The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. Cover design: WMXDesign GmbH, Heidelberg Printed on acid-free paper Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com) Foreword by Prof. Górak, Technical University of Dortmund Columns for distillation,

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... and extraction have been applied for years in chemical, petrochemical, food, energy and electronic industry. They are often equipped with different kinds of packings. Understanding of principles for packing design, internal traffic of phases within the column and implementing of theoretical models into industrial practice is of vital interest of both -students and practitioners. The book of Dr. J. Maćkowiak gives a deep insight into the fluid dynamics of packed columns. It is based on personal experience of the author and on a tremendous experimental data base on pressure drop (10,000 points), flooding points (1,2000 points) and liquid hold-up (1,100 points) measured for about 200 different types of random and structured packings. This is the biggest experimental data base published ever. The big value of this book is also the theoretical model, called "Suspended Bed of Droplets" which is bases on the dependency between the flow resistance coefficient and packing shape. This model is predictive, i.e. it allows calculation of pressure drop and flooding gas velocity for unknown packing geometry. The model is valid for pressures from vacuum up to 100 bar and for specific liquid loads up to 250 m 3 m -2 h −1 . In this book the reader will find the sound theoretical analysis of two phase flow in packed column, extensive correlation of existing data for traditional and modern packings as well as practical equations which can be directly used in academic teaching courses and industrial applications. Dr. J. Maćkowiak has committed to paper his 20 years experience as practitioner while operating company ENVIMAC GmbH and as researcher, publishing his results in journals and conference papers. Calculation methods of packed columns, presented in the book will increase the design accuracy of distillation, absorption and extraction which cause up to 60% of total processing costs in chemical industry. Dortmund,