How should adjustments be made if the feed composition to the depropanization tower suddenly becomes lighter?
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This post was last edited by Catalyzing a Grain on 2018-7-2 11:10. As the title suggests, what adjustments should be made if the feed composition to the depropanization tower suddenly becomes lighter during normal operation? Are there any standards or principles? Which senior could explain it in detail?
It’s the increase in the proportion of light components in the feed! ! ! !
There is more C2, so the tower pressure is high. Release the torch or to the low-pressure pipeline network, maintain constant tower pressure, add reflux appropriately, and control the heavy components from reaching the top of the tower.
Reduce the bottom temperature of the tower; decrease the reflux while keeping the tower pressure stable!
As the proportion of light components increases, shouldn’t the temperature at the bottom of the tower decrease? And if it does decrease, wouldn’t it go even lower?
What if it’s only the proportion of C3 and C4 that changes, with the proportion of C3 increasing?
Yes, we need to remove heat from the tower bottom; otherwise, the reflux will have to be increased :)
With the column pressure remaining constant, the temperature at the bottom of the column shouldn’t change, right? Removing heat from the bottom of the column is the correct approach
The feed becomes lighter, and the proportion of light components increases. First, the composition distribution throughout the tower changes, with light components accounting for a larger share; the same is true at the bottom of the tower. Since the components are lighter, less heating energy is required to vaporize them, so the reboiling requirement is reduced accordingly. The composition of the entire tower becomes cleaner than before, and the temperature of the sensitive plates is adjusted downward； As for the tower top, if there are more light components there, a greater condensation load is required; therefore, the capacity of the condenser must be increased ； As for the extraction process, it’s simple: simply reduce the amount of heavy components that are extracted from the bottom of the tower, while increasing the amount of light components extracted from the top of the tower. Although it’s simple, this adjustment is the most crucial one.
Oh, I think I get it now. Thank you! :lol