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Chemical Engineering Programmes

Level HE3 Design Project

Distillation Column Design 2014

1) Decide on the materials of construction and chose the appropriate standard (ASTM, API,
BSI etc.) for pressure vessels. Choose the design pressure and the design temperature,
which will be related to the operating pressure, condensing temperature and reboiler
temperature.

2) The overall mass balance can be calculated from the required product compositions and
the feed flow rate. The operating pressure can be specified from available cooling media
temperatures, a suitable approach temperature and the phase of the overhead product.
The temperature of the reboiler can be calculated from the composition of the bottom
product and an assumed pressure drop across the column, which must be confirmed at a
later stage.

3) A key step in the design of any distillation column is the selection of the reflux or boil-up
ratio. In general these ratios are a function of the type of system (ideal hydrocarbon,
non-ideal, associated, oxygenated organics etc.). For hydrocarbons, the reflux ratio will
be approximately 20-50% above the minimum: this may also be a function of the
operating temperature and can be as low as 10% above minimum for low temperature
refrigerated columns. The stability of the feed quality and the requirements of the
control system may modify the above criteria. For non-ideal systems, no such simple
rule is generally applicable and each case must be considered on its own merits. The
ratio finally chosen may be close to the minimum but the possibility of some trace
component building up to substantial concentrations can invalidate any simple view. All
of the above views can also be applied to the boil-up ratio but the use of reflux ratio is
preferred. The final objective is to select a reflux/boil-up ratio that is economically
justified.

4) The methods available for the determination of the minimum reflux ratio only really
apply to thermodynamically ideal systems with constant molar overflow i.e. Fenske-
Underwood-Gilliland-Kirkbride etc. Such methods must be applied with care and the
designer should be ready to modify the value after taking account of large variations in
component activity and/or molar latent heat.

5) Collect together all the physical and thermodynamic properties needed for your chosen
design procedure as outlined below. ChemCad can be used as a data source; but it must
be recognised that ChemCad may not always be wholly accurate especially for non-
hydrocarbon systems.

6) The energy balances for the distillation column can now be established with the
condenser and reboiler heat loads being calculated. The application of a ChemCad mass
and energy balance is only reliable/justified when all deviations from ideality have been
accurately modelled. Such deviations include liquid phase activity coefficients that vary

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appreciably over the composition range. This is certainly true for any columns containing
physically associating components, such as HCN-H
2
O, EDC-H
2
O, HCl-EDC, H
2
O-H
2
S and
CH
3
OH-H
2
O, TEG-H
2
O, MED/DEA/MDEA-H
2
O etc. Some non-ideal systems may be
modelled using an appropriate liquid phase model, such as NRTL or a modified Cubic
Equation of State model such as PSRK. Particular care is necessary with components
which appear essentially at one end of the column and are only trace components at the
other i.e. where the reboiler contains only a trace of a component that appears
essentially in the distillate.

7) You will be required to do carry out a detailed plate-to-plate calculation for your column,
using suitable methods. In some circumstances this can be done by hand but more
commonly ChemCad can be used but this must be checked by appropriate hand
calculations. In either case you are required to propose an economically optimised
design based on the minimisation of a suitable combination of Capital and Operating
costs.

8) Decide on and write down an overall design procedure including all the appropriate mass
and energy balance equations and necessary equilibrium relationships to be used at the
various stages of the calculation. Your procedure may include the use of an equation
solver and/or suitable spreadsheet. At an appropriate time, discuss your equations and
procedure with the course supervisor. Students are not encouraged to waste time on
non-productive effort.

9) Evaluate the optimum number of theoretical stages required for the separation making
suitable allowances for the pressure drop across each theoretical stage. A second pass
through the calculation procedure may be necessary to match the pressures on each tray
but this is more significant in low-pressure columns. It is however important to evaluate
the correct reboiler pressure and hence boiling temperature when the reboiler is
designed.

10) It is now necessary to determine the type of column internals necessary to bring about
the required separation. It is not recommended to use trays in a column with a diameter
less than about 1000 mm because it is difficult to get a worker into the column for
cleaning, inspecting and changing trays. Hence columns with diameters less than this
tend to be packed. It is therefore necessary to determine the approximate tower
diameter before the type of internals is chosen. It should be noted that a change in
diameter might occur across the feed tray and where side streams occur.

