1

VOLUME 7 NUMBER 25 MARCH 2021

SPECIAL EDITION
DISTILLATION & CATALAYS

: : : ,$ &3(&2 0 
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In This Issue
Volume 7 | Number 25

SPECIAL FEATURES EDITOR

Karl Kolmetz

04
Texas Blizzards & Hydrates….Friend or
Foe? DIGITAL EDITOR
Ronald J. Cormier
Shauna Tysor
Q&A: Distillation Roundtable
05 Panelist : Andrew W Sloley, Mike Reseta-
rits, Karl Kolmetz, Henry Kister, Christian
REFINING CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva
Geipel
PROCESS ENGINEERING CONTRIBUTING
Catalysts | Heart of Hydroprocessing AUTHOR
25 Units
Rajesh Sivadasan
Jayanthi Vijay Sarathy

SAFETY CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Chris Palmisano
30
De-scaling Application: Why the Pump
Fails?
Abhijeet Keer CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Ron Comier

35
How to...Downcomers | Part 5
All About Downcomers and Weirs
Dr. -Ing. Volker Engel

45
Cold Eye Review of Project Progress or
Any Situation
Lalit Mohan Nainwal

Evaluating Pipeline Operational

49 Integrity | Sand Production
Jayanthi Vijay Sarathy

Safety Talk Series

58 Electric Shock Hazard Prevention
Chris Palmisano

59
Pneumatic Dilute Phase Solids
Conveying
Joe Bonem

Considerations for Fabrication of Mass

66 Transfer Products
Neil Almeida

69
Test Your Process Knowledge with
These 20 Questions
Norm Lieberman

Guidelines for Process Plants Alarm

71 Grouping & Alarm Prioritization
Praveen Nagenderan C

73
Adding Value to Natural Gas | Gas to
Liquids and Petrochemicals Technolo-
gies
Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva
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Letter from the Editor

Welcome to March.

It has been particularly cold this year in the USA, so we are looking forward to spring and warmer
weather. As we look forward to the future we hope that travel can return and we can again speak
at some colleges later this year. We try to inspire students to continue their education by utilizing
IACPE Practical Design Modules to learn to utilize the fundamentals they acquired in Universities.
The IACPE Title and Certificate is only a symbol of the practical knowledge that you may gain
from the modules that will assist you for the rest of your career.

In the Magazine this month we again have great articles from our great contributors. We also
have a special Question and Answer Distillation Roundtable.

All the best in Your Career and Life.

All the best,

Karl Kolmetz
 4

Rock Bottom View

Texas Blizzards &

Hydrates….Friend or Foe?
Ronald J. Cormier, Engineering Practice Contributing Author

We hope our readers felt at least a bit heartened necessarily removed with the injection of meth-
after scanning The View from Rock Bottom in anol into the piping. Methanol is hygroscopic
January’s edition of Engineering Practice Maga- and can keep hydrates from forming. As the
zine. We had entered the dark tunnel that is the possible culprit, whether or not appropriate ap-
COVID-19 pandemic, and were globally am- plication of alcohol was at play in Texas’ gas
bushed without any existing anecdote for the vi- system this time may play a rather insignificant
rus. Hence, 2020/21 registered tremendous soci- role vs. the phenomena of how hydrate for-
etal stresses, strains, and fatalities. Also, a nev- mation might actually HELP us in the future.
er-before experienced period of huge uncertain-
ly, occurring simultaneously on a global scale. The Energy Information Administration esti-
We remain hopeful that as vaccines are now mates that hydrates contain more carbon than
spreading through regional populations, and that each petroleum product accessible on Earth
some sense of returning normalcy is shining its combined. Also, that these ice-like structures
light at the end of this horrible tunnel. Critical could hold somewhere in the range from 10,000
characteristics of petrochemical-based packag- trillion to in excess of 100,000 trillion cubic feet
ing, durable goods, and medical supplies contin- of flammable gas. By comparison, EIA said in
ue to help make this possible and should also 2013 that there are a little more than 7,000 tril-
bode well for hydrocarbon industry’s health. lion cubic feet of actually recoverable shale gas
stores throughout the world.
While we were still pondering the miracle of vac-
cine science, February’s arctic deep freeze rolled This potential isn't lost on federal organizations.
into Texas. Ten days of sub-freezing weather, DOE has been directing an investigation into
decimated electricity, running water, and home methane hydrates on and off since the 1980s,
heating. The disaster caused misery and death and as of late, has re-increased its promise to
across the state, and much of the southern US. understanding the substance. Earlier this year
The expected finger-pointing and blame game the DOE declared that it intends to direct ap-
ensued including ERCOT, various generators, proximately $5 million into subsidizing research
environmentalists-vs. fossil fuelers, state leaders, ventures investigating the potential fuel source
and the public. and how it very well may be developed and
commercialized.
Plenty of unplanned events were blamed for the
blackout, but one that continued to confuse me "We realize that methane hydrates hold im-
was the significant percentage of generating ca- mense potential as a future energy asset," said
pacity knocked offline, not due to frozen turbines, Ray Boswell, the DOE program chief on me-
generators, transformers, or iced distribution thane hydrates for the division's National Ener-
lines, but more upstream in the equation—frozen gy Technology Lab, . "We've moved beyond the
fuel gas delivery. Whaaaaat???…can the natural subject of ‘does this substance truly exist and is
gas system freeze? it accessible’….now we're truly attempting to
sort out its amount…[sic] to where we can rea-
YES it can. Unrefined natural gas has a bad hab- sonably think of it as a portion of our future en-
it of freezing, forming hydrates in pipes at any ergy save, and we're running after that.”
temperature below 60 F. Hydrates are a real
concern to O&G companies, in and above When inquired as to whether methane hydrates
ground at high pressure natural gas wells. Ex- remain a part in the Biden administration’s ener-
panding gas lowers the temperature (the princi- gy thesis, Boswell answered: "Indeed, totally.”
ple behind how your refrigerator and AC func- Friend or foe?: going forward, keep and eye on
tions) and hydrates can form in piping at points hydrates commercialization. Sometimes em-
where pressure drops exist. Hydrates can form in bracing a problem provides immense opportuni-
any weather but cold weather is most common. ty!
They can also form in unexpected places in the
lines. Hydrates can be prevented but not
 5

