ICT IOC Bhubaneswar

EQUIPMENT DESIGN AND DRAWING

DR. SUSHMA CHAKRABORTY

Lecture 1
 • Distillation Column
• Types of Distillation Column
• Height and Diameter of Distillation Column
• Column Internals: Plate Type Column

CONTENTS

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Distillation Column
• Tall vertical cylindrical shell
consisting of a number of
nozzles.
• Internals consist of a series of
plates, trays, or variety of
packings.
• Requires a ladder and a platform
for maintenance and inspection
where the height of the column
is considerable.

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Types of Distillation Columns
• Plate/Tray Column
• Consists of fixed number of trays or plates.
• Here, the liquid is in a continuous phase and
gas in dispersed phase.
• Pressure drop is higher.
• Not used in vacuum operation.

• Packed Column
• Column is filled with either random packings or
structured packings.
• Pressure drop is lower.
• Can be used for vacuum operation.
• Here, gas/vapor is in continuous phase and
liquid in dispersed phase.

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Height and Diameter
• Diameter:
• For counter-current operations: flooding decides the diameter.
• For co-current operations: pressure drop decides the diameter.

• Height: Mass transfer considerations

• Difficult separations require taller columns.
• Height is determined with the help of total number of plates (depending on tray efficiency) and plate
spacing.
• In case of packed tower, height of the packing is obtained by multiplying number of theoretical stages
by height equivalent to theoretical plate.
• Total height of a column = space required for mass transfer + tower internals (packing support plate,
hold down plate, liquid distributor, gas/vapor distributor, liquid redistributor, demister, etc).

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Downcomers:
• Plates without downcomers:
• Flat perforated circular plates with diameter slightly lesser than
the column i.d.
• Examples:
• Turbogrid trays
• Ripple tray

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Downcomers:
• Plates without downcomers:

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Downcomers:
• Plates with downcomers:
• Circular Plates with provision of passages for downward flow of liquid.
• Downcomer area of each plate are limited to 10 % of the total plate area.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Plates with Downcomers:
• Downcomers are used to provide a passage for the downward flow of liquid from a top tray to a lower
tray.
• An inlet weir is provided which helps to distribute the liquid as it enters the tray from the downcomer
and prevents direct impingement of the liquid on the contacting devices.
• For small liquid flows, circular or pipe type downcomers are used. A projection of a corresponding shape provided on the
downcomer acts as exit weir.
• Downcomers can be formed as segmental shape where a raised portion on the edge acts as a weir.
• A downcomer can also be formed by creating a passage between the column wall and a vertical plate extending across the chord
of the tray. The weir in such a case comprises of a flat plate extending across the tray and is known as a chord type weir.
• The flow of liquid in these cases is across the tray and is known as single pass cross flow.
• Reverse flow: recommended when the liquid flow is small in comparison the vapor flow.
• Radial flow: created by downcomers placed at the centre and around the circumference of alternate
trays.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Plates with Downcomers:

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Plates with Downcomers:
• For multipass arrangements, the downcomers are
formed of two parallel plates extending across the
diameter of the column.
• Weirs in all cases must be of sufficient height.
• Multiple downcomer trays are designed with a row
of narrow rectangular troughs spaced across the
tray to act as downcomers.
• The bottom portion of the trough is not fully open.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Bubble cap trays:
• The area of the plate or tray, between the inlet and the outlet weirs is provided with a large number of holes
over which cylindrical risers or chimneys are placed.
• Caps in the form of inverted cups are located over the risers.
• The vapor rises up through the holes and the risers and subsequently through a number of rectangular,
triangular or trapezoidal slots provided at the rim of the caps.
• Uniflux tray is made up of interlocking S-shaped sections which form a series of transverse tunnel caps with
vapor outlets on one side only.
• Round bell caps of diameter 75 to 150 mm are most commonly used.
• Rectangular caps are 80 – 150 mm wide and 300 mm long.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Bubble cap trays:
• The riser diameter is around 65 % – 70 % of the cap diameter.
• If the column diameter is 1 m or more, the riser area is around 10 – 20 % of tower cross-sectional area.
• The caps are slotted around the lower periphery and can be anchored to the plate with teeth touching the plate
or suspended to permit a skirt clearance between the plate and cap.
• Normally, a skirt clearance of 12 – 14 mm is recommended to prevent plugging of the slot.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Bubble cap trays:

