3/12/2021 Distillation Column: Column Internals, Bubble cap trays, Valve trays, Sieve trays, Structured packing

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equipment

Distillation Column Internals

Trays and Plates
BUBBLE CAP TRAYS

A bubble cap tray has riser or chimney tted over each hole, and a cap that covers the riser.
The cap is mounted so that there is a space between riser and cap to allow the passage of
vapour. Vapour rises through the chimney and is directed downward by the cap, nally
discharging through slots in the cap, and nally bubbling through the liquid on the tray.

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SIEVE TRAYS

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Sieve trays are simply metal plates with holes in them. Vapour passes straight upward through
the liquid on the plate. The arrangement, number and size of the holes are design
parameters.
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VALVE TRAYS
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In valve trays, perforations are covered by liftable caps. Vapour ows lifts the caps, thus self
creating a ow area for the passage of vapour. The lifting cap directs the vapour to ow
horizontally into the liquid, thus providing better mixing than is possible in sieve trays.

This FLEXITRAYTM valve tray is a steel sheet on which liftable valves are mounted. They are
much more e cient than sieve trays. Picture of Koch-Glitsch, LP.

Liquid and Vapour Flows in a Tray Column

The image below show the direction of vapour and liquid ow across a tray, and across a
column.
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Each tray has 2 conduits, one on each side, called DOWNCOMER. Liquid falls through the
downcomers by gravity from one tray to the one below it.

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A WEIR on the tray ensures that there is always some liquid (HOLDUP) on the tray and is
designed such that the the holdup is at a suitable height, e.g. such that the bubble caps are
covered by liquid.

Being lighter, vapour ows up the column and is forced to pass through the liquid, via the
openings on each tray. The area allowed for the passage of vapour on each tray is called the
ACTIVE TRAY AREA.

Tray Designs SUBMENU EQUIPMENT PP

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A tray essentially acts as a mini-column, each accomplishing a fraction of the separation task.
From this we can deduce that the more trays there are, the better the degree of separation
and that overall
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ciency will depend signi cantly on the design of the tray. Trays
are designed to maximise vapour-liquid contact by considering the

liquid distribution and

vapour distribution

on the tray. This is because better vapour-liquid contact means better separation at each tray,
translating to better column performance. Less trays will be required to achieve the same
degree of separation. Attendant bene ts include less energy usage and lower construction
costs.

Structured packing
The term structured packing refers to a range of specially designed materials for use in
absorption and distillation columns. Structured packings typically consist of thin corrugated
metal plates or gauzes arranged in a way that they force uids to take complicated paths
through the column, thereby creating a large surface area for contact between di erent
phases.

Structured packing is formed from corrugated sheets of perforated embossed metal or wire
gauze. The result is a very open honeycomb structure with inclined ow channels giving a
relatively high surface area but with very low resistance to gas ow.
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The surface enhancements have been chosen to maximize liquid spreading. These
characteristics tend to show signi cant performance bene ts in low pressure and low
irrigation rate
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Packings versus Trays

A tray column that is facing throughput problems may be de-bottlenecked by replacing a
section of trays with packings. This is because:

packings provide extra inter-facial area for liquid-vapour contact

e ciency of separation is increased for the same column height
packed columns are shorter than trayed columns

Packed columns are called continuous-contact columns while trayed columns are called
staged-contact columns because of the manner in which vapour and liquid are contacted.

Part 1:
What are Distillation Columns?

Part 2:
Column Internals

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Graphic courtesy of Bismarck State College National Energy Center of Excellence

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© Werner Sölken 2008 - EQUIPMENT
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The rumours of the demise of the U.S. manufacturing industry are greatly exaggerated. ELON MUSK

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