The impact of tower internals on column performance

摘要

Fractionation Research Inc. (FRI) is the most modern independent test institute in the world for performing tray, random packing, and structured packing tests under rectification conditions on an industrial scale test column (see Figure 1). In 1998, Raschig Super-Ring No. 2 was tested at FRI for the first time, and FRI high performance tower internals were selected for this test. However, in 2012, Raschig elected to retest Super-Ring No. 2. In this retest, the company used state of the art tower internals. This article shows the impact of tower internals on packing performance, comparing both FRI test results. In addition to the FRI test results, the article provides information about Raschig's large scale liquid distributor test facility. The test facility was built to improve large and small scale distributor designs as a development project and to demonstrate their performance after fabrication for industrial columns. Finally, the article describes an industrial design example for which modern tower internals were applied.