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Distillation Column Tray Hydraulics
Distillation Column Tray Hydraulics
Subhasish Mitra
M.Tech Scholar Department of Chemical Engineering I.I.T, Kanpur
100% weeping
Flooding mechanisms:
In simple term, flooding is excessive accumulation of liquid inside the column. Flooding on trays : Mechanisms are Spray Entrainment Flooding & Froth Entrainment Flooding. Flooding in down-comer : Mechanisms are Downcomer Back up flooding and Down-comer Choke flooding.
Change of regime:
At low liquid rate, entrainment diminishes with higher liquid load. At high liquid rate, entrainment increases with liquid loads. When most of the dispersion is in the form of a spray, entrainment diminishes with higher liquid load. Transition from spray to froth regime.
DC Back up flooding
DC Choked flooding
At high pressure , vapor and liquid separation in downcomer decreases which causes DC froth back up. High liquid flow also increases pr drop in DC.
Tray spacing : Low tray spacing enhances tendency of all types of flooding except DC choke flooding. TS<18 can cause both spray and froth entrainment flooding. Bubbling area: Low bubbling area/low fractional hole area causes all type of flooding except DC choke flooding.
Liquid load: Most accepted one is flux of liquid across tray (gpm/in),
Weeping:
Weeping is descent of liquid through plate perforation. It occurs when liquid head on the tray exceeds the pr drop that holds the liquid on tray. Minor weeping can be tolerated without affecting tray efficiency. Large liquid rate, large fractional hole area and taller weirs cause weeping.
Down-comer load:
QD is the clear liquid velocity at down-comer entrance. Alternatively, this load is also expressed in terms of ft/sec.
Flooding limit : 80% 85% Csb = f( flow parameter, surface tension, tray spacing, fractional hole area)
System factor
16 to 18 min
Pressure drop
1.5 to 3 wc
18 to 24 1 to 4
Weir loading
5 to 10 mm 25 to 50 mm
Tray types:
Normally three major category -Valve, Sieve & Bubble Cap. Some popular valve-type trays from Sulzer widely used in Industry. Two sub-categories are floating type & fixed type.
BDH
RV
SV
SVG/MVG/MMVG
Sulzer VG-Plus High performance tray: -Chordal high performance down-comer. -Enhanced deck design for efficient vapor liquid contact. -Optimized valve lay out.
Information courtesy:
Various sources of information Ingenero Technology India Ltd, Mumbai & Petrofac Engineering India Ltd, Mumbai. Technical documents Sulzer Chemtech & Baretti Distillation design: Henry J Kister