Our design approach for sizing a knockout drum is to use the Souders-Brown equation where max

velocity through the demister pad is:

Vmax = K * sq rt [(liquid droplet density – vapor density) / (vapor density)]
where K is a constant provided by the demister manufacturer, typically ~ 0.35 at 100 psig.
The GPSA Engineering Databook uses the same method, but says to multiply K by 0.6-0.8 for glycol
and amine solutions. I looked through the references listed by GPSA and found a 1980 paper by
Laurence Reid (himself) where it says to multiply K by 0.82.
Does anyone understand why amine droplets are so much harder to knock out than hydrocarbon or
water, and what is the appropriate fraction of K to use? The 0.6-0.8 is a pretty wide range.