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Bubble cap trays:

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Valve trays:
• It consists of valves which are lifted by rising vapors and acts as variable orifices.
• These permits effective mixing of liquid and vapor over a wide range of loading.
• Some caps are designed by double lift system, where at low vapor loads the inner light cap lifts and as the
pressure drop increases and overcomes the weight and friction of the heavier cap, it also lifts and creates
additional area of flow of vapor. These are known as flexi-cap trays.
• Ballast trays have valves with flat caps or discs.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Valve trays:

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Valve trays:

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Contacting Devices:
• Sieve trays:
• No separate contacting devices are required.
• Perforations are distributed uniformly over a plate which
acts as passage for vapors.
• Some holes have vertical expansions, some trays have
some extra angular slots, some have expanded metal
layer attached to the tray.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Tray Drainage:
• Tray drains are required to permit drainage of liquid hold-up of the column in case of shutdown.
• The holes must be sufficiently large, so that it does not get clogged by sediments or polymers.
• Holes must be of 1 – 1.5 cm diameter along the weir.

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Column Internals: Plate Type Columns
• Distribution Baffles:

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Packed Type Columns
• Overview:
• Filled with suitable packing materials.
• Liquid flows downward over the surface of the packings in the form of
thin films.
• Gas/vapor rises continuously.
• Liquid is introduced at the top of the packing by means of distribution
plates.
• The gas raises up against the liquid path through void of tower
packing.
• The gas and liquid will contact on the packing surface for mass
transfer.
• Advantages:
• High separating efficiency
• Low pressure drop
• Low liquid hold-up quantity
• High operation flexibility

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Packed Type Columns
• Advantages:
• High separating efficiency
• Low pressure drop:
• The packed tower has pressure drop lower than the plate tower.
• In the normal condition, the pressure drop of plate tower is about 0.4–1.1 kPa
per unit theoretical stage while the packed tower is about 0.01–0.27 kPa.
• The low pressure drop can not only save the operating cost, but also save
energy.
• It is very suitable for the heat sensitive material separating
• Low liquid hold-up quantity:
• Liquid hold-up quantity refers to the liquid quantity on the packing surface,
internals and plates.
• The liquid hold-up quantity of packed tower is less than 6% while the plate
tower is higher to 8-12%.
• Higher liquid hold-up quantity needs long operating hours, long operating
period and expensive operating costs, which is bad for the distillation process.

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Packed Type Columns
• Advantages:
• High operation flexibility:
• Operation flexibility refers to the adaptation of tower to the load.
• In the packed tower, the operation flexibility is decided for the internal designs, especially the liquid distributor.
• Each components including tower packings and tower internals have high operation flexibility.
• So the operation flexibility can be adjusted according to different applications.
• The operation flexibility of plate tower is limited by the liquid flooding, liquid entrainment and downcomer capacity.
• Applications of packed tower:
• Separation
• Filtration
• Purification
• Vacuum distillation

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Packed Type Columns
• Packings
• Random Packing
• Random packing is widely used in the packing towers for gas and liquid, separating, absorbing, cooling and other
applications.
• Random packing has different types with the materials and structure improvement.
• Raschig Rings
• Raschig ring is the simplest structure of all types of random packing.
• The diameter is same as the height.
• The large sized Raschig rings (diameter is larger than 100 mm) is commonly filled neatly, but the smaller size whose
diameter is smaller than 75 mm is commonly filled in huddle

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Packed Type Columns
• Packings
• Random Packing
• Pall Rings
• Pall ring is the improved products of Raschig ring.
• Compared with Raschig ring, the features of pall ring is that the diameter is same as the height.
• Besides, there are two layers of window on the cylinder wall.
• And each wall have five ligules bending inward.
• The openings on the cylinder wall let the pall ring make full use of the inner surface and improve the separating and
absorbing efficiency.

