an introduction
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Copyright 1997-2006 by M.T. Tham
Introduction
Types of Columns
Basic Equipment
and Operation
Column Internals
Reboilers
Distillation
Principles
Vapour Liquid
Equilibria
Distillation
Column Design
Effects of the
Number of Trays
or Stages
Factors Affecting
Operation
Trays and Plates
COLUMN INTERNALS
The terms "trays" and "plates" are used interchangeably. There are many
types of tray designs, but the most common ones are :
Bubble cap trays
A bubble cap tray has riser or chimney
fitted 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, finally discharging
through slots in the cap, and finally bubbling through the liquid on the
tray.
Valve trays
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Sieve trays
In valve trays, perforations are covered by
liftable caps. Vapour flows lifts the caps,
thus self creating a flow area for the
passage of vapour. The lifting cap directs
the vapour to flow horizontally into the
liquid, thus providing better mixing than is
possible in sieve trays.
Valve trays (photos courtesy of Paul Phillips)
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.
Because of their efficiency, wide operating range, ease of maintenance and
cost factors, sieve and valve trays have replaced the once highly thought of
bubble cap trays in many applications.
Liquid and Vapour Flows in a Tray Column
The next few figures show the direction of vapour and liquid flow across a
tray, and across a column.
Each tray has 2 conduits, one on each side, called downcomers. Liquid falls
through the downcomers by gravity from one tray to the one below it. The
flow across each plate is shown in the above diagram
on the right.
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 flows 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.
The picture on the left
is a photograph of a
section of a pilot scale
column equiped with
bubble capped trays. The tops of the 4 bubble
caps on the tray can just be seen. The downcomer in this case is a pipe, and is shown on
the right. The frothing of the liquid on the
active tray area is due to both passage of
vapour from the tray below as well as boiling.
As the hotter vapour passes through the liquid
on the tray above, it transfers heat to the
liquid. In doing so, some of the vapour
condenses adding to the liquid on the tray. The
condensate, however, is richer in the less
volatile components than is in the vapour.
Additionally, because of the heat input from the vapour, the liquid on the tray
boils, generating more vapour. This vapour, which moves up to the next tray
in the column, is richer in the more volatile components. This continuous
contacting between vapour and liquid occurs on each tray in the column and
brings about the separation between low boiling point components and those
with higher boiling points.
Tray Designs
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 separation efficiency will
depend significantly 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 benefits
include less energy usage and lower construction costs.
Packings
Liquid distributors - Gravity (left), Spray (right)
(photos courtesy of Paul Phillips)
There is a clear trend to improve separations by supplementing the use of
trays by additions of packings. Packings are passive devices that are designed
to increase the interfacial area for vapour-liquid contact. The following
pictures show 3 different types of packings.
These strangely shaped pieces are supposed to impart good vapour-liquid
contact when a particular type is placed together in numbers, without causing
excessive pressure-drop across a packed section. This is important because a
high pressure drop would mean that more energy is required to drive the
vapour up the distillation column.
Structured packing (photo courtesy of Paul Phillips)
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
efficiency 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.
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