Damage to the internals of the vacuum tower in atmospheric and vacuum distillation units and its treatment! (There’s a reward!) ! !

Excessive bottom blowing volume, or the oil having too low density; excessive vacuum at the top of the tower; incorrect specifications of the trays or quality issues with those trays; or too low open area ratio of the trays

The vacuum tower operates under negative pressure, so it is necessary to properly control the flow rates of oil and gas as well as the reflux flows at various points.

The bottom blowing volume is too high, or there is excessive water in the steam; the vacuum level at the top of the tower is too high, the gas velocity is too high, the feed rate is too high, and furthermore, the packing is not installed in accordance with the specifications. :lol

Main countermeasures: (1) Thoroughly understand the suitability of the company’s facilities for crude oil, and make every effort to supply crude oil that is suitable for processing by those facilities. For low-quality crude oil, it is necessary to make full use of on-site inventory for blending, strengthen the management of processes and equipment, and take corresponding measures. (2) Adjust the production load and the acid-sulfur ratio of crude oil entering the plant; form a special monitoring team composed of process and equipment management personnel to strengthen oversight, thereby alleviating the situation. (3) Conduct necessary research on the proportioning of oil types to establish theoretical foundations that guide crude oil blending, production, and equipment management. (4) Strengthen the integration of planning, process, and equipment management. The types of crude oil planned to be purchased must be approved by process engineers; information and resources related to process management should be shared with equipment management. Equipment management departments should proactively communicate with process management departments to keep track of changes in the properties of crude oil, provide timely recommendations, and predict potential problems. (5) Conduct a comprehensive inspection of the devices, equipment, and auxiliary systems, and establish relevant inspection regulations and requirements to ensure the reliability, accuracy, and comparability of the inspection results.

If the steam contains water or the raw material contains water, dehydration must be carried out before use; otherwise, it will cause the trays to be overturned. Last edited by Final Fantasy on 2009-1-15 21:10]

1. Rapid vacuum evacuation leads to a high temperature rise, resulting in a high linear velocity at the top of the tower and making it easy for the trays to be blown over. Countermeasures: Based on the current condition of the equipment and past operation experience, proceed at a certain heating rate and vacuuming speed. 2. High bottom blowing volume (in wet and semi-wet distillation), steam containing water, too rapid feeding rate, or significant water content in the feed can easily cause the trays to be overturned. Poor installation of the trays can also cause this phenomenon. When the trays are displaced, the distillation efficiency declines, the side-product color turns darker, its quality suffers, and the load on the tower increases as well. If it’s not severe, the minimum processing capacity (most current devices are only partially loaded, haha) means production can only be carried out based on experience, with shutdowns required when necessary

The packing and trays in the vacuum tower were blown over, obviously due to an excessive vapor-liquid load that exceeded the upper limit for the gas velocity in an empty tower. . . However, practice has now shown that if the vacuum distillation tower is used solely to separate wax oil, it doesn’t matter whether there are packing trays or not. . . The degree of separation of wax residues depends on the temperature and vacuum level in the vaporization section. . . It has no relation to other types of fillers or trays. . . The separation between the various components of the wax oil is related to the filler and trays selected. . .

hj, the air supply at the bottom of the tower is too high

To avoid knocking over the tray, the most important thing is to control the startup speed and the rate at which the load is increased. Especially when increasing the steam volume. The filler is equipped with pressure rings that press against each other during installation, and it also has a distributor; as long as it is installed properly, it generally won’t be blown over.

The rapid drop in column pressure and the fast increase in bottom temperature cause the rising gas to impact the packing