Questions & Answers

Distillation Roundtable
Panelist : Andrew W Sloley, Mike Resetarits, Karl Kolmetz, Henry Kister, Christian Geipel

1. WHERE DO YOU FIND MOST OF THE be a multi-million dollar return on investment.

CHALLENGES IN DISTILLATION DESIGN: Just a small 2% additional capacity gain is a
A) SIMULATION, B) HARDWARE DESIGN, huge return.
C) INSTALLATION, E) COMMISSIONING?
Most commissioning are completed without
Andrew: I will define the most challenging area many issues as most plants put together
as the one that appears to be most prone to good commissioning teams. Tray and pack-
have mistakes. Everyone’s opinion will be ing damage tend to happen later in unex-
based on their own work history. I would say I pected outages and power failures.
have seen the most problems in hardware de-
sign followed closely by simulation. The under- Christian: Good simulation requires experi-
lying causes differ. ence. First, it is important to know the limita-
tions of the selected models and their ap-
Most hardware design is done by vendors. plicability for the process being simulated.
They are subject to competitive pressure to Second, experience is necessary to judge the
deliver the lowest cost equipment. They are reliability of the property data being used. We
also often given insufficient information about have seen failures of simulations due to both
the potential range of process conditions. reasons.
Simulation work tends to be given to the new- To convert simulation results into optimum
est engineers because they are perceived to hardware design, the hardware designer
be most computer savvy. This means a lot of needs to know the background of the simula-
simulations get done by inexperienced people. tion cases. For example, “What are startup/
shutdown cases, what are “rating cases”
Problems do happen during installation and where lower efficiency or higher energy con-
commissioning, but direct comparison of the sumption might be acceptable? What are the
number of incidents is misleading. A plant may “real” production cases where you want the
only design a tower (simulation and hardware) optimum performance of the unit?” The same
once, but that tower may be shut down and is valid for specified turndown ratios: Does
started up many times during its life. The num- the column really need to perform well at 20%
ber of installation and commission problems turndown or is it only a startup case?
may seem high, but that is because there are
lots of shutdowns, repairs, and startups. Based on this, the challenges for the hard-
ware engineer are:
Mike: All these aspects present incredibly sig-
nificant challenges. With each aspect, “all”  Minimizing investment: challenge is
feasible and reasonable options should be choice of material, minimizing tower di-
considered. Even more importantly, the opin- mensions.
ions of experienced engineers and technicians
should be sought vigorously.  Maximize flexibility: Find the optimum de-
sign to cover the specified turndown
Karl: As I have been on many tower inspec- range.
tions therefore, I have seen many installation
errors which we corrected. Without a senior  Maximize separation efficiency: challeng-
inspector many of the errors would be unde- es are choice of adequate structured or
tected. Most of the installation errors will not random packing, and / or tray design and
stop the column from performing, but they will tray spacing.
limit the upside potential of capacity and recov- I would say that simulation and hardware de-
eries. As senior distillation inspector that un- sign are the two main challenges in distillation
derstands hardware and process design can
 6

design. Installation and commissioning also Mike: If an existing column has been simulat-
have their challenges and failures can lead to ed with a wrong efficiency, a redesign can still
tremendous costs, but I would not say that work out okay as long as the same, wrong
these problems are typically “design related”. efficiency is employed again. A better path,
2. DESCRIBE THE CHALLENGES IN SIMU- of course, is to correctly determine the true
LATION AND CHOOSING THE CORRECT efficiency of the existing trays/packings espe-
EFFICIENCY. cially via the use of the correct thermo (VLE)
model and the use of good operating data,
Andrew: I will stick to tray efficiency, though wherein the masses balance.
many of the same general observations apply
to packing. Efficiency estimates have different Karl: The challenge of simulation is to have
approaches when evaluating an existing tower your simulation model what happens in the
versus designing a new tower. field. Taking a simulation to the field and
choosing the correct tray efficiency takes mul-
Nearly every time one evaluates an existing
tower, the best approach is to adjust the num- tiple years of experience. There are complex
ber of theoretical stages in the model until the models for Refinery Vacuum Towers and oth-
results match the unit performance in the field. er systems that have unusual behavior in the
The theoretical stages divided by actual trays field. Ensure that your simulation models ac-
gives a tray efficiency that is then applicable to tual field behavior.
an entire section of the tower. Only very rarely
does using partial tray efficiencies in simula- There is a large data base in the industry of
tion software give useful results. While they estimated tray efficiencies. Many are based
allow for different efficiencies for multiple com- on SRK VLE data. Be conservative when
ponents, they tend not to reflect what engi- choosing tray efficiency even when using
neers mean by efficiency. Additionally, using SRK.
the partial tray efficiencies option often leads
to solution instability and high execution times, 3. DESCRIBE THE CHALLENGES IN
even with modern software and computers. HARDWARE DESIGN.

