Trays in distillation columns

This chapter considers the vapor-liquid equilibrium of mixtures, conditions for bubble and dew points of gaseous mixtures, isothermal equilibrium flash calculations, the design of distillation towers with valve trays, packed tower design. Smoker s equation for estimating the number of plates in a binary mixture, and finally, the computation of multi-component recovery and minimum trays in distillation columns. 

MULTICOMPONENT DISTRIBUTION AND MINIMUM TRAYS IN DISTILLATION COLUMNS... 

In addition, a component mass balance can be performed which describes the net flowrate of component A in the upper section for any tray. For clarification, trays in distillation columns are typically numbered from the top to the bottom, such that the top tray is stage 1 and the bottom is stage m. Thus, liquid flows down the column from tray n to tray n + 1... 

Passage of liquid from the top to the bottom of trayed towers occurs primarily via downcomers. Downcomers are conduits having circular, segmental, or rectangular cross sections that convey liquid from an upper tray to a lower tray in distillation columns. Different types of downcomers are shown in Fig. 6.14. The major differences are in the cross-sectional areas and in the slopes of the lengthwise extension. 

Anderson RH, Garnett G, Winkle MV (1976) Efficiency comparison of valve and sieve trays in distillation columns, Ind. Eng. Chem., Process Des. Dev., 15(1), 96-100. 

In addition, one other feature of the prefractionator arrangement is important in reducing mixing effects. Losses occur in distillation operations due to mismatches between the composition of the column feed and the composition on the feed tray. Because the prefractionator distributes component B top and bottom, this allows greater freedom to match the feed composition with one of the trays in the column to reduce mixing losses at the feed tray. 

The separation operation called distillation utihzes vapor and hquid phases at essentially the same temperature and pressure for the coexisting zones. Various lands of devices such as r andom or sti uctui ed packings and plates or tr ays are used to bring the two phases into intimate contact. Trays are stacked one above the other and enclosed in a cyhndrical shell to form a column. Pacldngs are also generally contained in a cyhndrical shell between hold-down and support plates. A typical tray-type distillation column plus major external accessories is shown schematically in Fig. 13-1. 

AiCbE Researcb Committee, Tray Efficiency in Distillation Columns, final report. University of Delaware, Newark, 1958. 

Problem A 100-tray vacuum distillation column was run in blocked operation mode. After a run on a previous product the column would not run properly for a new product. 

In this approach accident cases and design recommendations can be analysed level by level. In the database the knowledge of known processes is divided into categories of process, subprocess, system, subsystem, equipment and detail (Fig. 6). Process is an independent processing unit (e.g. hydrogenation unit). Subprocess is an independent part of a process such as reactor or separation section. System is an independent part of a subprocess such as a distillation column with its all auxiliary systems. Subsystem is a functional part of a system such as a reactor heat recovery system or a column overhead system including their control systems. Equipment is an unit operation or an unit process such as a heat exchanger, a reactor or a distillation column. Detail is an item in a pipe or a piece of equipment (e.g. a tray in a column, a control valve in a pipe). 

The work of Calderbank and Rennie (C4) has been criticized by Sargent and Macmillan (S2) on the basis that the liquid flow conditions used by Calderbank and Rennie (C4) are not found in distillation columns. They (S2) consider that cellular foams are formed for dilute aqueous solutions only when low gas flow rates are employed. By using an n-pentane-isopentane system, Macmillan (Ml) found that for all gas flow rates, froths with densities less than 0.15 were formed and the froth densities were independent of the factor vs(pg)112 but dependent on tray geometry. The associated problem of foam stability has also attracted considerable attention (Al, D3, Zl). 

In the arrangement discussed, the feed is introduced continuously to the column and two product streams are obtained, one at the top much richer than the feed in the MVC and the second from the base of the column weaker in the MVC. For the separation of small quantities of mixtures, a batch still may be used. Here the column rises directly from a large drum which acts as the still and reboiler and holds the charge of feed. The trays in the column form a rectifying column and distillation is continued until it is no longer possible to obtain the desired product quality from the column. The concentration of the MVC steadily falls in the liquid remaining in the still so that enrichment to the desired level of the MVC is not possible. This problem is discussed in more detail in Section 11.6. 

