Gas-liquid level in the upper pipe of a horizontal thermal siphon reboiler
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The company asked a design institute to design a distillation tower; due to the high circulation volume, the institute designed a horizontal thermosyphonic reboiler with a diameter of 3 meters and a tube length of 6 meters； The material flows through the tube side, while steam flows through the shell side ； The static head of 3.78 m provided by the design institute (interpreted as the distance from the weld of the tower bottom head to the bottom of the reboiler) determined the installation location of the reboiler ； Our tower is 8.2m in diameter; the height of the lower head is approximately 1.7m. The weld on the head is 4m away from the vapor return port of the reboiler, and about 3m away from the upper branch pipe of the level gauge ； In this case, if the liquid level in the distillation column is 50% and the column is shut down, with the liquid level in the vapor line of the reboiler reaching 2.3 m, is such a design reasonable?
It shouldn’t be a problem if the liquid level in the tower reboiler is high; please provide an illustration to explain this.
Why does it seem that the installation height of the reboiler is a bit low?
The software’s calculation is correct; such a large static head is indeed required； A relatively large circulation volume is required ； I’m just worried that the vaporization rate might be affected, after all, it’s not a vertical thermosyphon reboiler. The design team assumes that the material at the reboiler outlet has a gas phase fraction of 15% and is returned to the gas phase inlet of the distillation column; but will this actually be achievable?
This is a bit advanced; from what I’ve seen, reboilers have the shell side in a horizontal configuration and the tube side in a vertical configuration. You’re using a horizontal tube arrangement here; where is the space for vaporization of the liquid phase? Then there’s the issue of installation height – if the heat source for the reboiler isn’t sufficient, could the pressure difference caused by the liquid level in the tower bottom fill up that reboiler entirely? What a strange reboiler
Are the tower bottom product stream streams not marked on the diagram?
It is not a kettle-type reboiler. It has nothing to do with what we’re discussing, so it wasn’t marked