I R. E. MANNING' and M. R.

CANNON
Department of Chemical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, Unirenity Park, Pa.

Distillation.Improvement by Control.of Phase

Channeling in Packed Columns

Interdistributor screens provide on inexpensive

way of improving efficiencies of packed towers

t
tillate compoSition of 90 mole $
' 6, but
that 1% of the liquid is channeling.
This is eauivalent m &ration with a
moving fluid is given by the folloiving
equation :

lJ7
P, = -
2gc

where P, = velocity pressure

C' = fluid velocity
p = fluid density
fc = gravitational constant
A
There is a fundamental and unique
difference betlveen static pressure and
velocity pressure. That difference is
t
that static pressure is equal in all direc-
tions and velocity pressure exists only
in the direction of flow. The proper
application of Equation 1 leads to a
simple equation for predicting the
maximum rate a t Tvhich a distillation
column can be operated under vacuum
( 6 ) , if its flood rate is knopvn a t atmos-
pheric pressure. Other interesting ap-
plications have been briefly mentioned
(7). Pitot tubes also operate on this I I
principle. 51 6"
I 1
If a certain path through a packed
bed offers less resistance to vapor flow
than another path of equal cross-sectional
area, a higher vapor velocity will occur
in the path of lower resistance. The
velocity pressure of the vapor in this
path will tend to push the liquid flow to
neighboring paths and thus the thrust 7
0.9"
of the rising vapor tends to cause liquid
channeling because no packed bed is
completely uniform and consequently
I
differences in resistance to Ao\v \vi11
exist in various parts of the bed.
Ryan (7) measured liquid channeling SECTION A-A
in a packed column, 1 foot in diameter.
a t atmospheric pressure and Cusack (2) Figure 2. Interdistributor screen for 5.75-inch diameter column made from 10-
made similar measurements for vacuum mesh screen, wire diameter 0.025-inch
operation. In their ivork it \vas shown
that when rhe liquid is uniformly dis-
tributed over the rop of a bed of packing
l l l l ~ l l i l ~ I 1 l 1 l1 -~
in the presence of a rising \*apor there is e
serious liquid channeling after the bed
4.0- -
has been penetrated to a depth of 3 - P A C K E D HEIGHT 108 INCHES
feet. Consequently, it was decided that
an effort should be made to redistribute
both phases at 3-foot intervals. The
use of interdistributor plates \vas found
to be effective in a column 1 foot in -
z -
diameter. 2.8 -
Interdistributor plates require flanges
and the authors decided to try a simple
- -
z
device such as the interdistributor
screens sho\vn in Figure 2. The theory
of their operation is that vapor and
liquid channeling will be broken up a t
these screens and that the points of the
packing filled cones \rill serve as liquid
drip points and thus a t each such screen
the two phases will receive some re-
distribution. The interdistributor screen
is not difficult to fabricate. I t is made 0 0.5 1.0 1.5
with an outside diameter slightly smaller VAPOR VELOCITY IN FEET PER SECOND
than the inside diameter of the column
in which it is to be used; the open
cones are filled with packing and the Figure 3. Effect of vapor velocity on column efficiency without interdistributor
screens are placed within the packed screens
bed a t %foot intervals. Column diameter 5.75 inches; packing 0.24 X 0 24 inch protruded t y p e 3 1 6 stainless steel

