Pressure control of the atmospheric distillation column in methanol production
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Hello everyone. I would like to ask the methanol distillation experts from various plants: how do you regulate the pressure in the atmospheric pressure column? Do you create a negative pressure by introducing nitrogen, or do you increase the pressure by adding steam? And when you introduce nitrogen, is it done at the bottom of the column?
It depends on whether the purity of the nitrogen is sufficient. Generally, as long as there is liquid level in the water seal tank and the reflux temperature is not too low, there will be no negative pressure. Relying on nitrogen inflation is not reasonable; I suggest not using nitrogen and instead adjusting things through a pressure tower
Search on the forum; there are very detailed discussions on this topic. The negative pressure in a atmospheric-pressure tower simply means that the gauge pressure indicated by the pressure gauge is negative – it’s a completely normal phenomenon
I think that during normal operation, it is naturally regulated through the pressure tower; nitrogen is only used to maintain pressure when the system is shut down!