When designing a new tower, the best starting Andrew: The two most challenging aspects of
point is to find demonstrated section efficiency hardware design are (1) fluid flow under low
in similar equipment being used in a similar or pressure drop conditions and (2) vapor-liquid
identical service. If such information is not mixing and separation on trays.
available, the most useful efficiency correla-
tions are the O’Connell correlation, Little pressure drop is available inside towers
to drive fluid flow. Outside of external feed
pumping to the tower, only gravity head is
or the more recent Taylor-Duss variation, available for liquid flow. Also, the pressure
drop inside the tower created by the vapor
flow increases liquid hold-up. These issues
. apply to both tray towers and packed towers
but has different implications for the different
Note that these equations only look at two fac-
tower types. Understanding how and where
tors: viscosity and relative volatility. No tray
pressure drop is created and where static
design parameters are included.
head accumulates is critical to understanding
Hundreds of papers have been written and equipment hydraulics.
many researchers have worked on developing
Vapor-liquid mixing issues apply much more
fundamental relationships for equipment effi-
to trays than packing. Trays mix liquid and
ciency. The reason so much work has been
vapor and then separate them. Phase me-
done is that most correlations do not produce
chanics can range from froth to unclearly de-
useful results—that’s why people keep trying.
fined intermediates to spray, depending upon
There are certainly general trends in how tray
flow rates and physical properties. The hy-
design and system properties affect efficiency.
draulics of a given system can cause entrain-
But the specifics of individual situations are
ment (jet flood) and downcomer filling.
especially important. If you can find published
Knowledge and understanding of these fac-
data on the system you are looking at, you are
tors are critical to successful tray design.
in luck. Otherwise, stick to the simpler correla-
tions. They are just as accurate as the more Mike: Hardware design methodologies are
 7

by hardware companies. As a result, their de- engineer has a great responsibility to make
signs often cannot be checked by the purchas- sure the installation is performed correctly.
ers or selectors of the hardware. Purchasers of He or she also has the last opportunity to
such hardware should insist that the purveyors catch errors. Inspect with more than just the
prove that similar designs in similar applica- eyes. Yes, make sure that equipment is me-
tions have performed well subsequent to start- chanically installed as designed. But also look
ups. at the equipment and ask, “Does this installa-
tion make sense?” If it does not, do not arbi-
Karl: The hardware designer assumes that you trarily change things, but get an explanation
have put the design safety margin in the simu- of why it is the way it is, and make sure that
lation, so they rarely will add any additional specialists have checked the situation.
design margin. I was consulting on a refinery
crude tower revamp at the startup. I reviewed Mike: Welding inside towers “always” needs
the hydraulic design – and the jet flood was to be followed by heat treating. Large-
designed at 30%. I would normally like the diameter towers require large, and heavy,
design to be above 50%. This low jet flood parts that need to be able to fit through man-
leads to low tray pressure drop, and lower tray holes.
efficiency.
Karl: One of the challenges of installation is
Christian: The challenge in hardware design is that the rings are installed by the tower ven-
to combine/optimize mass transfer equipment dor, and they may or may not match the trays
(packing/tray) with corresponding tower inter- and tower vapor / liquid draws. In one instal-
nals (distributors, collecting trays, and droplet lation we did not install the bottom tray, so we
separators) to ensure optimum performance of could match the liquid to the correct side of
the whole system. the reboiler baffle. It required some field
modifications to the trays.
The challenges are in detail:
Christian: Depending on the size, installations
 Maximum capacity, especially for Revamps can be huge and complex projects that re-
 turn down ratio/flexibility, quire detailed planning and project manage-
ment. Manpower, equipment, and hardware
 consideration of fouling, foaming, etc. need to be at the right place at the right time,
where applicable boxes need to be clearly labelled, etc.
Sounds easy, but often creates problems.
 Minimization of droplet entrainment at high
capacity At the same time there is a trend to reduce
costs by using low-wage contract workers,
A topic that is often underestimated is the indi- vessels manufactured in low-cost countries,
vidual mechanical design of the hardware, es- etc.
pecially in revamp cases. A knowledgeable
mechanical design engineer can minimize in- This result, for example, in much larger than
stallation time with tailor-made, innovative me- usual column tolerances. In the last few
chanical designs. The use of existing weld-in years, we have developed (or had to develop)
parts and support rings and adapting the hard- a variety of “adapters” and modification solu-
ware design to the individual scenario can tions to adjust hardware to accommodate un-
avoid or at least reduce cutting and welding in level support rings and large deviations from
the column. roundness tolerances.
One trend we currently see in hardware design It has also proven very successful to include
is that higher investment is accepted if the op- us, your hardware supplier, in vessel inspec-
erating cost of the plant can be reduced, e.g., tions at the column manufacturer’s workshop
by installing more trays and reducing reflux. before delivery on site. We are able to make
detailed documentation of the real dimen-
4. DESCRIBE THE CHALLENGES IN IN- sions. This helps to reduce errors and instal-
STALLATION. lation time on site.
Andrew: The biggest challenge in installation is 5. DESCRIBE THE CHALLENGES IN COM-
attention to detail. Installation is often done by MISSIONING.
contract workers who may have little experi-
ence in the field. The company involved is of- Andrew: Specific services may create unique
ten the lowest-cost bidder. The inspecting problems at startup, but the biggest single
 8

