Packed towers pressure drop

Pressure drop. Packed towers are designed so that the pressure drop at any point in the tower does not exceed a recommended maximum value. Maximum pressure drop criteria for packed towers are listed in Table 8.4. For vacuum distillation, foaming systems, and where fan horsepower needs to be minimized, the pressure drop criteria frequently set tower diameter. 

Low pressure drop. Packed towers have a low AP per theoretical stage or transfer unit, which is beneficial in low-pressure and vacuum applications. 

Gas-pressure drop. Packed towers will ordinarily require a smaller pressure drop. This is especially important for vacuum distillation. 

To reduce energy-use by operating columns in parallel, which, because of the low pressure-drop of tower packings, permits the overhead vapour from the first column to supply reboiler heat to the second column. 

Packed Tower.—A conventional countercurrent packed tower is shown Tor comparison. When used Tor flue gas scrubbing, a short section of low-pressure-drop packing (e.g., 3 in. Intalox saddles) is employed with a mist eliminator above the liquid feed point. 

Counterflow packed towers (typically low-pressure drop packing)... 

When two phases are present the situation is quite complex, especially in beds of fine soHds where interfacial forces can be significant. In coarse beds, eg, packed towers, the effects are often correlated empirically in terms of pressure drops for the single phases taken individually. 

Packed vs Plate Columns. Relative to plate towers, packed towers are more useful for multipurpose distillations, usually in small (under 0.5 m) towers or for the following specific appHcations severe corrosion environment where some corrosion-resistant materials, such as plastics, ceramics, and certain metaUics, can easily be fabricated into packing but may be difficult to fabricate into plates vacuum operation where a low pressure drop per theoretical plate is a critical requirement high (eg, above 49,000 kg/(hm ) (- 10, 000 lb/(hft )) Hquid rates foaming systems or debottlenecking plate towers having plate spacings that are relatively close, under 0.3 m. 

Tower Internals and Equipment Modification. Tower capacity expansion can be achieved through the use of random or stmctured packing, or through the use of higher capacity trays such as the UOP multiple downcomer tray. Packing has been used in the gasoline fractionator, water quench tower, caustic and amine towers, demethanizer, the upper zone of the deethanizer, debutanizer, and condensate strippers. Packing reduces the pressure drop and increases the capacity. 

Selection of Equipment Packed columns usually are chosen for very corrosive materials, for liquids that foam badly, for either small-or large-diameter towers involving veiy low allowable pressure drops, and for small-scale operations requiring diameters of less than 0.6 m (2 ft). The type of packing is selected on the basis of resistance to corrosion, mechanical strength, capacity for handling the required flows, mass-transfer efficiency, and cost. Economic factors are discussed later in this sec tion. 

By far the greatest number of instaUations is for the removal or recoveiy of mostly small concentrations of acidic and other components from air, hydrocarbons, and hydrogen. Hundreds of such plants are in operation, many of them of great size. They mostly employ either packed or tray towers. Power requirements for such equipment are small. When the presence of solid impurities could clog the equipment or when the pressure drop must be low, spray towers are used in spite of their much larger size for a given capacity and scrubbing efficiency. 

Reaction in a Centrifugal Pump In the reaction between acetic acid and gaseous ketene to make acetic anhydride, the pressure must be kept low (0.2 atm) to prevent polymerization of ketene. A packed tower with low pressure drop could be used but the required volume is very large because of the low pressure. Spes (Chem. Ing. Tech., 38, 963-966 [1966]) selected a centrifugal pump reactor where... 

Plastic packing of very low pressure drop, developed for water-air cooling tower applications. 

We opened the Packed Columns subsection with the statement by Lieberman that, based on his design and operating experience, a properly designed packed tower can have 20 0% more capacity than a trayed tower with equal number of fractionation stages. Kister states that packing s pressure drop is typically three to five times lower than that of trays. 

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