What methods are there to determine whether the trays in a distillation column have been washed out?
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What methods are there to determine whether the trays in a distillation column have been washed out?
It’s indeed hard to judge. If the packing plate of a packed tower is flipped over, a small amount of packing that has been flipped over will not be detectable. If there is an excessive separation effect, changes will occur: the flow rate will increase and the pressure drop will also change. This is something that can only be detected by experienced technicians.
One needs to have a thorough understanding of distillation towers for this! Changes in pressure difference, temperature changes at various points! Also, has there been any significant fluctuation in your tower recently? It won’t tip over for no reason!
It mainly depends on the operating parameters of the tower, such as the tower pressure drop, the temperatures at the top and bottom of the tower, as well as changes in the tower’s separation efficiency and the position of the sensitive plates
By using thermal imaging technology to visualize the liquid flowing inside the tower, it is possible to determine whether there are any trays that have been overturned
After the tray is overturned, peaks or troughs will definitely appear on the DCS trend chart, and all subsequent parameters will change! Another thing to consider is the trend in tower top pressure changes. It is not easy to detect overturned trays; only inspections during maintenance can reveal this issue
The overturning of one tray has little impact on the pressure drop across the entire column; it still depends on whether the temperature of that tray increases and whether it is close to the temperature of the adjacent lower trays.