issue in many services is bottoms level control. (I was the day shift engineer who complained
The problem tends to be worse in towers with about the performance of the night shift engi-
trays. Level spans on tower bottoms are typi- neer, who was not my friend. The unit man-
cally set by operational control ranges or by ager took me outside of the control room
inventory requirements for downstream pro- where I honestly thought that he was going to
cesses or equipment (such as pumps). Rarely, punch me or tell me to shut up or both. In-
if ever, does liquid inventory in the level range stead, he told me that he had been afraid that
take into account the liquid inventory on trays the night shift senior engineer was going to
or packing. As vapor rates rise, liquid inventory lead the start-up astray. He thanked me for
builds up on trays, reducing the liquid flow to my future patience. He hinted that the night
the tower bottoms. Control response is to ei- shift engineer was soon going to be “a gon-
ther reduce bottoms product rate or to allow er.”)
liquid level to drop. If vapor rate drops during
startup, trays lose liquid to the bottoms. This Karl: One of the commissioning challenges is
creates a sudden increase in bottoms rate or that pumps need to run at least 60 to 70%
bottoms level, similar to inverse response. percent of design and many feed pumps do
not have minimum flow loops. Therefore, the
If the bottoms liquid level span is too small, the feed to the tower goes from 0 to 60% quickly.
sudden liquid level changes can cause the When I design a feed loop I consider this and
control range to drop to zero or rise to over try to plan for this start up issue. Having a
100 in noticeably short periods. I have seen larger feed pipe and feed internals might be a
some towers with many trays in which the con- good idea.
trol range on the bottoms liquid inventory was
as low as 25% of the tray liquid inventory. 6. DISCUSS YOUR MOST DIFFICULT
TOWER TROUBLESHOOTING.
Low liquid level has the potential to damage
downstream equipment such as pumps or fired Mike:
heaters. High liquid level can cause the reboil- A. Alongside other engineers, I visited a cer-
er return to massively entrain liquid up the tow- tain liquid-liquid extractor 6 times over a 2-
er. The massive entrainment can knock trays year period. Its capacity was lower-than-
out or cause other damage. expected by 20%. Our team could not figure
out what was wrong? Eventually, we provid-
Startup is a busy time. Many control loops are ed a new extractor that had 20% more cross-
set to manual, and operators cannot monitor sectional area than the original extractor.
everything closely all the time. They tend to That new extractor worked well.
keep liquid levels high to protect downstream
equipment. When an upset happens, a sudden In a liquid-liquid extractor, there is a down-
additional increase in liquid level damages the ward liquid velocity and an upward liquid ve-
internals of the tower. In my experience across locity. In reviewing the pilot data, the correla-
all distillation towers, this is one of the most tions were based on hole velocities and not
common causes of equipment damage during cross sectional tower area velocity, therefore
startup. the scale up was not correctly predicted. We
corrected the correlations.
Mike: Technician/engineer shift changes often
bring different start-up philosophies and com- B. I climbed the outside of a tower on a cold
munications between the shifts are often too and snowy night to read some gauges at the
incomplete. top of the tower. All of the vertical ladders
were surrounded by cages. I wore all appro-
There was a unit start-up where a senior engi- priate safety gear. When I shined my flash-
neer on the night shift had his own philosophy light at one particular pressure gauge, a
regarding how the new unit should operate. “black thing” came flying and screeching at
His instructions to the operators differed very my head. I fell several feet until my groin im-
significantly from those that were given to the pacted one of the cage’s horizontal support
day shift operators. The unit operation went struts. I did not know that during the previ-
very astray. Two days were lost getting the ous 24 hours, a crow had decided to build a
start-up back on track. Because of his actions, nest behind the subject pressure gauge. To
the senior engineer was fired after the unit fi- this day, I “hate” crows.
nally reached equilibrium.
 9

C. A liquid-liquid extractor was experiencing In VCFC (Figure 1) the hydraulic gradient on

an abnormally high pressure drop. The top the tray induces preferential rise of vapor
manhole was opened, and a flashlight re- near the outlet and middle of the tray and
vealed that the top two trays appeared to be forms a vapor-deficient region near the inlet
“good as new.” When we entered the tower, to the tray. The high vapor velocities near the
the trays crumbled beneath our feet. Acids tray outlet step up entrainment, while the low
had made the trays paper thin. The trays in vapor velocities near the tray inlet induce
the bottom of the tower proved to be plugged weeping. Interaction between adjacent trays
with the by-products of the acid attacks. (Figure 1) accelerates both the outlet entrain-
ment and the inlet weeping. The result is ex-
Karl: We simulated and designed a tower for a cessive entrainment and premature flooding
Thailand Chemical Plant. We put more than at the tray middle and outlet, simultaneous
adequate safety in the design. Tower was with weeping from the tray inlet, accompanied
then built and erected. Tower was commis- by a loss of efficiency and turndown. The the-
sioned, would make design capacity, but ory was that increasing the tray open area on
would not make design purities. For the next the trays led to the onset of VCFC and conse-
three days we tried every combination of tem- quent premature flooding on the trays.
perature, pressures and flows to achieve the
design purity. It was a very difficult three days. The challenge was to test this theory. Gam-
ma scanning was the most promising tech-
I then choose to reinspect the tower, the nique, but no one had experience with apply-
startup seemed smooth, but we may have ing gamma scans for diagnosing VCFC, nor
damaged some trays in commissioning, and an idea how to do it. So, it was decided to
we started planning to shut down the tower. brainstorm together with Tru-Tec who had
The tower bottoms was the one with the purity extensive gamma scanning expertise. Under-
and there was a feed / bottoms heat exchang- standing the challenge, Tru-Tec lined up their
er. We decided before we shut the tower three top experts, and together with the cli-
down to sample the bottoms before the heat ent’s top experts and the author met in Tru-
exchanger. It was on test. The feed / bottoms Tec LaPorte’s office. The meeting started
heat exchanger was leaking. We repair the about 3 PM, lasted for a few tedious hours. A
heat exchanger and tower pass the perfor- lot of ideas and stimulating brainstorming
mance test. were tossed around, but no breakthroughs.
Henry: Copyright © by Henry Z. Kister, reprint- People began to wonder if any resolution will
ed by permission. come out.

