Improved High Performance Trays

From a design and hydraulic standpoint, trays are relatively complex distillation internals. In the ongoing search for higher performance trays, one first must understand the hydraulic and mass transfer aspects of the tray operation such as entrainment, downcomer flooding, and vapor liquid contact. When this is well understood, then various aspects of the deck and/or downcomer designs can more easily be modified to achieve performance improvements. As a result of this process, Sulzer has developed a promising new design for a high performance distillation tray that demonstrates significant improvements in capacity over a broad range of air/water simulator operating rates. Depending on the operating region, capacity gains in excess of 10% have been verified in comparison to existing high performance trays. This paper will discuss design strategies and important tray operating parameters. Design characteristics of the new high performance tray will be presented and discussed. Test data from this new tray will be shown to demonstrate its improved performance.