348 INDUSTRIAL AND ENGINEERING CHEMISTRY

Test Equipment
The effectiveness of the interdistributor
screens was measured in a column 5.75
inches in inside diameter (3). The
test mixture employed was n-heptane PACKED HEIGHT 9 FEET
and methylcyclohexane, which has a
relative volatility of 1.070. All of the tNS I
runs reported in this paper ‘were per-
formed a t total reflux, although Man-
ning’s thesis (5) from which these data
were taken contains extensive data on
finite reflux also. Individual points 2.8
were obtained by preflooding for a few
minutes and then dropping the vapor
velocity to the test condition. a
For all tests a liquid distributor plate I- 2.
was used a t the top of the column ( 3 ) . w C
*K
E
/t HEIGHT 12 FEET
The packing support consisted of a flat I
plate with 13 vapor riser tubes, 1 inch in WITH SCREENS
diameter and 2 inches tall; one in the
2.0
center, four on a radius of 1.16 inches,
and eight on a radius of 2.17 inches.
Each of these was capped with a conical
screen. Twelve liquid return tubes of
3/&nch inside diameter and extending VAPOR VELOCITY IN FEET PER SECOND
0.5 inch below the plate were used.
A flat screen should never be used as a Figure 5. Effect of vapor velocity on column efficiency with and without inter-
packing support for packings 0.24 inch or distributor screens with 0.24 X 0.24 inch protruded stainless steel packing
smaller. Such a flat screen packing
Column diameter, 5.75 inches
support will cause a column to flood a t
less than 50% of normal flood velocity
and decrease the number of theoretical
plates ( 5 ) . plate a t the top but no interdistributor 3 feet, while a %foot bed has an H.E.T.P.
screens or plates. of 2.4 to 3.6 inches over the same vapor
Results Figure 4 shows the effect of putting velocity range in the absence of the
one screen a t the mid-point of a 6-foot interdistributor screens.
Figure 3 shows the efficiency of 0.24 bed, and Figure 5 shows that in tall Further work is being carried on to
X 0.24 inch protruded type 316 stainless beds the effect is significantly good. determine the effect of other designs of
steel packing in a column 5.75 inches in Thus a 12-foot-tall column has an interdistributor screens and optimum
inside diameter a t packed heights of 3, H.E.T.P. of 2.2 to 2.8 inches over a wide spacing, together with their usefulness
6, and 9 feet with a liquid distributor vapor velocity range with screens every in larger diameter columns.
Interesting data have been recently
reported by Kiguchi ( 4 ) on a con-
tinuous operating column containing the
3.0- I I same type of protruded stainless steel

-
- i 1 i 1 1 1 1 1
I
packing used in this work
NO INTERDISTRIBUTOR

i”-1i
literature Cited
(1) Cannon, M. R., Oil Gas J. 51, 268-71,
318-20 (1952).
(2) Cusack, J. H., .“Vacuum Fractiona-
tion,” Ph.D. thesis, Pennsylvania
State Univ., University Park, Pa.,
f 2.2 June 1954.
(3) Heinlein, A. C., Manning, R. E.,
-
z
ONE INTERDISTRIBUTOR
Cannon, M. R., Chem. Eng. Progr.
47,344-6 (1951).
-+
n I-A L
SCREEN
(4) Kiguchi, S. T., TND. ENG. CHEM.46,
1363 (1954).
( 5 ) Manning, R. E., “Study of Factors
w Affecting Distillation Efficiency,”
Ph.D. thesis, Pennsylvania StaG
I Univ., University Park, Pa., 1954.
1.4 (6) Peters, M. S., Cannon, M. R., IND.
IND.CHEM.44, 1452 (1952).
1 1 l 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 l 1 ( 7 ) Ryan, J. F., “Factors Affecting Frac-
0 0.5 I.o 1.5 tionation in Packed Columns,”
Ph.D. thesis, Pennsylvania State
VAPOR VELOCITY IN FEET PER SECOND Univ., University Park, Pa., 1953.
RECEIVED
for review April 6, 1956
Figure 4. Effect of vapor velocity on column efficiency with and without inter- ACCEPTEDAugust 20, 1956
distributor screens at a packed height of 6 feet with 0.24 X 0.24 inch protruded
stainless steel packing Division of Petroleum Chemistry, 127th
Meeting, ACS, Cincinnati, Ohio, April
Column diameter, 5.75 inches 1955.

VOL. 49, NO. 3 MARCH 1957 349