Improve the quality of distillate products
Thread Content
Distillation tower parameters: Φ2400X44010; number of trays/spacing between trays: 75/600; equipped with stainless steel floating valves; product purity of around 99.5%; production capacity of 25 tons/h. Due to market demands, it is now necessary to increase the product purity to over 99.9%. How should this transformation be carried out? I would like to ask the experts for advice.
This problem requires many conditions, and these conditions are far from sufficient. It would be better to find a design firm or equipment manufacturer to redesign and renovate it, for reference.
On the equipment side, this means increasing the number of trays; from a process perspective, it involves raising the reflux ratio
If changes in hardware conditions are not taken into account, one can try to reduce the feed rate while maintaining a constant reflux rate, in order to examine the parameters of the product at the top of the tower. If it is still necessary to ensure the processing capacity, then design calculations are required, followed by modifications to the internal components or the entire tower.
Could you share your contact information so we can communicate?
What is the product? It’s necessary to perform some simulation calculations, or refer to methods used by peers. Feel free to contact me
Could you tell me the material composition and operating parameters of this tower? I can do the calculation here
Increasing the reflux ratio can raise the product concentration; relatively speaking, no changes are required to the equipment, but energy consumption will increase, and the compatibility of the supporting equipment also needs to be taken into account. Furthermore, from a equipment perspective, floating valve trays are currently used; it is possible to increase the number of tray levels (by raising the tower shell while keeping the tray spacing unchanged) or to replace the existing internal components with more efficient ones without increasing the number of levels.
It is recommended to talk in detail with a reliable distillation manufacturer. 99.5% to 99.9% may seem easy, but there are too few parameters available to make a direct judgment. Moreover, some of the numbers listed above are incorrect; the height of this tower does not quite correspond to the number of panels and the spacing between them.
Enter the tower parameters into Aspen and set the design specifications to see if a simulation can be carried out
If the product reaches its azeotrope temperature, ordinary distillation cannot achieve high purity; if it has not reached the azeotrope temperature, increasing the number of tower plates or the reflux ratio can be considered, with the increase in the reflux ratio particularly raising the unit cost