Distillation Column

Distillation

The ultimate objective of distillation is to separate two or more component from a mixture to
produce products which meets certain specifications. Distillation may be carried out in two ways.
The first is based on no reflux, the second based on reflux which means the return of part of the
condensate to such condition that this returning liquid is brought into intimate contact with vapors
in their way to condenser.

Distillation process may be batch or continuous. Continuous process is either flash distillation
without reflux or continuous distillation with reflux, Batch distillation is an unsteady state process.
Distillation process may be classified according to number of component in original mixture as-

• Binary- When there are two components

• Multi-Component- When there are more than two definable components

In the distillation process the separation of a mixture of materials to one or more desirable products
is achieved by selection of condition of temperature and pressure. Stage fractional distillation may
be considered to be a process in which flash vaporization stages are arranged in series in such a
manner that the product from each stage is feed to adjacent stages.

The minimum essentials for a fractional process are feed stream, distillate product streams and
residual liquid product stream, containing equilibrium stages which serve a means of introducing
heat energy, such as furnace, a means of removing heat energy such as a reflux condenser, suitable
liquid and vapor flow path.

Mechanical Design of Distillation Unit

In distillation operation mass transfer from one phase to another is involved. The principle function
of the equipment used for this operation is to permit efficient contact between the phases. In
distillation process either packed column or plate column trays are used as the contactors.

Plate or tray tower are particularly useful as compared to packed when fluctuations in the vapor or
liquid rate may occur where major changes in the overall capacity of the column are anticipated.
For petroleum refinery distillation column, tray or stage column are preferred rather than packed
column. The reason behind this are:

• The main disadvantage of using a packed tower is channeling in packed tower when the
diameter is large. When channeling occurs vapor and liquid phase cannot contact
accurately and hence mass transfer cannot occur

• Tray column can handle high liquid rates

• Tray column allows complex operation.

• Feed locations can be altered easily in tray column.

• Tray column can maintain higher residence time compared to packed one.

• Because of liquid dispersion difficulties in packed towers the design of plate towers is
considerable more reliable and requires less safety factor

• Plant towers can be designed to handle wide ranges of liquid rates without flooding

• In distillation operation, large temperature changes are involved and plate towers are often
preferred because thermal expansion or contraction of the equipment components may
crush the packing

• Design information for plate towers is generally more readily available and more reliable
than that for packed towers.

Selection of Trays

Many different types of plates have suggested among them- bubble cap, sieve tray and valve tray
are considered.

The bubble cap is designed to disperse the gas phase as fine baffles in the liquid. The gas parses
upward through the risers into the bubble caps, where the liquid is depressed permitting the gas
and bubble through the slots or notches in the cap into the liquid as the bubbles are dispersed into
and rise through the liquid in the tray, a large amount of interfacial area exists between the gas and
liquid phases, thereby permitting effective mass transfer. It also prevents liquid from flowing down
through the gas passages at low gas rates. Bubble caps are manufactured in many sizes and shapes.
Bubble cap column can be operated over a wide range of phase flow rates with high stage
efficiency. With it, liquid can leak through the gas passage and the height of liquid on each tray
can be maintained at the desired level. So relatively contact efficiencies are possible. But the major
disadvantage of bubble cap tray is its relatively high cost. The bubble-cap also has problems with
coking, polymer formation, or high fouling mixtures.
Perforated plates have become very popular because of their simplicity and low cost. The most
common type of perforated plate is sieve tray. As the name implies, the sieve tray is a metal sheet
perforated with hundreds of round holes. The liquid flows cross the plate and the gas bubbles up
through the holes. The holes are usually 1/8 to 1/2 inch in diameter. The liquid flows across the
plate and the gas bubbles up through the holes. At high gas rates, the gas flows prevails liquid from
flowing through the perforations, but at low gas rates serious leaking may occur. This leaking is
called weeping. The main disadvantage of the sieve tray is weeping which may significantly affect
the stage efficiency. In sieve tray, the size and number of holes must be carefully selected. Larger
holes give low pressure drop, but poor gas dispersion. A larger total hole area gives low pressure
drop but also low gas velocities that can lead to excessive weeping.

A more recent development in perforated plant is the valve tray. The perforations in a valve tray
are covered with lift able caps. The caps are lighted as gas flows upward through the perforations.
But, they fall into place over the perforation as gas rate decrease. In this way, they greatly reduce
weeping at low gas rates. In addition the caps direct the gas horizontally into the liquid thereby
giving more thorough mixing than sieve trays. The perforations in valve trays are often similar to
that of in sieve trays.
Figure :(A) Valve assembly for Glitsch A-1 valve, and (B) small Gitsch A-1 ballast tray;
courtesy of Glitsch, Inc., Dallas, Texas

(ONE-PIECE VALVE) (FIXED VALVE) (CAGED VALVE)

Figure: Different type of valve

Petroleum refinery is a complex system. Considering the above mentioned causes, for petroleum
refinery valve tray is used in the atmospheric distillation column in this design.
Selection of down comer weir

Downcomers and weirs are very important for the proper operation of staged columns, since they
control the liquid distribution and flow. In small columns and pilot plants the circular pipe shown
in is commonly used. The most common design in commercial columns is the segmented vertical
down comer shown in. This type is inexpensive to build, easy to install, almost impossible to install
incorrectly, and can be designed for a wide variety of liquid flow rates. If liquid-vapor
disengagement is difficult, one of the sloped segmental designs shown in can be useful. These
designs help retain the active area of the tray below. But they are a little bit expensive and are easy
to install backwards. For very low liquid flow rates, the envelope design shown in is occasionally
used.

Figure Down comer and weir designs; (A) circular pipe, (B) straight segmental, (C) sloped
Down comers, (D) envelope
As petroleum refinery is a complex system, considering the above mentioned causes, for petroleum
refinery sloped type weir is used in the atmospheric distillation column in this design.
Operating Variables

• Temperature

• Pressure

• Liquid flow rate

• Vapor flow rate

Design Variables

• Diameters of the column

• Plate spacing

• Total area of vapor passage through plate

• Plate thickness

• Spacing of vapor passage through plate

• Height of liquid through which vapor passes

• Length of liquid path, etc.

System Variables

• Surface tension

• Density of liquid

• Viscosity of liquid

• Density of vapor

• Viscosity of vapor

• Relative volatility of components in system

• Diffusivity
Methods of Calculation

• McCabe Thiele Method

• Shortcut calculation method

• Plate-to-Plate calculation method

• Brown and Martin method

• Punchon Savarit method

• Underwood method

• The Fenske method

• Gillilend correlations