The present invention relates to a mass transfer tray comprising a bottom plate, at least one gas transmission part and a liquid transmission part, wherein the mass transfer tray has at least one valve located in the liquid transmission part, relates to use of a mass transfer tray of the present invention in liquid separation process, relates to a column comprising the trays of the present invention, and relates to a thermal separation process, comprising performing thermal separation within the column of the present invention.

A structured cross-channel packing element for a column for at least one of mass transfer and heat exchange between a heavy fluid phase and a light fluid phase. The structured cross-channel packing element comprises at least two adjacent layers made of expanded metal sheets each comprising openings that are surrounded and separated from each other by separating elements. At least two of layers are arranged in a longitudinal direction parallel and in touching contact with each other such that an open space extending from one end to an opposite end of the layers is provided between the layers such that at least one of the heavy fluid phase and the light fluid phase may flow therethrough. A ratio between an average width of at least 50% of the separating elements between adjacent ones of the openings and a sheet material thickness is at least 15.

A structured packing bed for a column is provided. The structured packing bed comprises at least two layers stacked vertically above each other, and at least two of the layers each comprise at least one structured cross-channel packing element having a specific surface area of 60 to 500 m.sup.2/m.sup.3 and a height of 50 to less than 150 mm. At least 50% of the structured cross-channel packing elements are a block comprising a plurality of sheets with periodic deformations. The sheets are arranged in a longitudinal direction parallel and in touching contact with each other such that an open space is provided between them. Adjacent sheets are oriented such that their deformations intersect in crisscross fashion with each other, and a structured cross-channel packing element of a layer is rotated with regard to a structured cross-channel packing element of an adjacent layer by 70 to 110.

A contactor media includes continuous surface segments, wherein a first continuous surface segment has at least 50% of its surface area follow at least one of: (a) a contour of a first zero-thickness surface having a Gaussian curvature (G.sub.c) of 400 mm.sup.2G.sub.c<0.01 mm.sup.2; and (b) a contour of a second zero-thickness surface having at least one principal curvature (k.sub.i) of 20 mm.sup.1k.sub.i<0.1 mm.sup.1; and wherein the first continuous surface segment provides at least: (a) a total liquid hold-up of between about 1 kg/m.sup.3 to about 800 kg/m.sup.3 or (b) a static liquid hold-up of about 0.1 kg/m.sup.3 to about 800 kg/m.sup.3.

A chemical flow reactor comprising: a housing having an inlet and an outlet; at least one heat exchange pipe extending through the interior of the housing; a space defined between the interior surface of the housing and the outer surface of Gas Flow the at least one pipe, said space being in fluid communication with the inlet and the outlet; and a plurality of plates stacked within said space forming a stacked plate assembly between the inlet and the outlet, each plate comprising at least one hole through which the at least one pipe extends such that the at least one pipe extends through the stacked plate assembly. An active chemical, such as a catalyst, is disposed on each plate.

A continuous production system for alcohol ester C-12 is provided, comprising: a feedstock tank, a reaction tower, an atmospheric distillation tower, a vacuum distillation tower, a condenser, a water washing tower, a dehydration tower, an evaporator, a light component removal tower, and a rectifying tower that are all connected with each other through pipelines. The continuous production system for alcohol ester C-12 replaces the traditional intermittent production process with the advantages of good batch stability, less by-products, and high yield.