Distillation column operation
Thread Content
There is a distillation tower that operates under pressure; there is a vent at the top of the fractional condenser. The gas stream after venting passes through a cooler and a liquid collection tank. The vent valve is adjusted manually, with a limited range of adjustment. During the operation of the distillation tower, when the steam flow rate and the feed and reflux amounts remain constant, the tower pressure drops suddenly, the liquid level in the bottom of the tower falls sharply, the liquid level in the reflux tank of the distillation tower rises abruptly, and the liquid level after cooling the vented vapor also drops suddenly. What is the cause of this? How to adjust it?
This is likely an effusion phenomenon in the distillation column; it is necessary to reduce the heat load and feed rate in order to stabilize the temperature at the bottom of the column
{:3_50:}{:3_50:} If the tower gets flooded, the level in the receiving tank shouldn’t rise too quickly. It seems like there was some flashing occurring, but I’m not sure why the level in the condensate receiving tank dropped. . .
I don’t know what happened either; it was running smoothly and no conditions had changed, yet suddenly this occurred