Will poor condensation result in more high-boiling substances in the product leaving the top of the tower?
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The top condenser of our alcohol tower has not been working properly lately; its condensation efficiency is very poor, and the tower pressure keeps rising from time to time. Every time we take over shifts, the product obtained is of qualified quality. The intermediate condenser gets clogged, which causes the tower pressure to increase. Since no one goes up to clean it, we just leave it until the next shift to do the cleaning. However, every time we extract the product for the last time, there is an increase in high-boiling substances. I think this probably has nothing to do with the rise in tower pressure, but I’m not sure. I’m posting this here for everyone’s input. By the way, our alcohol tower operates under negative pressure
In my opinion, the condensation effect at the top of the tower is not good; as a result, the reflux temperature should increase, which in turn affects the temperature at the top of the tower. This should lead to an increase in the amount of high-boiling-point substances. However, with all other conditions remaining unchanged, an increase in tower pressure should actually result in a decrease in the amount of high-boiling-point substances. Yet the combined effect of these two factors might lead to an increase in such substances, meaning that the impact of temperature plays a dominant role.
The condensation effect is poor, the tower pressure increases, and separation becomes difficult; in such cases, it is necessary to increase the reflux ratio so that the product at the top of the tower can meet the required standards.
Well, it’s like when you first start driving a car, but there’s no need for a complete return flow
The poster should talk about the changes in the temperature of the distillation tower. I think the top temperature of the alcohol tower has increased. The increase in the top pressure is caused by the accumulation of non-condensable gases due to a blockage in the intermediate condenser, which in turn leads to an increase in the top pressure. By the way, why do your intermediate condensers get clogged so easily? Have you analyzed the reasons?
There’s a problem with the condenser. Our condenser is of the plate type, so it doesn’t need to be cleaned as frequently as before. The factory has installed two filters in front of the condenser to remove impurities from the water, such as sand and similar substances. Under normal conditions, there’s no issue, but when it rains and the water in the river becomes muddy, we need to replace and clean the filters regularly. There’s no problem during the day shift, but after the night shift workers leave, we don’t have the necessary tools, so we can only replace the filters. Lately, they get clogged very often – the two filters get blocked within less than an hour of each other. It seems that scaling has formed inside the condenser.