Good Practices in Tray Design

Good Practices in Tray Design is quite simply, keeping oneself out of trouble. However, once one has determined the products a distillation or absorption tower is to produce, then good Engineering practice in tray design is minimizing the cost of a new tower or maximizing capacity of an old one. There are important practices, other than capacity, that also need to be considered: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Minimize Pressure Drop in Vacuum or Temperature sensitive services Improve tower performance though higher tray efficiency Reduce downtime with anti-fouling devices Eliminate fatigue stress cracking in "harmonic" service Maximize operating flexibility for seasonal or other market conditions Pick the correct material of construction to avoid corrosion Miscellaneous levelness, fabrication tolerances, install parts correctly

Listed below are detailed explanations of the above:

Capacity
The maximum capacity of a distillation tower can be defined as the point at which the liquid cannot be pulled downward by the force of gravity in sufficient quantity to satisfy the desired heat and mass balance. In other words, if left unchecked, the liquid phase will buildup in the tower until the vessel is completely liquid filled. Tray design practices must be employed to prevent this phenomena from happening prior to when the desired purities and production rates are achieved. Many different mechanisms can cause premature capacity limitations. There are quite a number of these mechanisms that can be attributed to operational error or inattention. This is not the subject of this discussion. However there are still quite a few that can be avoided by employing good tray design practices. I will discuss the major causes of capacity limitations due to poor design practices and suggest what areas need attention to avoid these problems during design. These are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Sufficient cross sectional area for vapor traffic incorporated Deck area, free area, area above tray at transitions Sufficient cross sectional area for liquid traffic incorporated Downcomer Area, Clearance or spout area, Splash baffles, trusses in the way Sufficient Tray Spacing used for liquid to disengage from the vapor Avoid entrainment, watch out for foaming Sufficient Tray Spacing used for vapor to disengage from the liquid Avoid downcomer backup, watch out for foaming Spray regime has been avoided Avoid low weir loadings, insufficient open area, too large of openings Emulsion regime has been avoided Avoid high liquid inlet velocities especially with small openings at low delta density Vapor cross flow channeling avoided Avoid long flow path lengths with moderate liquid rates and small tray spacings Sufficient deck open area incorporated to avoid pressure drop limitations Do not choke off downcomer capacity with high tray pressure drop, avoid plugging with too small of openings

Pressure Drop
Pressure Drop is the second most important hydraulic parameter next to capacity and many times the two are inseparable. Generally once the capacity of a tower has been determined, the pressure drop can be examined. But for low pressure (generally at vacuum) service, the pressure drop across the trays has a significant effect on the top pressure and the subsequent vapor density. A high pressure drop can reduce the tower head pressure to levels well below the desired value and greatly reduce the vapor density. This lower vapor density at the top of the tower, increases the vapor volumetric flow rate resulting in less capacity or larger tower diameters than expected. A designer has a choice of two sets of liquid and vapor loads to represent a particular trays hydraulics conditions. Experience says to use the Vapor Loading TO the tray and the Liquid Loading FROM the tray. However, for very low pressure service, especially at the very top of the tower, the vapor rate will increase in the froth above the tray. A good practice to follow, to be conservative, is to also examine the vapor loads FROM the top tray to ensure that the top tray is adequately sized. Another aspect of pressure drop is the dry tray pressure drop. Sometimes this parameter is overlooked for its value to hydraulic parameters other that the overall tray pressure drop. The dry tray pressure drop can tell the designer several things; turndown, spray fluidization, and tray stability. To assist in determining turndown, it is generally believed that too low a dry tray pressure drop (less than 0.25 inches of water per tray) will be insufficient to maintain the liquid on the tray unless it is a bubble cap tray. Too much open area on the tray or insufficient vapor traffic will enable the liquid to weep through the tray deck resulting in loss of tray efficiency. The point at which the tray performance falls below the minimum acceptable level is defined as the turndown point. It is possible to efficiently operate a distillation tray while weeping. FRI has noted good efficient operating trays at weeping values of 30% or more. However, there is a point at which the weeping is so great that the desired separation can no longer be achieved. Spray Fluidization is a phenomenon where the vapor velocity/momentum is sufficiently high to blow the liquid off the tray. Too little open area or high velocities through the open area can blow moderate amounts of liquid off the tray. In the laboratory a tray in the spray regime is observed to have a vapor space above the tray with droplets dancing in it. This is different from a more normal froth regime where the froth on the tray is a continuous liquid phase with vapor bubbles passing through it. Too high of a dry tray pressure drop can contribute to the onset of spray fluidization. Spray fluidization may not adversely affect the tray efficiency, but almost ALL tray correlations were developed for tray operating in the froth regime. Tray instability is a phenomenon where the dry tray pressure drop is insufficient for the vapor to self distribute uniformly across the tray bubbling area. It can be shown theoretically that a tray will be intrinsically stable if the ratio of the dry tray pressure drop divided by the liquid head on the tray is greater than 1.0. This ratio is sometimes referred to as a stability factor. What this means is that if a tray has a misaligned feed or is upset, that the vapor will naturally seek to distribute itself uniformly on the next tray above, provide the stability factor is greater than 1.0. In actual practice, depending on the type tray and levelness of that tray, it has been demonstrated that the stability factor can be as low as 0.5 and still provide a stable vapor distribution. The accuracy of pressure drop calculations will many times come into question. This will occur quite frequently when this parameter is of a critical nature; temperature sensitive products, vacuum service, when trying to avoid using a higher temperature heat source, and others. The Sulzer Chemtech pressure drop correlations are as accurate as the data used to generate them. The pressure drop correlations were recently refit to a more modern correlation that covers a wide range of operating conditions and therefore models the real world quite well. The accuracy of this new model is with 15%, see attached figure.