In 1988, I was leading a team troubleshooting Just then, one of the Tru-Tec experts spoke.
a chemical tower that was revamped to “Looks like we have brainstormed for a few
achieve a small increase in capacity (0%-4%) hours and got nowhere. Maybe we are doing
by increasing the trays hole areas from 8.5% it all wrong. So, let me suggest another way”.
to 13% of the active area. In addition, radiuses Then he continued “Not far from here there is
were added at the bottom of the downcomers an excellent Mexican Restaurant called Don
to smoothen exit of liquid and reduce down- Key. They have fabulous food, but what is
comer backup. Strangely, instead of gaining more important, is they have an excellent
capacity, it lost 5% capacity. beverage called Donkarita. It is similar to
Margarita, except that it kicks like a donkey.
Before 1992, the mechanism of vapor cross After one or two of these, we may get more
flow channeling (VCFC, Kister, H. Z., K. F. Lar- creative and come up with a winning idea”.
son, and P. E. Madsen “Vapor Cross Flow His motion was unanimously and enthusiasti-
Channeling on Sieve Trays: Fact or Myth?” cally accepted. Not only did we enjoy a deli-
Chem. Eng. Prog., November 1992) on sieve cious meal and donkaritas, but we left with a
and valve trays was not recognized by the in- plan that everyone was happy with – and laid
dustry. I inquired around, and everyone was the foundations to the quantitative scanning
telling me that the capacity reduction should that is used to troubleshoot channeling until
not have happened. There was one lead, as today (Kister, H. Z., “Use Quantitative Gam-
yet considered unlikely, that suggested that ma Scans to Troubleshoot Maldistribution on
VCFC could be taking place, a mechanism Trays”, Chem. Eng. Progr., February 2013).
well-known in bubble-cap trays. Good trouble-
shooting investigations follow all leads, likely
or unlikely. So, I did.
 10

Figure 1. Vapor cross flow channeling modifications were made to tower auxiliaries
that permitted raising tower pressure. With
The winning idea was to scan three different VCFC inducing a premature entrainment
chords along the flow path length both under flood, raising tower pressure reinstated the
flooded and unflooded conditions, and to apply lost capacity. Prior to the modifications, rais-
quantitative analysis to derive froth heights, ing the pressure did not improve capacity be-
froth densities, and liquid heads. From the liq- cause the trays were bottlenecked simultane-
uid heads hydraulic gradients can be inferred. ously by downcomer backup (which was
The details are described in the above refer- debottlenecked by adding the downcomer
ence. The results are shown on Figure 2. In radiuses) and by entrainment flood.
Figure 2, all the tray dimensions are drawn to
scale. Tray liquid head values derived from The takeaway, when dealing with a challeng-
quantitative analysis of gamma scans are plot- ing problem, a change of environment from a
ted so that a liquid head of half the tray spac- four-wall meeting room to a more pleasant
ing is plotted as a point on the tray above. Ze- surrounding may help usher in a creative so-
ro liquid head is plotted as a point on the tray lution.
floor.
Christian: In the beginning, it is often very dif-
In the unflooded scans (Figure 2a), hydraulic ficult to get a complete picture of the situa-
liquid gradients are flat or slight, sloping from tion, especially if you are not on site. If this is
tray inlet to outlet. Upon flood initiation (Figure not possible, a detailed discussion with engi-
2b), the hydraulic liquid gradients on the odd neers and operators is often very helpful to
trays become very steep, especially between get more insight. Photos can also be invalua-
the middle and outlet. The even trays (trays 2, ble.
4, and 6), show large uniform hydraulic gradi-
ents stretching from inlet to outlet at flood initi- Expect the unexpected. I have seen lost
ation. shoes and helmets inside columns, but also
undetected problems with measurements can
This intensification of the hydraulic gradients be challenging.
strongly supported VCFC as the root cause of
the observed premature flood. From an unlike-
ly hypothesis, VCFC became the leading theo-
ry. Based on this diagnosis, minor
 11

