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Distillation Column Tray

Hydraulics-A Review

Subhasish Mitra

M.Tech Scholar
Department of Chemical Engineering
I.I.T, Kanpur
Tray design-a real challenge:

 Numerous towers today are asked to “multi-task”


and handle different feeds or varying feed mixtures.

 In addition, a number of towers in the industry


need to meet different product purity specifications
at different times of the year.

 Rigorous tray design thus requires to handle not


only the flexibility of the process unit it is part of,
but also the variations in liquid and vapor loads
from the top to bottom tray under a single steady
state operation condition.
Variation in Tray Load in an Oil Stabilizer:
Theoretical tray no Vapor load (kg/hr) Liquid load (kg/hr)
1 (Top) 58160.519 151624.080
2 67639.430 160810.461
3 73039.041 158983.421
4 76690.320 162634.701
5 79300.423 165244.803
6 (Feed) 80914.301 174065.137
7 47760.937 358496.827
8 78113.328 388849.219
9 98220.273 408956.164
10 114858.256 425594.146
11 134388.657 445124.548
12 (Bottom) 156835.643 467571.533
Classical tray hydraulic model:

 Liquid enters from the


down-comer of the tray
above.

 Liquid gets aerated with


vapor from tray below and
forms froth.

 Froth flows over the O/L


weir where vapor is
disengaged.
Simplified tray stability diagram:

Excessive vapor flow


Jet flooding limit

Excessive liquid flow


Down-comer flooding

100% weeping
Flooding mechanisms:

 In simple term, flooding is excessive accumulation of


liquid inside the column.

 Flooding on trays : Mechanisms are Spray


Entrainment Flooding & Froth Entrainment Flooding.

 Flooding in down-comer : Mechanisms are Down-


comer Back up flooding and Down-comer Choke
flooding.
Tray flooding mechanism (Contd):
 Spray regime :
At low liquid flow rate, most of liquid on trays stay in
form of droplets. With rise in vapor velocity, these
droplets get carried away on the tray above. Liquid thus
stay in the tray instead of flowing below.
 Froth regime :
Froth accumulates at higher liquid rate on tray. Froth
height accumulates with rise in vapor velocity. When
tray spacing is small, froth envelope touches the tray
above and entrainment rapidly increases. However when
tray spacing is high, spray mechanism invariably takes
over.
Change of regime:

At low liquid rate,


entrainment diminishes
with higher liquid load.
At high liquid rate,
entrainment increases with
liquid loads.
When most of the
dispersion is in the form of
a spray, entrainment
diminishes with higher
liquid load.

Transition from spray to


froth regime.
Flooding mechanism (Contd):

 Down-comer back up flooding :


Aerated liquid is backed up into the down-comer
because of tray pressure drop, liquid height on the tray
and frictional losses in the downcomer apron. When
back-up of aerated liquid in downcomer touches the
tray above, flooding occurs.

 Down-comer choke flooding :


Velocity of aerated liquid inside downcomer increases
with liquid flow rate. When this velocity exceeds a
certain limit, friction losses in downcomer including
entrance become excessive and the frothy mixture can
not go down to below tray and flooding occurs.
Down-comer flooding illustration:

DC Back up flooding DC Choked flooding


Simplified flooding mechanism:

Low pressure favors higher


vapor velocity hence spray
regime prevails.

At high pressure , vapor and


liquid separation in down-
comer decreases which causes
DC froth back up. High liquid
flow also increases pr drop in
DC.
Effect of design parameters on flooding:

 Tray spacing :
Low tray spacing enhances tendency of all types of
flooding except DC choke flooding. TS<18” can cause
both spray and froth entrainment flooding.

 Bubbling area:
Low bubbling area/low fractional hole area causes all type
of flooding except DC choke flooding.
Effect of design parameters on flooding
(Contd.):

 Weir height & length:


High weir height & low length reduce tendency for spray
entrainment however increases height of froth envelope.
No effect on DC choke flooding.

 Down-comer area and clearance:


Low DC area increases velocity through DC along with
corresponding pressure drop while low DC clearance
causes head loss and results into DC back up flooding.
Effect of design parameters on flooding
(Contd.):
Major tray design parameters:

 Vapor load:
Several correlations are available. Most used one is

 Liquid load:
Most accepted one is flux of liquid across tray (gpm/in),
Weeping:
 Weeping is descent of liquid through plate
perforation. It occurs when liquid head on the tray
exceeds the pr drop that holds the liquid on tray.

 Minor weeping can be tolerated without affecting tray


efficiency.

 Large liquid rate, large fractional hole area and taller


weirs cause weeping.
Major tray design parameters (Contd.)

 Down-comer load:

QD is the clear liquid velocity at down-comer entrance.

Alternatively, this load is also expressed in terms of


ft/sec.
Major tray hydraulics design guide:

 Flooding limit:
Several correlations available.
Fair’s Correlation:

Flooding limit : 80% – 85%


Csb = f( flow parameter, surface tension, tray spacing,
fractional hole area)
Major tray hydraulics design guide
(Contd.):

Design parameter Figures Remarks


Depends on the system.
Less value reported for
0.9 to 1.0 for low foaming
System factor highly foaming service.
to non foamy service.
This is a safety margin on
flooding limit.
High FPL enhances tray
Flow path length 16” to 18” min efficiency while low FPL
increases weir load.
Total pressure drop
Pressure drop 1.5” to 3” wc includes dry-hole + wet
pr drop.
Tray spacing decided
Tray spacing 18” to 24” based on tower diameter
and maintenance.
More passes required for
Tray pass 1 to 4
high liquid loading.
Major tray hydraulics design guide:
Design parameter Figures Remarks
5-8% of column dia Min of these two to be
DC width/Area
10% of column area taken
Residence time increases
DC residence time 3 to 7 sec as foaming tendency
goes up.
Velocity increases with TS
Clear liquid velocity in DC 0.2 to 0.5 ft/sec but decreases with
foaming tendency.
Up to 20 gpm/in
reported. Picket fencing
Weir loading Min 2.5 gpm/in
may be required at lower
weir load.
DC Seal 5 to 10 mm
Higher weir height causes
Outlet weir height 25 to 50 mm excess tray pr drop and
leads to weeping.
Major tray hydraulics design guide
(Contd.):

Weir loading criteria


Tray operating region:
Tray types:

 Normally three major category -Valve, Sieve &


Bubble Cap.
 Some popular valve-type trays from “Sulzer” widely
used in Industry. Two sub-categories are floating
type & fixed type.

BDH RV SV SVG/MVG/MMVG
Tray types (Contd.):
 Sieve type trays normally available in following sizes,
5-6 mm, 10-13 mm, 19 – 20 mm. Applied in both
clean & fouling services. Low pressure drop, low cost
& less TD.

 Bubble cap tray normally available in 3”, 4” & 6”


sizes. Low liquid load & very high TD - costly.

 Various other types of tray available-e.g. Cartridge


tray, Baffle tray, Ripple tray, Jet tray, MD tray and
other High Performance Trays.
Tray performance comparison:
Some special type of trays:

Sulzer VG-Plus
High performance tray:
-Chordal high performance
down-comer.
-Enhanced deck design for
efficient vapor liquid
contact.
-Optimized valve lay out.
Some special type of trays (Contd.):
Shell High Performance tray
Information courtesy:

 Various sources of information – Ingenero


Technology India Ltd, Mumbai &
Petrofac Engineering India Ltd, Mumbai.

 Technical documents – Sulzer Chemtech & Baretti

 Distillation design: Henry J Kister


Thanks for your attention!

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