Contactors will contain between 4 and 12 bubble cap trays.

During a
plant start up, the pressure in the contactor should be raised slowly to the
operating range and the glycol circulated to create a liquid level on the
trays.
Wet gas should then be
slowly introduced and
gradually increased to
the operating level. If
this procedure were not
followed, there would
not be any glycol
passing through the
downcomers and so the
gas would go up
through the
downcomers as well as
up through the trays.
 Even after the introduction of glycol, a
lot of the liquid would be carried out by the
gas stream instead of flowing to the bottom
of the contactor. Some of the gas in the wet
gas stream may liquefy and dissolve in the
glycol.
The amount of gas which does this depends on the
composition of the gas stream and its operating
pressure. As we have seen, the wet glycol in the bottom
of the contactor is referred to as rich. It then passes to
the flash tank. Flow from the vessel is regulated by
level control.