mainly depends on the outer diameter of the rotor. The frictional pressure drop in the packed bed depends on the rotor dimensions and the packing properties as well as on the operating conditions. Existing correlations do not predict the pressure drop accurately; thus, a modified correlation basing on the extended channel model is proposed, estimating the dry pressure drop in RPBs with deviations below ±15% for knit meshes and metal foams for rotors with outer packing diameters of 0.36 and 0.56 m.

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