Distillation Column Flooding Diagnostics with Intelligent Differential Pressure Transmitter - White Papers

Distillation is a common unit operation, which is used to separate or purify components in a feed stream. Flooding is a common abnormal process condition wherein the distillation column stops generating a separation, thus causing the quality of the top and/or bottom products to go off specification. The Rosemount 3051S Pressure Transmitter with Advanced Diagnostics can be used to detect incipient flooding in real time, and provide an early warning. Figure 1 illustrates the results of a field test in which flooding was deliberately and repeatedly triggered by increasing the heat supplied to the reboiler. The standard deviation, provided by the Rosemount transmitter, increases each time flooding is triggered; from which, an incipient flooding alert threshold can be defined. When this threshold is exceeded, it indicates the distillation column is still producing a good separation; but, is about to flood. Because this technique detects a physical phenomena intrinsically associated with flooding, it is believed to be widely applicable. Users of Rosemount DP transmitters with Advanced Diagnostics will be able to confidently push their distillation columns closer to their operational limits and quickly eliminate flooding as a root cause of product quality issues.