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.

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 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.