Why does increasing the reflux in some distillation units at a certain load level result in an increase in the top temperature?
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Some time ago, I encountered a distillation column in which the top temperature increased when the reflux was increased; I’m not sure why this happened. It has an azeotropic component.
It depends on how you increase the backflow.
Has the reflux temperature increased?
The increased reflux will ultimately emerge from the top of the tower. When the load at the tower top reaches a certain level, the pressure at the top of the tower rises; as the tower pressure increases, the temperature at the top of the tower also rises.
Is the increase in your temperature slight or significant? A slight increase may be related to your pressure; if the increase is substantial, it might mean that there’s a problem with your tower. In the case of azeotropy, the temperatures at the top, middle, and even bottom of the tower will all tend to be the same. . . . This is my personal understanding for reference only
The master said that this tower is just like that – the temperature of the entire tower rises, and I’m not sure why.
It may be due to insufficient cooling load of the return fluid
Taking various factors into account, tower top pressure, reflux temperature, and the cooling effect of the product taken from the tower top
With an increase in reflux, it’s impossible for all other variables to remain unchanged; factors such as steam volume and pressure, as well as the overall temperature of the entire tower, will increase
It is estimated that an increase in reflux flow led to insufficient cooling load at the tower top, resulting in a rise in reflux temperature and consequently a high tower top temperature