Ceramic packing element

A method of forming a bed of packing elements comprising:

• extruding a mixture comprising one or more ceramic-forming components;
• sectioning the extruded mixture to form sections;
• firing the sections to form packing elements, wherein each of the packing elements is characterized by first and second concave external surfaces at the ends of height and width axes respectively perpendicular to a length direction, said concave surfaces being connected by surfaces that are selected from convex surfaces and convex surfaces connected to the concave surfaces by relatively short intermediate flat surfaces, a ratio of a width dimension to the length being from 1.5:1 to 5:1, and the element being provided with at least three through passages in the length direction, at least one of the passageways being kidney bean-shaped in cross-section, the kidney-bean shaped passageway having two generally parallel arcuate surfaces;
• and
• assembling a bed of packing elements which includes a plurality of the fired packing elements.