Exxon Research and Engineering Company

James D Eagan

Adrianus Welmers

John J Dugan

Rudolph R Savory

Recovering a relatively volatile component of a solution from a less

A distillation tower (1) has a plurality of liquid sidestream lines (5, 6, 7) and a multi-stage sidestream stripper (13) which includes a respective stripping section (14, 15, 16) for each sidestream line housed in a common, upright, cylindrical shell (28) which allows vapor to pass freely from each stage to the one above. Partial vaporization of each sidestream is achieved by applying a vacuum to the top of the stripper shell (point 21) and/or introducing strip gas at the bottom (point 20). Because the vapor passes serially through the stripping sections from the bottom of the stripper (13) to the top, the need to supply strip gas separately to the stripping sections and/or apply vacuum individually is avoided. The separation between the sidestream products is improved by including, in each stage, a rectification zone (22, 23, 24) positioned above the stripping section.

Distillation tower and sidestream stripper therefor

A wash liquid distributor is described for applying liquid uniformly across a filter cake on a filter surface providing effective washing and exhibiting resistance to clogging and fouling. The wash liquid distributor consists essentially of, in combination, at least one elongated hollow distributor pipe mounted above the filter surface through which wash fluid is passed, each hollow distributor pipe having a multiplicity of closely, evenly spaced and axially aligned small holes located substantially along the top center line of said pipe and pointing away from the filter surface located beneath said pipe, an inner helical wire wrap around said pipe, the pitch of the winding of said wire being substantially the same as the spacing of the axially aligned holes and whereby each individual turn in the winding is spaced to pass substantially midway between adjacent pairs of the evenly spaced, axially aligned holes, a curved deflector plate located on top of the inner helical wire wrap and covers a portion of the circumference of said pipe, the center line of the deflector plate being substantially in alignment with the top center line of the pipe, and a final outer helical wire winding around the pipe holding the deflector plate in position, the pitch of the winding of this outer helix being substantially the same as the inner helix winding but about 180.degree. out of phase.

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Woking, United Kingdom

James D Eagan