Distillation Column Design
Process Design
Mechanical Design
Process Design Nos. of actual plates
(contractors)
Theoretical plates & Plate
efficiency
Column diameter
Plate contactor details
Mechanical DesignTall Tower Design
Mechanical details of
column internals
Plate contactors Cross flow contactors- liquid
flows across the plate &
vapour up through the plate
Cross flow tray type
Sieve plate
Valve plate
Bubble cap plate
Sieve plate (perforated plate)
This is the simplest type of crossflow plate.
The vapour passes up through
perforations in the plate.
The liquid is retained on the
plate by the vapour flow.
There is no positive vapour liquid
seal, and at low flow-rates liquid
will weep through the holes,
reducing the plate efficiency.
The perforations are usually
small holes.
Bubble cap plate
The bubble-cap plate is the traditional,
oldest, type of cross-flow plate.
Vapour passes up through short pipes,
called risers, covered by a cap with a
serrated edge, or slots.
The most significant feature of the
bubble-cap plate is that the use of
risers ensures that a level of liquid is
maintained on the tray at all vapour
flow-rates.
No weeping
Valve Plate ( floating
cap plate)
Valve plates are proprietary designs.
Essentially sieve plates with largediameter holes covered by movable
flaps, which lift as the vapour flow
increases.
As the area for vapour flow varies with
the flow-rate, valve plates can operate
efficiently at lower flow-rates than
sieve plates: the valves closing at low
vapour rates.
Liquid flow pattern Single pass
Reverse pass
Multiple pass
Single pass
Reverse pass
Double pass
Plate selection criteria Cost
Capacity
Operating range
Efficiency
Pressure drop
Cost Bubble cap
Valve plate
Sieve plate
High
Moderate
Low
Capacity Capacity diameter required
for a
given flow rate
No significant difference
Operating range Turn down ratio ratio of
highest
to lowest flow
rates
Sieve plate
low flexibility
Valve plate & Bubble cap
high flexibility
Efficiency Murphree efficiency of all the
three plates are practically
same.
Pressure drop Sieve plate
lowest pressure
drop
Valve plate
intermediate
Bubble cap
highest
Sieve plates are the cheapest and
are satisfactory for most applications.
Valve plates should be considered if
the specified turn-down ratio cannot
be met with sieve plates.
Bubble-caps should only be used
where very low vapour (gas) rates
have to be handled and a positive
liquid seal is essential at all flowrates.
Sieve plate column
Plate construction Sectional for large column
dia
Stacked for small column dia
Downcomers Segmental downcomer
(a) Vertical apron
(b) inclined apron
(c) Inlet weir
(d) Recessed well
Side stream Where a sidestream is
withdrawn from
the column the
plate design must
be modified to
provide a liquid
seal at the takeoff pipe. A typical
design is shown in
Figure
Feed point When the feed
stream is liquid it
will be normally
introduced into
the downcomer
leading to the
feed plate, and
the plate spacing
increased at this
point.
Mechanical design aspect of
plateA plate is subjected to
Hydraulic load: 600 M/m2 live
load + 3000 N/m2 over the
downcomer seal area,
Erection and maintenance load:
1500 N concentrated load on
any structural member
Plate thickness: 3 to 5 mm
Maximum plate deflection:
of plate thickness
Plate contacting stage Provide good vapour-liquid contact.
Provide sufficient liquid hold-up for
good mass transfer (high efficiency).
Have sufficient area and spacing to
keep the entrainment and pressure
drop within acceptable limits.
Have sufficient downcomer area for
the liquid to flow freely from plate to
plate
Operating range-
Plate design procedure1. Calculate the maximum and
minimum vapour and liquid
flow-rates, for the turn down
ratio required.
2. Collect, or estimate, the
system physical properties.
3. Select a trial plate spacing.
4. Estimate the column diameter,
based on flooding considerations.
5. Decide the liquid flow
arrangement.
6. Make a trial plate layout:
downcomer area, active area, hole
area, hole size, weir height
7. Check the weeping rate, if
unsatisfactory return to step 6.
8. Check the plate pressure drop, if
too high return to step 6.
9. Check downcomer back-up, if
too high return to step 6 or 3.
10. Decide plate layout details:
calming zones, unperforated
areas. Check hole pitch, if
unsatisfactory return to step 6.
