Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Theodore Sideropoulos

Arun K Sharma

Brian D Albert

Berne K Stober

Christopher P Eppig

Alvin U Chen

Rutton D Patel

Vikram Singh

A distillation tower for use in a petrochemical or petroleum operation effects liquid and vapor separation by using centrifugal force applied to the feed introduced into a ring from a tangential inlet. The feed is separated into a liquid component that flows into the bottoms section of the tower and a vapor component that flows upwardly through the core of the ring to a wash zone in the tower. De-entrainment devices are provided in the core so that the vapor swirling upwardly impacts the devices and any remaining entrained liquid is separated from the vapor. As a result, overflash with decreased resid can be collected from the wash zone and used as feed suitable for a fluid catalytic cracking operation, for example.

Core de-entrainment device for vessels with tangential inlets

A de-entrainment device separates entrained liquid from vapor in a fluid stream that flows through a chimney tray in a distillation tower. The separated liquid is collected and shielded from the fluid stream to prevent re-entrainment of the liquid in the vapor flowing upward into the tower. The chimney tray includes risers with hats that have gutters to guide liquid toward the tray deck, channels to collect and drain liquid from the top of the hats to the tray deck, and baffles extending from the risers to shield the liquid collected on the tray deck from the vapor flow.

De-entrainment tray for high capacity operation

An improved de-entrainment device for use in distillation towers, especially vacuum distillation towers used for fractionating petroleum atmospheric resids is in the form of a baffle which is to be located in the portion of the tower below the feed zone and at the top of the flash zone. The baffle is in the form of an apertured plate above the stripping zone and in its preferred form comprises number of radial fins or blades, resembling a static fan with openings between the fins to permit vapors from the lower portions of the tower to pass upwards through the baffle with a minimal pressure drop. The fins of the baffle are preferably oriented at an angle between 30&#xb0; and 60&#xb0; away from the incoming feed so that the incoming feed stream skims over the top edges of the fins.

Distillation tower baffle

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Oakton, VA, United States of America

Theodore Sideropoulos