Can an evaporation dehydration tower also serve as a stripping column for pre-distillation?

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The process of the evaporation dehydration tower is the same as that of a conventional distillation tower; under appropriate design conditions, it can serve as a stage for pre-distillation of the feedstock. The evaporation and dehydration tower of a 30kt/a reforming unit in a refinery is a distillation column that also serves as a stripping column. The tower has 30 floating valve trays with a tray spacing of 450 mm. During normal operation of the tower, the reflux tank maintains a liquid level of 40–50%, and the reflux ratio is kept between 0.85 and 0.95. The excess overhead oil is sent to the stabilizer tower, where it mixes naturally with the oil produced by reforming. Practice has shown that when the light component content in the feed to the dehydration tower is low (≧12%), this tower can replace the pre-distillation tower and serve as a stripping unit. So, when the light component content in the feed to the dehydration tower is low (≧12%), can we omit the pre-distillation tower?