11. Recalculate the percentage
flooding based on chosen
column diameter.
12. Check entrainment, if too high
return to step 4.
13. Optimize design: repeat steps 3
to 12 to find smallest diameter and
plate spacing acceptable (lowest
cost).
14. Finalise design: draw up the plate
specification and sketch the layout.
Plate areas
Ac = total column cross-sectional area,
Ad = cross-sectional area of downcomer,
An = net area available for vapour-liquid
disengagement, normally equal to Ac - Ad, for
a single pass plate,
Aa = active, or bubbling, area, equal to Ac - 2Ad
for single-pass plates,
Ah = hole area, the total area of all the active
holes,
Ap = perforated area (including blanked areas),
Aap = the clearance area under the downcomer
apron.
Diameter Calculated on the basis of
allowable vepour velocity
(AVV)
AVV is 80 to 85% of flooding
velocity of vapour.
Flooding velocity
where uf = flooding vapour
velocity, m/s, based on the
net column cross-sectional
area An
K 1 = a constant obtained
from Figure
Flooding velocity, sieve plate
Restrictons1. Hole size less than 6.5 mm.
Entrainment may be greater
with larger hole sizes.
2. Weir height less than 15 per
cent of the plate spacing.
3. Non-foaming systems.
4. Hole: active area ratio
greater than 0.10; for other
ratios apply the following
corrections:
hole: active area multiply K1 by
0.10 1.0
0.08 0.9
0.06 0.8
5. Liquid surface tension 0.02
N/m, for other surface
tensions multiply the value
of
K1 by [/0.02]0.2
To calculate the column
diameter an estimate of the
net area An is required. As a
first trial take the downcomer
area as 12 per cent of the total,
and assume that the hole
active area is 10 per cent.
Liquid flow arrangement Liquid flow rate
Column diameter
Entrainment Fractional entrainment
= entrained liquid/gross liquid
flow
Depends on
% flooding and FLV
% flooding = un actual
velocity/uf
0.1
Weep point Minimum design vapour
velocity through the hole
Weep point correlation
Weir liquid crest-
where lw = weir length, m,
how = weir crest, mm liquid,
Lw = liquid flow-rate, kg/s.
Weir dimensions Weir height
40 50 mm normal
6 12 mm for vacuum column
Weir length-Chord length: 0.6 to 0.85 of column
dia
-0.77 good starting trial value, which
gives 12% downcomer area
Perforated area-
Hole size (diameter) 2.5 mm 12 mm
5 mm preferred
Hole pitch Square & triangular
Hole pitch (distance between
hole centers) lP
lP 2.5 to 4 hole diameter
Not less than 2 hole dia
For triangular pitch
Hydraulic gradient Difference in liquid head
needed to drive the liquid
flow across the plate.
Small in sieve plate.
Plate pressure drop
Dry plate drop hd
Clear liquid head on plate (hw
+how )
Residual loss hr
ht = hd + (hw +how ) + hr
Dry plate drop
Where, C0 = orifice coefficient ,
function of plate thickness, hole
diameter, and hole to perforated
area ratio and given as
Residual headCalculated approximately by
Downcomer design-
The back-up of liquid in the
downcomer is caused by the
pressure drop over the plate
and the resistance to flow in
the downcomer.
In terms of clear liquid
downcomer back-up is
The downcomer head loss
Lwd = liquid flow rate in the
downcomer. Kg/s
Am = either downcomer area Ad
or clearance area under the
downcomer Aap ; whichever is
less
The clearance area under the
downcomer
= height of the bottom
edge of the apron above the
plate. The bottom edge of the
apron is set 5 to 10 mm below
the outlet weir height.
Froth height
The density of the aerated liquid
0.4 to 0.7 times that of the clear
liquid; normally taken as 0.5
Mean density of liquid in the
downcomer is taken as 0.5 times
that of liquid
To avoid flooding
Downcomer residence time Sufficient residence time
must be allowed in the
downcomer for the entrained
vapour todisengage from the
liquid stream so that only
liquid enters into next plate.
Downcomer residence time-
tr : Minimum of 3 sec
Design the plates for the
column specified in Example
11.2. Take the minimum feed
rate as 70 per cent of the
maximum (maximum feed
10,000 kg/h). Use sieve
plates.