How to handle the ethanol discharged by the safety valve on the top of an alcohol distillation pressurized tower in case of an accident
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How should ethanol discharged by the safety valve on the top of an alcohol distillation pressurized tower be handled? According to Document No. 94 issued by the State Administration of Work Safety in 2014, safety pressure relief systems for toxic and flammable gases must ensure enclosed discharge. Are there many problems with designs these days? How to seal it? What if there is no flare tower at the plant? Do anyone have any good suggestions? Is our emission 95°C, 6111 kg/h of ethanol vapor containing 10% water and 90% ethanol? Water absorption? Are there any other ways? Friends from the design institute, any suggestions?
Use a atmospheric-pressure tank with water spray at the top, add an inlet pressure interlock; the safety valve doesn’t trip very often, and the low-concentration ethanol produced can be recovered as well
Pressure interlock, is it working? The pressure at the atmospheric pressure tank is only a few kPa.
You can install the pressure probe behind the safety valve, not on the tank. Place a plate exchanger and a small receiving tank in front of the water washing tank; keep the plate exchanger in operation at all times, and then follow what that guy mentioned above
To recover low-concentration ethanol, all components must be made of stainless steel, as well as the demineralized water； The pressure gauge is installed behind the safety valve. Under normal conditions, the pressure at this location is at atmospheric pressure and no spraying occurs. Once the safety valve activates, the pressure here rises sharply to near the pressure at the top of the distillation tower, and then spraying begins ； The pressure value of the pressure interlock should be adjustable.
If direct discharge is not possible, the ethanol vapor must be introduced into a condenser, with the condensate collected in a tank. However, it is rare to see safety valves installed on the top; this is a bit unreasonable. The safety valves of alcohol pressure towers are all installed at the bottom; since the bottom of the tower contains water vapor, it can be discharged directly.
In my opinion, it is sufficient to use a water seal tank; the size of the tank should be chosen based on the amount of leakage
It is recommended that you connect the outlet pipe of the safety valve directly to the raw material tank, with the pipe inserted into the liquid at a distance of 200 mm from the bottom of the tank. The total pressure drop in the outlet pipe of the safety valve must be less than 10% of the valve’s setting pressure. For your reference
Can a cold water tank be connected behind the safety valve, using cold water to absorb it? Ethanol and water are completely miscible with each other; this is something learned in middle school, and it should be sufficient to solve this problem. That’s all I know; I welcome any criticism or suggestions from experts.