Complaint
Industrial fractionating columns
Fractional distillation is one of the unit operations of chemical engineering. Fractionating columns are widely used in the chemical process industries where large quantities of liquids have to be distilled. Such industries are petroleum processing, petrochemical production, natural gas processing, coal tar processing, brewing, liquified air separation, and hydrocarbon solvents production and similar industries but it finds its widest application in petroleum refineries. In such refineries, the crude oil feedstock is a complex, multi-component mixture that must be separated, and yields of pure chemical compounds are not expected, only groups of compounds within a relatively small range of boiling points, also called fractions. That is the origin of the name fractional distillation or fractionation. It is often not worthwhile separating the components in these fractions any further based on product requirements and economics.
Distillation is one of the most common and energy-intensive separation processes. The effectiveness of separation is dependent upon the height and diameter of the column, the ratio of the column's height to diameter, and the material that comprises the distillation column itself. In a typical chemical plant, it accounts for about 40% of the total energy consumption. Industrial distillation is typically performed in large, vertical cylindrical columns (as shown in Figure 2) known as "distillation towers" or "distillation columns" with diameters ranging from about 65 centimeters to 6 meters and heights ranging from about 6 meters to 60 meters or more.
Industrial distillation towers are usually operated at a continuous steady state. Unless disturbed by changes in feed, heat, ambient temperature, or condensing, the amount of feed being added normally equals the amount of product being removed.
The amount of heat entering the column from the reboiler and with the feed must equal the amount of heat removed by the overhead condenser and with the products. The heat entering a distillation column is a crucial operating parameter, the addition of excess or insufficient heat to the column can lead to foaming, weeping, entrainment, or flooding.
Inside the column, the downflowing reflux liquid provides cooling and condensation of upflowing vapors thereby increasing the efficacy of the distillation tower. The more reflux and/or more trays provided, the better is the tower's separation of lower boiling materials from higher boiling materials.
The design and operation of a fractionating column depend on the composition of the feed and as well as the composition of the desired products. Given a simple, binary component feed, analytical methods such as the McCabe-Thiele method or the Fenske equation can be used. For a multi-component feed, simulation models are used both for design, operation, and construction.
Bubble-cap "trays" or "plates" are one of the types of physical devices, which are used to provide good contact between the upflowing vapor and the downflowing liquid inside an industrial fractionating column.
The efficiency of a tray or plate is typically lower than that of a theoretical 100% efficient equilibrium stage. Hence, a fractionating column almost always needs more actual, physical plates than the required number of theoretical vapor-liquid equilibrium stages.
In industrial uses, sometimes a packing material is used in the column instead of trays, especially when low-pressure drops across the column are required, as when operating under a vacuum. This packing material can either be random dumped packing (1-3 in or 2.5-7.6 cm wide) such as Raschig rings or structured sheet metal. Liquids tend to wet the surface of the packing, and the vapors pass across this wetted surface, where mass transfer takes place. Differently shaped packings have different surface areas and void space between packings. Both of these factors affect packing performance.
Fractionating columns are widely used in the chemical process industries where large quantities of liquids have to be distilled. Such industries are petroleum processing, petrochemical production, natural gas processing, coal tar processing, brewing, liquified air separation, and hydrocarbon solvents production and similar industries but it finds its widest application in petroleum refineries.
The application of distillation can roughly be divided into four groups: laboratory scale, industrial distillation, a distillation of herbs for perfumery and medicinals (herbal distillate), and food processing. The latter two are distinctively different from the former two in that distillation is not used as a true purification method but more to transfer all volatiles from the source materials to the distillate in the processing of beverages and herbs.
The main difference between laboratory scale distillation and industrial distillation is that laboratory scale distillation is often performed on a batch basis, whereas industrial distillation often occurs continuously. In batch distillation, the composition of the source material, the vapors of the distilling compounds, and the distillate change during the distillation. In batch distillation, a still is charged (supplied) with a batch of feed mixture, which is then separated into its component fractions, which are collected sequentially from most volatile to less volatile, with the bottoms - remaining least or non-volatile fraction - removed at the end. The still can then be recharged and the process repeated.
In continuous distillation, the source materials, vapors, and distillate are kept at a constant composition by carefully replenishing the source material and removing fractions from both vapor and liquid in the system. This results in a more detailed control of the separation process.
Q: Are you a manufacturer or a trader?
We're a manufacturer with more than years of professional production experience.
Q: Can you accept OEM?
Yes, OEM is acceptable. Just pls provide us with the drawing or sample, we will production totally according to your requirements.
Q: Can you provide us with the design drawing?
Yeah, of course, we will provide you with the drawing after you paid or prepaid.
Q: Can your factory produce products according to our drawings?
Yes, we can. Most products can be customized, including the Logo on products.
Q: What kind of your packaging?
Neutral plywood or wooden box packaging or according to customer's requirements.
Q: How long is your delivery time?
Normally 30days after payment, and we promise we will deliver as soon as we can.
