Patent ID: 8500105

Claim:
A contact tray for facilitating contact between ascending and descending fluids within a column in which mass transfer and/or heat exchange processes occur, said contact tray comprising: a generally planar tray deck; a plurality of cans positioned on and extending upwardly from the tray deck, each of said cans having a generally open top and being formed by a wall of a preselected height, said wall having a plurality of discharge openings extending through the wall to allow fluid to pass through the wall from within the can; openings extending through the tray deck within areas circumscribed by each of the cans to allow fluid to pass upwardly through the tray deck and into the cans; swirlers positioned to cause centrifugal swirling of the fluid that has passed upwardly through the tray deck and into the cans; downcomers extending downwardly from the tray deck, each downcomer comprising an upper downcomer inlet formed in the tray deck and a lower discharge outlet; one or more dividing walls extending upwardly from the tray deck and positioned to form multiple groupings of one or more of said cans and one or more of said downcomer inlets, the one or more dividing walls isolating the one or more cans and the one or more downcomer inlets in each grouping from the cans and downcomer inlets in the other groupings so that said fluid passing through the wall from within the can in each grouping is impeded from flowing into downcomer inlets in other groupings by the one or more dividing walls.