Why is a large amount of recycle reflux used in catalytic fractionation towers?
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Why is a large amount of recycle reflux used in catalytic fractionation towers?
The superheated oil and gas entering the fractionation tower are entirely in gaseous form and at high temperatures, while the products exiting the fractionation tower have lower temperatures. Therefore, the entire tower from bottom to top relies on recirculation to remove a large amount of excess heat. If heat is extracted only through top reflux, the gas-liquid load at the upper part of the tower will be high, requiring a larger tower diameter. To make full use of the high-temperature heat energy while ensuring a uniform load across various sections of the distillation column, it is necessary to establish circulating reflux between every two side streams in order to reduce the amount of reflux at the top of the column.