A B

Figure 2. Clear liquid heights derived from in the late 1800s and early 1900s were built
three gamma scan chords along the flow path without reflux. They depended upon heat loss
length plotted on a to-scale column sketch. to provide the internal liquid in the tower. For
Tray liquid head values derived from quantita- an example, look at the Roger’s still in his
tive analysis of gamma scans are plotted so 1871 patent. The top section of the tower
that a liquid head of half the tray spacing is gets all its reflux from heat loss.)
plotted as a point on the tray above. Zero liq-
uid head is plotted as a point on the tray floor. The unit requiring troubleshooting was built in
Hydraulic gradients can be inferred from the the 1950s and converted to its current use in
diagram (a) Unflooded (b) Flooded. the 1980s. While it was older, it was not that
old. It should have had reflux.
7. DISCUSS YOUR MOST UNUSUAL TOW-
ER TROUBLESHOOTING FINDING? Adding a reflux line, modifying the internals in
the top of the tower to handle that reflux, and
Andrew: On one troubleshooting assignment, I adding flow control led to substantially im-
received P&IDs the day before the plant visit. proved separation, to the amazement (and
The service was a specialty product made in satisfaction) of the plant.
an exceptionally large batch distillation column
that operated at deep vacuum (<1 mmHg, Mike: In one troubleshoot in Asia, new hard-
<0.133 kPa). After some time looking at the ware was being employed in a tower to in-
P&IDs I was completely stunned. They were crease the tower’s capacity. Shortly after
so odd I took them to a colleague to verify I start-up, the Asian company complained that
was reading them correctly. The next day in the tower was not working. After flying imme-
the field I confirmed the P&IDs were accurate. diately to Asia and when I arrived at the plant,
The column had no reflux. In fact, the reflux I determined that the customer had never
line did not exist at all. even tried to increase the feed rate to the
new feed rate. With me present, they raised
(Years later I learned that some industrial units the feed rate and the tower performed well.
 12

Karl: There are many great stories in the in- flowed over the cooling tower, the pump was
dustry of unusual tower troubleshooting. pumping with a discharge pressure close to
design. As the process side was not commis-
A. A new small packed column would not sioned yet, no heat was exchanged.
meet specifications. The tower was shut down
and an inspector was brought in to inspect the While taking a walk to closely watch the sys-
column. The small amount to random packing tem, I noticed the cooling water flowmeter
was delivered in kitchen sized garbage bags. (Figure 3, the flowmeter was in a horizontal
The installation team had carefully installed section of pipe, with ample pipe diameters
each garbage bag of packing inside the col- before and after to give a reliable reading)
umn. The inspector instructed the team to reading zero. The dial was actually hitting the
take out the garbage bags and just install the stop pin below the zero mark. I called the
packing in the column. The column then met plant instrument foreman, who checked the
specifications. transmitter.

B. A Low Pressure DeMethanizer was up- “This worthless transmitter is kaput.” He said
graded with a larger new stainless steel reboil- (using another word for “kaput”). All that Engi-
er. When welding stainless steel there is an neering have been giving us in this plant is
argon gas blanket requirement. The welders junk (again, using another word for “junk”).
will install plugs to reduce the amount of argon Why don’t you tell Engineering to provide us
gas required. Welding was completed and unit with instruments that work?”
commissioned but reboiler would not function
properly. This statement was true. Many of the instru-
ments that were supplied were inoperative. I
Tower was shut down and inspected. Welders passed the message to Alan, the Engineering
did not remove the plugs as required. Plugs instrument engineer.
were removed, tower recommissioned and
then functioned properly. “Again? Our apologies. Let me look into it”

Henry: Copyright © by Henry Z. Kister, reprint- A couple of hours later he returned.

ed by permission.
“I checked the transmitter. There is nothing
As a Startup Superintendent at ICI Australia in wrong with it. It works”.
the late 1970’s, I was in charge of starting up a
“So why is it reading zero? The pump is
new unit in the Olefins plant that produced pol-
pumping flat out, the water flowing, and had
ymer grade propylene. The main equipment
the transmitter been any good, it would not
was a C3 splitter column, which at the time
read zero”.
was the biggest tower in Australia, is in opera-
tion until today, and can be seen as one lands “Are you sure your cooling water is not going
in Sydney airport. The auxiliaries were a re- backwards?” he said.
boiler heated by waste heat from the olefins
quench water system, a water-cooled conden- I almost choked, then stared right at him.
ser, and a reflux drum. Due to the very high
cooling load, a new cooling water system was “Alan, if anybody else came up with this non-
added to service the new unit alone, mostly sense, I would have thrown him out of this
the C3 splitter condenser. The cooling tower door. But in your case, I have a lot of respect
was some distance away from the unit, and for your expertise, which incidentally, with this
the large cooling water pipes were mostly un- kind of comments I am about to lose. But just
derground to avoid the need of a pipe rack. for old times’ sake, I will get this nonsense
The equipment was installed, and I was in the out of your head”.
process of commissioning and testing the unit, “How?” he asked
well before hydrocarbons were introduced.
“Let’s go”. We climbed up the condenser plat-
The cooling water system startup was smooth form. I pointed at the butterfly valve at the
and uneventful. Everything was fine, water
 13

condenser outlet. “I will shut the valve and I instructed removing the dirt that covered the
open the 1” vent valve (Figure 3). What you underground pipes. Sure enough, there was
will see is a water jet shooting up 30 ft in the an incorrect pipe connection underground
air, which will disprove your nonsense idea”. (Figure 4) that was overlooked by the con-
struction inspectors. As a result, the cooling
“Good deal” he said. water flowed backwards through the conden-
sers and the meter. Being underground, no
I shut the butterfly then opened the vent. A wa-
one suspected. Fortunately, this was identi-
ter jet shot up 30 feet in the air, just like I ex-
fied before hydrocarbons were introduced. It
pected. As I was getting ready to shut the
was the one flow meter and a top notch in-
valve the jet plunged, and plunged, until it
strument engineer that made all the differ-
stopped. I shook my head in disbelief.
ence.
“This is why the needle was hitting the stop
The takeaway, never disbelieve an instru-
pin. It was reading negative and tried to tell us
ment. It may be trying to tell you something.
something”, he said.
You do not need to trust it but listen to it. Al-
I reopened the butterfly, the repeated the test. ways thoroughly check out suspicious read-
Just in case I was dreaming. The same hap- ings.
pened again. It was not a dream.

