Distillation column height

The height of a distillation column depends on the feed conditions, the product purity specifications and the extent of separation through the vapour-liquid equilibrium relationship, but also on the type of tray or packing used in the column as this affects the rate of separation. Column vendors will normally provide information on tray or packing efficiencies.9,10 

The diameter of the column is determined mainly by the vapour flow rate and correlations for this can be found in textbooks. If using commercial programmes, suitable correlations for different trays/pack-ings will normally be incorporated. 

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Distillation column, height 30 m, diameter 3 m, 50 sieve trays, operating pressure 10 bar ... 

Equimolar Counterdiffusion. Just as unidirectional diffusion through stagnant films represents the situation in an ideally simple gas absorption process, equimolar counterdiffusion prevails as another special case in ideal distillation columns. In this case, the total molar flows and are constant, and the mass balance is given by equation 35. As shown eadier, noj/g factors have to be included in the derivation and the height of the packing is... 

Once packing heights are determined in other sections from HETP (distillation) or Koa (absorption), the height allowances for the internals (from Figure 1) can be added to determine the overall column height. Column diameter is determined in sections on capacity and pressure drop for the selected packing (random dumped or structured). 

Next, to determine packed column height use Table 9 for distillation HETP values, leaning tow ards the high side of the range for studies. For use of Kqa values see Section A—Absorbers. Bed height per packed bed runs up to 20-30 ft for metal or ceramic packings, but plastic packing is usually limited to 24 ft. 

A centrifugal pump is required to circulate a liquid of density 800 kg/m2 and viscosity 0.5 x 10 3 Ns/m" from the reboiler of a distillation column through a vaporisor at the rate of 0.004 m3/s, and to introduce the superheated vapour above the vapour space in the reboiler which contains a 0.07 m depth of liquid. If smooth-bore 25 mm diameter pipe is to be used, the pressure of vapour in the reboiler is 1 kN/m2 and the Net Positive Suction Head required by the pump is 2 m of liquid, what is the minimum height required between the liquid level in the reboiler and the pump ... 

As with distillation, the correlation for overall tray efficiency for absorbers, given in Equation 10.7, should only be used to derive a first estimate of the actual number of trays. More elaborate and reliable methods are available, but these require much more information on tray type and geometry and physical properties. If the column is to be packed, then the height of the packing is determined from Equation 9.64. As with distillation, the height equivalent of a theoretical plate (HETP) can vary... 

Distillation column, tray absorber Diameter, height, internal pressure, material of construction, tray type, number of trays, condenser, reboiler (see item 3)... 

A height of at least 10 ft (3 m) above the vessels internal liquid operating levels (liquid hold-up in distillation column trays is not included)... 

The term plate height comes from distillation theory. Some high-performance distillation columns contain discrete units called plates, in which liquid and vapor equilibrate with each other. As a teenager, A. J. R Martin, coinventor of partition chromatography, built distillation columns in discrete sections from coffee cans. (We don t know what he was distilling ) When he formulated the theory of partition chromatography, he adopted terms from distillation theory. 

Efficiency of the distillation column is measured by the height equivalent to a theoretical plate, abbreviated HETP or simply h. The length of the column is L, thus h=L/n. The h value is independent of L, whereas the n value is dependent on L. 

The concept of plate theory was originally proposed for the performance of distillation columns (12). However, Martin and Synge (13) first applied the plate theory to partition chromatography. The theory assumes that the column is divided into a number of zones called theoretical plates. One determines the zone thickness or height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP) by assuming that there is perfect equilibrium between the gas and liquid phases within each plate. The resulting behavior of the plate column is calculated on the assumption that the distribution coefficient remains unaffected by the presence of other... 

Figure 12 Height reduction of a distillation column claimed by Super X-Pack. (Courtesy Nagaoka International Corp.)...

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