The effect of packing density of hollow fiber contactors on shell-side mass transfer in methanol/water distillation was analyzed.The distillation experiments were carried out with three polypropylene hollow fiber modules whose packing densities were 4.7%

9.5%

19%

respectively.The results showed that all the contactor worked well above the limit at which flooding normally occurs in conventional cases at various packing densities of fibers.Experimental Sherwood number was smaller than calculated Sherwood number at a low packing density

but bigger than that calculated at a high packing density.Higher Reynolds number made better shell-side mass transfer.The Sherwood numbers at high packing densities were smaller than those at low packing densities.The resistance on the vapor side decreased with increasing F factor.The higher the packing density

the bigger the resistance on the vapor side.The overall mass transfer coefficients of hollow fiber contactors decreased rapidly from 391.84×10-5 m·s-1 to 83.28×10-5 m·s-1 with increasing packing density.