“I am taking it back, Alan. My respect to your

expertise work has doubled. This is an amaz-
ing catch”. Figure 3. Cooling water system in propylene
purification unit
 14

Figure 4. Cooling water system in propylene the vendor will try to propose their highest
purification unit as installed. profit margin packing, when it is not the best
option for the application.
8. WE HAVE 1ST GENERATION, 2ND GEN-
ERATION AND NOW 3RD GENERATION 1st Generation
RANDOM PACKING. WHAT ARE THE
STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESS OF EACH? Typically, thicker metal of construction lead-
ing to higher crush strength and corrosion
Andrew: Cost drives the selection between resistance. For quench tower that are heat
these packing types. All work well; design and transfer limited, 1st Generation Cascade Mini
operating characteristics of all types are well Rings may be the best choice.
understood. As a general rule, the later the
generation, the higher the capacity or efficien- Later Generations
cy for the same column cross section. There
They typically will be thinner metal of con-
are subtle differences that apply to specific
struction leading to lower crush strength and
cases, but these must be examined on an indi-
corrosion resistance. They will have lower
vidual basis.
pressure drops, but higher capacities and effi-
For an existing column, buy the cheapest that ciencies.
meets your combination of required stages and
Christian: 1st and 2nd Generation Packing
capacity. For a new column, 3rd generation
are more or less industrial standards:
types typically reduce column diameter and
total capital, making them the preferred option - easy to replace,
despite the premium price. However, the de-
sign team should always check. In some situa- - variety of suppliers,
tions that premium price can make the overall
plant more expensive and sway the decision - well-known (implemented in several soft-
towards 1st generation packing. ware packages),

Karl: Like most things in life, there is no one - larger wall thickness (corrosion resistance).
size fits all. Distillation is similar. There is the Disadvantages are normally high pressure
best choice for each application. Many times, drop and low capacity.
 15

3rd or 4th Generation Packing are optimized reached in the performance test run. Even in
for well understood systems performance test
runs can fail.
- low pressure drop,
In polar and foaming systems, the design of
- high capacity and the actual capacity can be challenging.
There have been many failures in foaming
- sufficient mass transfer (compared to 1st or
systems reaching design capacities.
2nd generation type packing with same sur-
face area) by open structures and thin coil ma- 10. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND
terials, resulting in wide operation limits. Dis- DISADVANTAGES TO DIVIDED WALL
advantages are thin material, which is more COLUMNS?
sensitive to corrosion, and higher investments
costs due to difficulty in getting “equivalent” Andrew: The potential advantages of a divid-
products. Typically, these packing types also ed-wall column are lower capital and operat-
provide less holdup. In some rare cases this ing costs. The major disadvantage is that the
might be a problem, such as when the process column is more complex, and both design
asks for higher liquid residence times. and control are more challenging. The entire
possible range of feed and product composi-
9. WHAT ARE SOME OF THE MORE DIFFI- tions must be well understood. The equip-
CULT APPLICATIONS TO DESIGN? ment for controlling the liquid-vapor splits
must be designed to accommodate the spec-
Andrew: Applications that include a mix of
trum of composition and rate ranges. Alterna-
challenging process conditions and device hy-
tively, a design margin can be incorporated to
draulics can be difficult to design. Small errors
deal with feed and product variations. Howev-
in estimates of vapor-liquid equilibrium can
er, allowing for extra reflux or extra boil up will
have large consequences for design or perfor-
reduce the capital and energy savings that
mance of super fractionators (100+ stages re-
made the option attractive in the first place.
quired) or systems requiring extremely high
purities. Reactive distillation can be particularly One other minor disadvantage should be
challenging. Reaction pathways and kinetics mentioned. In a divided-wall column, the total
interact with composition profiles, making it reboiler duty will drop, but the duty at the
difficult to predict holdups that will provide an highest temperature level may go up. This is
effective space velocity. Making changes to because 100% of the reboiler duty is now at
systems with extreme changes in vapor and the equilibrium temperature of the heaviest
liquid rates can be challenging, since different product instead of being split across multiple
equipment designs must be placed in placed in products. In some heat integrated systems
different parts of the column. You need to be this may negate much of the potential energy
able to predict these locations correctly. One savings.
more: when working with exceptionally large
diameter towers, one needs to pay particular Christian: Typical advantages are better ener-
attention to both fluid flow and distribution as gy efficiency and lower investment because
well as the equipment’s structural details. multiple separations are done in one column.
The disadvantages are that control and de-
Mike: The correct efficiencies associated with sign are more complex. As a consequence,
alcohol separations are difficult to ascertain troubleshooting may become more complicat-
and to utilize. Refinery columns often require ed, just because more parameters are in-
numerous transitions, feeds, draws, and side volved.
strippers requiring attention to detail.
11. WHAT ARE SOME OF DISTILLATION
Karl: In a new column one can put in adequate PROCESS CONTROL ISSUES?
safety margins. In revamps, often the safety
margins are challenged. In one C3 Splitter Andrew: The biggest issue in distillation con-
revamp, which is very well understood VLE, trol is interaction between control loops and
the vendor was very aggressive in guarantee- loop delay time. The simplest loops, over-
ing a capacity and the capacity was not head liquid level control and bottoms liquid
 16