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Packed Type Columns
• Packings
• Random Packing
• Intalox saddle
• Intalox saddle ring, as its name says, the shape is similar to the saddle, but its shapes is between the ring and saddle.
• This design make full use of the advantage of ring and saddle. It can not only benefit for the liquid distribution, it can also
improve the flux of gas.
• Compared with pall ring, it has larger flux, less resistance and higher efficiency.
• Cascade mini ring
• The cascade mini ring is the advanced product of pall ring.
• The feature of cascade mini ring is the ratio of height and diameter is 1:2, and cone-shaped flange is added onto the end
of the Cascade mini ring.
• It can not only improve the mechanical strength, it can also reduce the gas passing resistance and increase the flux.
• Additionally, the liquid and gas has uniform distribution and then the separating efficiency is improves through increasing
the contact area.
• Cascade mini ring is widely used in the packed towers in petroleum, chemical, chlor-alkali, coal gas, environmental
protection and other industries.

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Packed Type Columns
• Packings
• Random Packing
• Cascade mini ring

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Packed Type Columns
• Packings
• Structured Packing
• The structured packing is made of several packings with different
geometrical shape and corrugation angle.
• According to different corrugation angle, it can be divided into X type and Y
type.
• The X type stands for the 30° angle, and the Y type stands for the 45° angle.
• X type structured packing has small pressure drop and the Y type
structured packing has better mass transfer property.

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Packed Type Columns
• Packings
• Structured Packing

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Packed Type Columns
• Packing Supports
• Packing support plate, also called packing support grid, is an important tower internals in the packing tower.
• Packing support plate is designed for supporting the tower packing bed, including random packing and structured
packing.
• Conventional plates are perforated plates and grid bar assembly.
• Perforated plates have 20 – 30 % free area and grid bars have 30 – 40 % free area.
• Gas injection weir type supports provide around 50 % free area.

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Packed Type Columns
• Liquid Distributor
• In the mass transfer process, even distribution of liquid and gas is very important.
• If the liquid or gas are not evenly distributed across the superficial tower area when it enters the packing bed, the required
separation efficiency will be reduced and even fail.
• To ensure the intimate contact and high mass transfer efficiency, any cross section in the packed tower should be evenly
distributed with gas and liquid.
• When the liquid flow down along the packings, it has a tendency to flow to the tower wall, which make the tower wall liquid
quantity increase rapidly.
• This phenomenon is called wall flow, which may cause the non-uniform distribution of gas and liquid.
• To avoid it, liquid redistributors are placed in the middle of tower body when the packing layer is too high.

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Packed Type Columns
• Liquid Distributor
• Spray nozzles:
• Hemispherical spray nozzle will distribute the liquids evenly to the random or structured bed.
• There are numerous small holes in 3–10 mm on the nozzle.
• It is suitable for the smaller diameter packed tower, which is smaller than 600 mm.
• Perforated pipe distributor:
• Single row or double row perforated pipes will evenly distributed the liquid to the packing bed through perforated holes
under the pipe.
• It is widely used in the medium liquid, reduced pressure distillation towers and wire gauze structured packing towers. It can
be made into ladder shapes and ring shapes.

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Packed Type Columns
• Liquid Distributor
• Through distributor:
• It has through type and through-pan type holders, which is widely used for heavy liquid and gas load, high viscosity liquid and
liquid with suspended solid.
• Orifice distributor:
• It can be divided into perforated plate type and pan type.
• The liquid will flow down through perforated holes or overflow from the annulus between the distributor and the vessel. It is
suitable for the small diameter tower, which is smaller than the 800 mm.

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Packed Type Columns
• Liquid Distributor

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THANK YOU!!!