11) When using trays a choice must be made between the various types available i.e. sieve
plates, bubble plates, valve trays etc. Design methods for the first two types are given
explicitly in the literature and an approximation design for valve trays may be inferred.
For a real design a tray vendor would have to confirm the tray design as a part of the
procurement procedure. It is desirable to check the hydraulic design at the trays above
and below the feed tray, the tray immediately above the reboiler and the reflux tray with
other checks being done anywhere else that significant changes in internal flows occur.
It should be noted that trays are often used because the design methods are better
established than those for packed towers.

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12) The determination of tray efficiency is not well quantified but some guidance is available
in the literature. The efficiency is largely a function of the liquid viscosity and relative
volatility and does therefore vary between components. The actual number of trays can
be calculated and the true pressure drop evaluated. This can be compared with the
value assumed in the design procedure.

13) The selection of the type and size of packing to be used in small diameter columns is
dependent on a number of factors. The D
tower
/D
packiing
ratio is always more than 10 but
rarely greater than 40 and to minimise the packed height the smallest packing size within
this range is usually selected. More detailed guidance is available in the literature such as
given at the end of this note. The type of packing depends upon the characteristics
required i.e. capacity and the Height Equivalent to a Theoretical Plate (HETP). The use of
a suitable correlation will give the tower diameter as a function of the percentage of the
predicted flooding point. The actual percentage of the flooding point used will normally
be in the range 50% to 80% (60% recommended) and this will depend upon the nature of
the system (note that 60% of flooding is typically 80% of the loading point according to G
A Morris).

14) There are no reliable methods to predict the HETP. In practice measured data is used
and guidance on typical values is available in the literature.

15) Liquid distribution in a packed bed is an important consideration. In general it requires
an adequate number of distribution points which are placed some suitable height above
the packed bed. Students should ensure that such requirements are met. Periodic
redistribution of the liquid is necessary. It is usual to install additional sections of packing
below each distributor or redistributor to act as a secondary distribution zone. It is vital
with secondary distributors to mix the collected liquid before redistribution.

16) The following design aids are available
16.1 ChemCad
a) Can be used to generate heat loads between selected process temperatures
within the cooling/heating range of the column,
b) Can be used to calculate K values for components if the selected K value
option is appropriate,
c) Can be used to predict the physical properties of the mixtures being
encountered on the trays,
d) Can be used identify the appropriate combination of the number of ideal
stages, condenser and reboiler heat loads, feed plate position, tower
pressure, tower diameter etc which minimise a suitable combination of
Capital and Operating costs.

16.2 TK Solver
a) Can be used to solve groups of simultaneous equations for calculations of
local mass and energy balances and equilibrium relationships



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16.3 Excel
a) Should be considered for general repetitive calculations.

17) References
a) King - Separation Processes
b) Van Winkle - Distillation
c) Ludwig - Applied Process Design for Chemical and Petrochemical Plants
d) Coulson and Richardson - Chemical Engineering
e) Treybal - Mass Transfer Operations
f) Perry - Chemical Engineers handbook
g) Rose - Distillation Design in Practice
h) Strigle, R.F., Random Packings and Packed Towers, Gulf Publishing Company 1987
i) Kent and Eisenberg - Better data for Amine Treating, Hydrocarbon Processing, Feb.
1976, page 87.
j) Hirata M, Ohe S and Nagahama K, Computer Aided Data Book of Vapour-Liquid
Equilibrium, Elsevier Scientific, 1975

18) It is strongly suggested that students check equations quoted in textbooks against the
original references. A number of critical errors have been found in some of the more
commonly used textbooks.

19) Specific design data is available from CAM/RBT on
a) Activity coefficient HCl-EDC systems
b) VLE data for EDC-H
2
O system
c) HCN-NH
3
-H2O data


Students should note that the above references are given in shortened form. Full and specific
references should be given in any report.






C A Millington Monday, 28 April 2014