Abstract: Improved HETP is obtained in the operation of a distillation column containing trays with a packing of a porous container containing a particulate material intimately associated with a resilient component having at least 50 volume % open space, preferably at least 70 volume % positioned on the trays compared to the trays without the packing. The packing may contain a catalytic particulate material and the distillation may involve reaction and distillation of the reaction products. The particulate material may also be inert and the distillation of the conventional type to separate components in the distillation mixture without reaction.

Abstract: Improved HETP is obtained in the operation of a distillation column containing trays with a packing of a porous container containing a particulate material intimately associated with a resilient component having at least 50 volume % open space, preferably at least 70 volume % positioned on the trays compared to the trays without the packing. The packing may contain a catalytic particulate material and the distillation may involve reaction and distillation of the reaction products. The particulate material may also be inert and the distillation of the conventional type to separate components in the distillation mixture without reaction.

Abstract: A plastic scintillation detector (14) generates on the basis of ionizing radiation coming from a radiation source (16) light flashes which are converted by a photoelectric transducer (20), for example a photoelectron multiplier, to electrical output pulses. An evaluation circuit (22) counts the output pulses as a measure of the radiation intensity. For automatic stabilization of the scintillation detector a light source (24) is controlled by a driving circuit (26) in such a manner that it transmits light pulses whose intensity is modulated in accordance with a predetermined periodic function, for example a sawtooth function. The modulated light pulses are also intercepted by the photoelectric transducer (20) and converted by the latter into electrical reference pulses. A monitoring circuit (28) determines in each modulation period the number of reference pulses whose amplitude exceeds a predetermined reference threshold value lying in the modulation interval.