A packed bed includes a vessel including a shell, an inlet, and an outlet, wherein the space inside the shell between the inlet and outlet forms an internal volume; a plurality of packing material structures filling at least a portion of the internal volume thereby forming a packed volume, wherein the packed volume has a void fraction, and the packing material structures provide an aggregate surface area; and the vessel has a pressure drop between the vessel inlet and vessel outlet, wherein the pressure drop is less than 1.0 times that of a packed bed of the non-twisted shapes with the same cross-section.

A catalyst for catalytic reactors of which the outer shape is a helix with n blades, where n is greater than or equal to 1, wherein the stack void fraction percentage is between 75% and 85% and the surface area/volume ratio is greater than 1000 square meters/square meters.

A catalyst carrier may have a cross-sectional shape that may include a plurality of surface channels having a first channel width and a second channel width, where the first channel width may be closer to a periphery of the cross-sectional shape than the second channel width and the first channel width may be less than the second channel width. The cross-sectional shape may further include a plurality of surface features where at least one surface feature is located between at least one pair of surface channels. The cross-sectional shape may further include a ratio L.sub.OC/L.sub.SCP of at least about 1.7, where L.sub.OC is a length of a total contour of the cross-sectional shape and L.sub.SCP is a length of an outer simple convex perimeter of the cross-sectional shape.

A method for facilitating the distribution of the flow of one or more streams within a bed vessel is provided. Disposed within the bed vessel are internal materials and structures including multiple operating zones. One type of operating zone can be a processing zone composed of one or more beds of solid processing material. Another type of operating zone can be a treating zone. Treating zones can facilitate the distribution of the one or more streams fed to processing zones. The distribution can facilitate contact between the feed streams and the processing materials contained in the processing zones.

Mass transfer packing with a minimal surface or a triply periodic minimal surface which enables significantly improved performance for separation and mixing applications particularly with respect to distillation, liquid-liquid contacting, and heat exchange applications.

A method for facilitating the distribution of the flow of one or more streams within a bed vessel is provided. Disposed within the bed vessel are internal materials and structures including multiple operating zones. One type of operating zone can be a processing zone composed of one or more beds of solid processing material. Another type of operating zone can be a treating zone. Treating zones can facilitate the distribution of the one or more streams fed to processing zones. The distribution can facilitate contact between the feed streams and the processing materials contained in the processing zones.

A method for facilitating the distribution of the flow of one or more streams within a bed vessel is provided. Disposed within the bed vessel are internal materials and structures including multiple operating zones. One type of operating zone can be a processing zone composed of one or more beds of solid processing material. Another type of operating zone can be a treating zone. Treating zones can facilitate the distribution of the one or more streams fed to processing zones. The distribution can facilitate contact between the feed streams and the processing materials contained in the processing zones.

A volumetric media having an upstream end and a downstream end. The volumetric media includes one or more spacers and a packing material around the spacers. The packing material includes a foam. The packing material may include fine fibers disposed on at least a portion of the foam.

A packing element for use in a heat exchange or mass transfer tower includes a barrel and a plurality of fins spaced around a circumference of the barrel, each fin having a height approximately equal to a height of the barrel and a length extending radially from the barrel, a proximate end of each fin attached perpendicularly to the barrel. A protrusion extends outward from the distal end or each fin along its height. A method for mass transfer includes passing fluids through a vessel packed with randomly arranged packing elements.