Plate tower design
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The difference lies in whether the heat is extracted from the lower trays of a plate tower and then returned to the upper trays, or whether it is extracted from the upper trays and then returned to the lower trays. For example, heat may be extracted at layer 20 and returned to layer 22. Extract 20 layers and return to 18 layers – what are the differences and advantages/disadvantages of these two designs? Dear teachers, please help answer this. Thank you
The difference is significant: upward mixing constitutes back-mixing, which can be considered to have no efficiency at all, or it can be harmful to the quality parameters of the products above; after all, the materials have been carefully separated only to be mixed together again artificially. However, heat can be extracted through this process to balance the thermal load. The downward flow constitutes normal distillation; it’s just that a cold reflux is used instead. Relatively speaking, the amount of cold reflux can be less than that in normal hot reflux scenarios, but it is necessary to ensure adequate heat transfer. In other words, whether heat is transferred or not has no real impact on the distillation process