Operation of the catalytic stabilizer tower
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Bias flow often occurs in the water cooling of the liquefied gas at the top of the catalytic stabilizer – what are the causes and how can it be adjusted?
It’s okay if there’s a deviation in flow; the cold water is inside, so the liquefied gas can go or not as it pleases. Is it difficult to control the temperature after cooling?
There are detailed posts on the forum; it shouldn’t be biased. You can take a look
The temperature rises by about 10°C after cooling
Where? I’m not very good at finding it; could you please help?
Fluctuations in temperature after cooling also affect the tower pressure
Adjustment method 1 can accordingly control the pressure of the stabilizing tower, with the pressure being regulated towards higher levels. 2. Ensure that the manual valves in the liquefied gas heat exchange process do not get stuck; use the cooling water outlet valve to adjust so that the outlet temperature of each heat exchanger is roughly the same. 3. Unbalanced flow occurs due to insufficient load on the top of the tower; increasing the reflux rate can address this issue, but such a method raises the energy consumption of the stabilizer tower. 4. Raise the liquid level in the reflux tank to around 50% to prevent insufficient material load; do not open the hot bypass control valve. Let all the material at the top of the tower take the cold route.
I’m not sure whether you mean a 10-degree difference in the coolant return temperature or a 10-degree difference in the reflux temperature. In my opinion, it’s important to keep the pressure in the stabilizer tower under control; for small towers with a height of over 30 layers, even slight disturbances can cause instability. When making adjustments, focus on the pressure – there’s no need to change the reflux flow rate, as changing that will still affect the reflux temperature. For our heat exchanger, the temperature difference between the inlet water and the outlet water is 2, 2, 8; once it’s stable, it remains stable, and no valves need to be adjusted – the operation is very stable.
We have experienced flow deviation here. First, determine which set of heat exchangers is experiencing this deviation; then reduce the outlet flow rate of the other set of heat exchangers slightly to ensure that more liquefied gas flows through the set with the flow deviation, and see if this approach works. Second, for the offset-flow heat exchanger, open the circulating water outlet for venting in order to determine whether there is corrosion and leakage in the heat exchanger tube bundle
Just adjust the manual valves at the inlets of each heat exchanger – what’s difficult about that? During routine inspections, it’s necessary to check whether there are significant differences in the outlet temperatures anyway. Check whether the distribution pipeline is reasonable; if not, make the necessary adjustments during maintenance
I’m also troubled by this issue; I’ve tried all the solutions suggested, but it keeps happening over time, and it seems there’s a problem with the design of the hot and cold circuits