Tray Efficiency
Many things influence tray Efficiency. The first and foremost is the type device employed for the service. Next is the system itself including the pressure, L/V ratio, relative volatility, and physical properties. Finally there are design practices that can enhance performance. The choice of device is important from the viewpoint of capacity, but many times a higher capacity device will inherently have a lower level of performance. We have plotted tray efficiency vs. relative tray capacity for various types of devices. Generally, the higher capacity devices exhibit a lower tray efficiency. The reason for this is that the contact time between the liquid and the vapor is, quite simply, greatly reduced at high throughput. There are certain rules of thumb in distillation that apply to tray efficiency behavior. Some of these are: a. Increased pressure increases tray efficiency b. Higher Liquid rates decrease tray efficiency c. Increased viscosity decreases tray efficiency d. Increased Relative Volatility decreases tray efficiency There are practices that can be taken by the designer to enhance tray efficiency. Increased flow path length will increase the contact time for vapor/liquid contact, therefore increase tray efficiency. Any device that can enable plug flow of the liquid flowing across the tray will increase tray efficiency by eliminating backmixing. There are push type devices that can be added to distillation trays that will assist in

eliminating the gradient on long flow path length trays. These devices improve tray efficiency by allowing the vapor to have a uniform distribution and eliminates premature entrainment due to vapor cross-flow channeling. Increased tray spacing will decrease entrainment and gain tray efficiency at highly loaded conditions. Higher outlet weir heights will increase the contact time between the liquid and the vapor thereby increasing tray efficiency. High outlet weirs should be avoided though because the additional tray efficiency achieved with outlet weirs much above 2 is very limited. Finally, there are certain tray designs that enable the liquid to flow the same parallel flow direction on adjoining trays. These designs will improve tray efficiency by enabling the mass transfer driving force to be uniform across the flow path lengths of adjacent trays, thereby maximizing tray efficiency.

Anti-Fouling Design
There are certain types of trays that are inherently resistant to fouling. One of them is the Dualflow tray and another is the V-Grid tray. The Dualflow tray is well known for its anti-fouling capabilities but it has limited operating flexibility and typically low tray efficiency. The SVG V-grid tray is also well documented on its ability to accommodate a fouling environment. The large raised opening on the tray deck in combination with the pushing action provided by the V-Grid valve unit eliminates stagnation on the tray and keeps it clear of the foulant. When used in combination with a high dry tray pressure drop and a high downcomer velocity, the tray can accommodate some of the most hostile environments. The SVG and even the MVG tray has been used repeatedly in such notoriously fouling services as: Beer mash towers Depropanizers Butadiene Service

Fatigue Stress Cracking

There is a phenomenon that occurs on fixed opening devices that is quite unusual yet very destructive. Several sets of V-Grid and Sieve trays have exhibited a behavior of harmonic vibrations resulting in catastrophic failure of the tray decks. This phenomenon: Occurs at Low Loadings or turndown Affects towers in the 10 to 20 ft. diameter range most Result in severely cracked & broken tray decks Oscillate or Hum at 10-15 Cycles/second Will occur regardless of tray strength. To avoid this phenomenon the designer needs to keep the dry tray pressure drop sufficiently high to get the tray out of the harmonic range of operation. In other words, design for a high dry tray pressure drop.

