How to clean the ceramic rings in a benzene washing tower??
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Dear experts, in my factory, we use 1# and 2# units in series for benzene washing. Unit 1# does not have ceramic rings at its upper part, while unit 2# has ceramic rings there. However, after a few months, these ceramic rings get covered with cleaning oil, which increases resistance and affects production. I would like to ask if anyone has similar equipment and knows how to address the issue of increased resistance caused by cleaning oil on the ceramic rings ? ?
I’m not sure if you are referring to the ceramic ring blockage at the upper part of Tower 2 for benzene washing, or to blockages present throughout the entire tower. But generally, steam purging is used for this purpose; especially in your plant, where ceramic ring packing is employed due to its high-temperature resistance, long-term steam purging can remove the blockages. For manufacturers that use polypropylene fillers, it is important to pay attention to the steam purging time and temperature in order to prevent the fillers from collapsing. It would be very troublesome at that time.
Is the sticking of oil to the ceramic rings caused by problems with oil washing and regeneration? This issue should be considered from a process perspective, with efforts to improve the efficiency of oil washing and regeneration in order to remove high-boiling-point substances from the oil as much as possible, thus ensuring the proper operation of the equipment over an extended period of time.
This fellow’s analysis makes sense; it’s probably due to incomplete oil washing and regeneration.
Thank you all for your answers. I’ll go back and check if there’s any problem with the oil washing regenerator
The situation above is not necessarily due to poor oil washing and regeneration. If the desulfurization and denitration units prior to the elution of benzene are not operating or are not functioning properly, it causes severe damage to the washing oil; simply producing fresh washing oil will not resolve the issue. Sulfur, ammonia, and other substances can corrode iron-based gas pipelines, resulting in the formation of complex salts such as (NH4)2{Fe6}]. When these salts are carried along with the gas into the elution process and absorbed by the washing oil, the oil becomes viscous and adheres to the packing in the benzene washing tower, making it difficult to remove and thus increasing resistance. In such cases, steam purging cannot solve the underlying problem; manual cleaning of the packing is necessary only when the desulfurization and denitration units before elution of benzene are operating properly. In our factory, the stainless steel corrugated packing in the benzene washing tower is cleaned by manual removal, and the results are good so far. The viscous washing oil obtained from the filler is insoluble in light benzene; it is flammable, and after drying it forms dark blue powder blocks. When burned, it turns reddish-brown due to the formation of iron oxide. This is (NH4)2{Fe6]}, which is white in the absence of oxygen, turns dark blue when exposed to oxygen, and becomes reddish-brown after burning to form iron oxide. When water is drained from the bottom of the benzene oil water separator, it is usually milky white in color; it turns dark blue upon contact with air, and that’s how this phenomenon occurs. The presence of water at the bottom of the benzene oil separation unit during elution is due to inadequate ammonia removal; ammonia circulates within the benzene elution process, causing the light benzene to emulsify and preventing proper separation between oil and water. This post was last edited by Dylan_soi on 2009-3-13 00:17]
If the goal is merely to address the issue of resistance, in addition to the commonly used steam purging method, the hot lean oil spraying method can also be considered
Everyone explained things in great detail; I’m especially grateful for the responses from floors 2, 3, 4, and 6.