Colleagues, what type of tower is suitable for use in the acetylene station’s water washing tower in order to completely resolve the issue of increasing resistance in such towers?
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Our company uses packed towers; over time, the resistance increases rapidly, the liquid level is difficult to control, and there are significant fluctuations in the outlet temperature. Various technical improvements have yielded some results, but higher requirements are placed on the spray water, and maintaining overall water balance proves to be challenging.
Packed towers have poor resistance to clogging. Although plate towers come with tray types such as inclined-hole trays, fixed valves, and vertical sieve trays that offer good clogging resistance, it is necessary to establish a liquid layer on these plate trays, resulting in high pressure drops. Moreover, the operating range for such trays is usually between 60–120%, making it difficult for them to adapt to conditions with large variations in plant load (such as low-load conditions at the beginning of operation). It is recommended to use spray towers instead. We have used spray towers in multiple projects, and their operation has been satisfactory. The distribution of the circulating wash water entering the tower should employ a simple-structured anti-clogging design, such as an inverted conical structure with adjustable annular gap area, to avoid using small-hole distributors that are prone to clogging.
A sieve tray tower can also be used, as it has a relatively low pressure drop.
It is recommended to use an empty tower; this is what our company does, as it helps reduce the impact of scaling on the resistance inside the tower
Our company also uses packed towers; we replace the packing and clean it during the annual overhauls, and the pressure buildup isn’t that severe