Operating Flexibility
Operating Flexibility or turndown can be accommodated in a tray design by using tray deck devices and downcomer designs that enable such behavior. Large tray spacings, high dry tray pressure drop, the use of float valve devices, radius tipped downcomer bottoms and low outlet weir heights all contribute to improved operating range flexibility. As mentioned above in the Pressure Drop section, once the maximum capacity has been established, turndown will determine the operating rage of the trays. Turndown can be defined as the loading conditions at which the tray either becomes unstable or weeps more than 30% of the liquid to the tray. If either of these phenomena occur, then tray performance should be adversely affected to a significant extent. Several different type trays typical potential turndown capabilities are listed below based on a 24 inch tray spacing.

Most often downcomer backup determines the maximum turndown possible. A minimum amount of pressure drop must be built into a tray design to prevent weeping at low loads. At design loads this pressure drop then cannot result in downcomer backup that exceeds the tray spacing.

Materials of Construction
The choice of materials of construction can have a profound effect on the performance of a unit if corrosion sets in. The engineer is constantly striving to produce an economical design with the least expensive materials. However, there are minimum specifications on the types of materials to be used in common services to ensure minimal corrosion or stress cracking. Some of these are: Hydrocarbons (no H2S) Temp >40 Deg. C Hydrocarbons (no H2S) Temp 30 to 40 Deg. C Hydrocarbons (no H2S) Temp 100 to -30 Deg. C Hydrocarbons (no H2S) Temp <-100 Deg. C Acetic Acid Chloride Service Chlorine & HCl Service Ethanol Methanol Carbon Steel (A-569) Killed Carbon Steel 3 Nickel Steel (SA-203) 304L Stainless Steel 316L Stainless Steel or Titanium Duplex 2205 or Hastelloy C-276 Nickel 200 or Tantalum 304L Stainless Steel Carbon Steel and 304L Stainless Steel

Miscellaneous
There are many little aspects of tray design that often times go unattended to. Levelness is very important for a tray design that needs to operate at turndown for an extended period of time. Based on the discussions above, tray stability depends heavily on the dry tray pressure drop over liquid head ratio. Small variations in the liquid head at low loads can easily make this ratio fall below the minimum and result in localized weeping. Therefore it is extremely important that not only the tray be installed level but each tray

panel, outlet weir and downcomer curtain be level as well. This means that fabrication tolerances must be sufficiently tight to allow the installer the flexibility to meet the installation levelness tolerances. Manufacturing tolerances are typically the installed tray tolerance for that reason. It is also very important that the parts be installed correctly. There have been numerous cases where tray decks have been installed backwards or even upside-down! We have personally observed towers where manways were forgotten, downcomer curtains left resting on the deck below, material left in towers (gloves, rags, lunch boxes, tools, ladders, and excess hardware), and my favorite, a withdraw nozzle that was on the opposite side of the tower from the chimney tray withdraw sump. At the design level, die stamping the parts showing which side is up and which direction a tray panel should face is extremely helpful for the installer who is working in a typically very dark environment. The installation drawings should have installation instructions listed clearly, in a stepwise manner, what needs to be done inside the tower. Small isometric sketches of the tray deck are most helpful to the installer to instruct the least experienced person on their crew what to look for. Minimizing welding and cutting in the tower also is good design practice to reduce installation time and cost. For example, in larger towers, piping networks should be flanged wherever possible and care should be taken to ensure that all the pieces can fit through the vessel manhole. However, many times the flange on a tee has to be welded on in the tower simply because it cannot fit through the vessel manhole attached. I realize that this is a microcosm of the vast amount of information available and applied in actual distillation tray design practice. There are so many other topics not covered here but can be useful to a more experienced tray designer. These topics are 2 and 4 pass design optimization, Dualflow and Bubble Cap tray design, high capacity tray design, and finally, ultra high capacity tray design. I trust this information is helpful and will aid the designer in determining the optimum design for their trayed tower. Daniel R. Summers Manager Chemicals & Gas Applications Tulsa, OK 918-447-7654