Methods, systems, and techniques for desalinating a saltwater using a humidifier unit. The humidifier unit has a housing, which has a carrier gas inlet and a saltwater inlet. The humidifier unit also includes a packing, within the housing, having a surface with a critical surface tension of less than 25 mN/m according to the Zisman method. The packing is arranged to facilitate a saltwater that enters the housing through the saltwater inlet and a carrier gas that enters the housing through the carrier gas inlet to contact each other. The contact facilitates evaporation of the saltwater, which produces salt solids on at least a surface of the packing, a humidified gas and a concentrated brine.

Methods, systems, and techniques for desalinating a saltwater using a humidifier unit. The humidifier unit has a housing, which has a carrier gas inlet and a saltwater inlet. The humidifier unit also includes a packing, within the housing, having a surface with a critical surface tension of less than 25 mN/m according to the Zisman method. The packing is arranged to facilitate a saltwater that enters the housing through the saltwater inlet and a carrier gas that enters the housing through the carrier gas inlet to contact each other. The contact facilitates evaporation of the saltwater, which produces salt solids on at least a surface of the packing, a humidified gas and a concentrated brine.

A catalytic reactor includes: a reaction-side flow channel in which a reaction fluid flows; structured catalysts accommodated in the reaction-side flow channel. Each structured catalyst includes inclined surfaces in at least part of each of two surfaces facing other structured catalysts. The inclined surfaces are inclined in the same direction with respect to an arrangement direction of the structured catalysts.

A cross-corrugated structured packing element is provided for use in mass transfer or heat exchange columns. The packing element has a plurality of packing layers positioned in an upright, parallel relationship to each other and including corrugations formed of alternating peaks and valleys and corrugation sidewalls extending between the peaks and valleys. The packing element also includes a plurality of apertures each presenting an open area. The apertures are distributed such that the corrugation sidewalls have a greater density of open areas than any density of the open areas that may be present in the peaks and valleys. Some of the apertures may be present in the peaks and the valleys to facilitate liquid distribution. The apertures may also be placed in rows or other patterns that are aligned in a direction along a longitudinal length of the corrugations. Regions with a larger apex radius may be formed in the peaks, such as by depressing spaced-apart segments of the peaks to form spacers in the undepressed portions of the peaks. Some of the apertures may be positioned in the transitions from the depressed portions of the peaks to the unmodified apex sections.

A catalytic reactor includes: a reaction-side flow channel in which a reaction fluid flows; a structured catalyst removably located in the reaction-side flow channel; and a protrusion formed in the structured catalyst or an inner surface of the reaction-side flow channel, having a height forming a clearance between the structured catalyst and the inner surface of the reaction-side flow channel.

An annular divided wall column for the cryogenic rectification of air or constituents of air is provided. The annular divided wall column includes a first annular column wall and a second annular column wall disposed within the first annular column wall to define an annulus column region and an interior core column region. The present annular divided wall column further includes structured packing elements disposed within at least the annulus column region as well as a ring-shaped cantilevered collector; and a ring-shaped distributor disposed in the annulus column region above or below the plurality of structured packing elements. The thermal expansion and contraction of the second annular column wall in a radial direction and in an axial direction is independent of the thermal expansion and contraction of the first annular column wall in the radial and axial directions.

The present disclosure is related to processes for the alkylation of an isoparaffin. The process may include introducing, in a multistage reactor, a solid acid catalyst including a zeolite to an isoparaffin feed and an olefin feed to form an alkylation product mixture including C5+ olefins. The processes may further include separating at least a portion of the C5+ olefins from the alkylation product mixture to form an oligomer light stream. The present disclosure further relates to multistage reactors for the alkylation of an isoparaffin with an olefin. The multistage reactors may include a plurality of stages, and a plurality of separation systems. The multistage reactors may also include an outlet space coupling each stage to a separation system and an inlet space coupling a separation system to a subsequent stage.

An annular divided wall column is provided. The annular divided wall column includes a first annular column wall and a second annular column wall disposed within the first annular column wall and radially spaced therefrom to define an annulus column region as the space between the first annular column wall and the second annular column wall. An interior core column region is also defined by the interior space of the second annular column wall. The present annular divided wall column further includes a plurality of packing elements, disposed within the interior core column region within the annulus column region having different surface area densities and optionally, also have different geometries.

An annular divided wall column for the cryogenic rectification of air or constituents of air is provided. The annular divided wall column includes a first annular column wall and a second annular column wall disposed within the first annular column wall to define an annulus column region and an interior core column region. The present annular divided wall column further includes structured packing elements disposed within at least the annulus column region as well as a ring-shaped cantilevered collector; and a ring-shaped distributor disposed in the annulus column region above or below the plurality of structured packing elements. The thermal expansion and contraction of the second annular column wall in a radial direction and in an axial direction is independent of the thermal expansion and contraction of the first annular column wall in the radial and axial directions.

An annular divided wall column is provided. The annular divided wall column includes a first annular column wall and a second annular column wall disposed within the first annular column wall and radially spaced therefrom to define an annulus column region as the space between the first annular column wall and the second annular column wall. An interior core column region is also defined by the interior space of the second annular column wall. The present annular divided wall column further includes a plurality of packing elements, disposed within the interior core column region within the annulus column region having different surface area densities and optionally, also have different geometries.