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 older tall oil distillation columns used bubble cap trays. In new columns, structured packing is preferred. Because of the low pressure drop of structured packing, steam injection is no longer necessary. The low liquid holdup of this packing minimizes the reactions of the fatty and resin acids. A specific distillation sequence for vacuum columns using structured packing of Sulzer has been described (26). Depitching is carried out at a vacuum of... 

The crude C4 mixture is charged to a 70 tray extractive distillation column T-l that employs acetonitrile as solvent. Trays are numbered from the bottom. Feed enters on tray 20, solvent enters on tray 60, and reflux is returned to the top tray. Net overhead product goes beyond the battery limits. Butadiene dissolved in acetonitrile leaves at the bottom. This stream is pumped to a 25-tray solvent recovery column T-2 which it enters on tray 20. Butadiene is recovered overhead as liquid and proceeds to the BDS reactor. Acetonitrile is the bottom product which is cooled to 100°F and returned to T-l. Both columns have the usual condensing and reboiling provisions. 

In the first case, product purities are controlled indirectly by controlling front positions. In distillation columns the front positions are easily controlled with cheap, reliable and fast online temperature measurements on sensitive trays inside the column [27]. A similar procedure was recently proposed for moving-bed chromatographic processes with UV rather than temperature measurement [37]. However, the performance of such an approach is usually limited. Exact product specifications cannot be guaranteed because of this indirect approach. Furthermore, in combined reaction separation processes the relationship between the measured variable and the variable to be controlled is often non-unique, which may lead to severe operational problems as shown for reactive distillation processes [23], It was concluded that these problems could be overcome if in addition some direct or indirect measure of conversion is taken into account. 

AIChE Research Committee, Tray Efficiencies in Distillation Columns, Final report from the University of Delaware, 1958. 

Fig. 6c. One distillation tray in the column (courtesy of Nutter Engineering)...

Figure 6.6 shows a simple two-product distillation column and gives the notation we use for flowrates, compositions, and tray numbering. Feed is introduced on tray Nf, numbering from the bottom. There are Nt trays in the column. The molar feed flowrate is F, its composition is Zj (mole fraction of component j.k and its thermal condition is q (saturated liquid is q = 1, saturated vapor is q — 0). The heat transfer rates are Qr in the reboiler and Qc in the condenser. Distillate product... 

Separation constraints The separation in a column can be expressed as the impurity levels of the key components in the two products xg.LK in the bottoms and xD Hx in the distillate. Separation is limited by the minimum reflux ratio and the minimum number of trays. We must always have more trays than the minimum and a higher reflux ratio than the minimum. If the number of trays in the column is not large enough for the desired separation, no amount of reflux will be able to attain it and no control system will work. In extractive distillation columns, there is also a maximum reflux ratio limitation, above which the overhead stream becomes less pure as the reflux increases. 

Since we have two control degrees of freedom, our objectives in distillation are to control the amount of LK impurity in the bottoms product ( b.lk) and the amount of HK impurity in the distillate ( 5>Hk) Controlling these compositions directly requires that we have composition analyzers to measure them. Instead of doing this, it is often possible to achieve fairly good product quality control by controlling the temperature on some tray in the column and keeping one manipulated variable constant. Quite often the best variable to fix is the reflux flowrate, but other possibilities include holding heat input or reflux ratio constant. 

The lighter (lower-boiling temperature) components tend to concentrate in the vapor phase, while the heavier (higher-boiling temperature) components concentrate in the liquid phase. The result is a vapor phase that becomes richer in light components as it passes up the column and a liquid phase that becomes richer in heavy components as it cascades downward. The overall separation achieved between the distillate and the bottoms depends primarily on the relative volatilities of the components, the number of contacting trays in each column section, and the ratio of the liquid-phase flow rate to the vapor-phase flow rate in each section. 

The calculated point efficiency must be converted to overall column efficiency, which will lower its value and make it closer to the O Connell prediction. The calculated value of Eog is slightly higher than obtained experimentally (Eog = 0.83-0.92) at the University of Delaware for bubblecap trays (Annual Progress Report of Research Committee, Tray Efficiencies in Distillation Columns, AIChE, New York, 1955). 

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