level control are typically, but not always, Most control system assembly issues case
straightforward. Beyond that, composition con- histories come from chemicals and olefins/
trols can be overly complex and create the gas towers, where splits are usually much
largest interactions. Controlling composition tighter than between petroleum cuts in refin-
really means controlling the entire composition ery towers. Over half of the reported control
profile throughout the column. However, the system assembly issues stem from violation
composition controls get feedback from only of three basic principles. First, violation of the
one point on a column. As a result, all SISO material balance control principle. Special
(single-input, single-output) control configura- difficulties have been encountered when
tions suffer from loop interaction and lag. It is adopting the material balance control to tow-
possible to set up controls to meet composition ers with side draws. The good practices for
specifications on all product streams. This is this situation were described by Luyben’s
known as two-point control, or two-product classic article ("10 Schemes to Control Distil-
control, and is such a difficult control problem lation Columns with Sidestream Draw offs",
that extremely few industrial units even at- ISA J., 13 (7), p. 37, 1966.). The second is
tempt it. violation of what is known as “Richardson’s
rule” which states “It is not a good idea to
Advanced control logic can reduce control in- control a level on a small stream.” The third is
teraction and delay, but rarely eliminates it. attempting to simultaneously control two com-
Selecting a good basic control configuration positions in a two-product column without de-
greatly eases the task of an advanced control- coupling the interference between them.
ler. At the other extreme, selecting a poor
basic configuration will make the task of an Some case histories address the drawbacks
advanced controller nearly impossible. of some of the common material balance con-
trol schemes. Examples include the slow dy-
Henry: Copyright © by Henry Z. Kister, reprint- namic response of a scheme that controls
ed by permission. tray temperature by manipulating reflux in
large tray towers, or the inverse response ex-
Experience is the best teacher and learning perienced with the scheme that controls the
from the past is the best way for solving to- bottom level by manipulating the reboiler
day’s problems and avoiding tomorrow’s. To steam.
this end, we conducted a survey of the case
studies of malfunctioning towers (Kister, H. Z. Two approaches have been successful in im-
"What Caused Tower Malfunctions in the Last proving control system assembly: the tradi-
50 Years", Trans. IChemE Vol. 81, Part A, p.5, tional approach diagnoses deficiencies and
January 2003). eliminates them by judicious changes to the
control system. The alternative, more modern
This survey was updated in Kister’s book way is to replace the conventional control
“Distillation Troubleshooting”, (John Wiley & scheme by advanced controls, using models
Sons, 2006) and recently the control issue in and statistical process controls.
Kister’s IChemE-sponsored on-line course
“Troubleshooting Distillation Controls” https:// Most of the temperature/composition control
www.kisterdistillationseminars.com or https:// malfunctions come from chemicals and ole-
www.icheme.org/career/training/online. Below fins/gas towers, where splits are usually
is an overview of the prime distillation control much tighter than between petroleum cuts in
issues based on this survey. refinery towers. The major composition con-
trol issue has been correctly identifying the
Our survey put control issues in the 3rd spot on best temperature control tray. Application of
the distillation malfunction list, to be surpassed the excellent method by Tolliver and McCune
only by fouling/plugging and problems in the ("Finding the Optimum Temperature Control
column bottom sump. The prime control issues Trays for Distillation Columns", InTech 27(9),
can be categorized into three classes: control p.75, 1980) has effectively dealt with this is-
system assembly issues, temperature and sue. Still, there are some situations where
composition control issues, and condenser, finding a satisfactory temperature control can
pressure, and reboiler control issues. be elusive. Other key issues have been
achieving successful analyzer control and
A related category is misleading instruments. obtaining adequate pressure compensation
A control system is only as good as its instru- for temperature control. With analyzers, the
mentation. This category is discussed at length main problems have been measurement lags
in “Distillation Troubleshooting” and excluded and on-line time. Modern analyzer controls
here due to space limitations. are often associated with advanced controls
 17

and have grown in significance in recent years. common when the control valve is in the con-
densate lines out of the reboiler. Such control
Two approaches have been successful in im- problems often lead to column capacity limita-
proving temperature and composition controls. tion, hammering, fouling, and corrosion. The
The traditional approach uses solutions such variety of solutions, well-illustrated in
as defining the best temperature control tray “Distillation Troubleshooting”, is a tribute to
and cascading analyzers onto temperature the ingenuity and resourcefulness of engi-
controls. A more modern way is to use virtual neers, supervisors, and operators.
analyzers, based on model calculations from
tower measurements, and using statistical pro- Advanced controls have their own problems.
cess controls. Useful tricks, such as pressure One issue is updating multivariable controls
correction to the temperature, or using an av- (MVC), which can be troublesome when the
erage temperature, have been incorporated process train changes, especially if the MVC
with both approaches. simultaneously optimizes an entire unit rather
than individual towers. Another issue is the
More pressure, condenser and reboiler control response to bad measurements. So far, the
case histories come from refinery than from
number of reported case histories of trouble-
chemical towers. One reason for this is refin-
ers' extensive use of hot vapor bypasses. some advanced controls has been low.
About one third of the reported pressure and 12. WHY ARE SOME CONDENSERS
condenser control case histories are associat- PLACED AT GROUND LEVEL, AND DO
ed with hot vapor bypasses, practically all in YOU RECOMMEND THIS DESIGN?
refineries. There is little doubt that this is po-
tentially the most troublesome pressure control Andrew: Consistent with good equipment de-
method, mostly due to poor configuration of sign and minimizing overall plant cost, there
hot vapor bypass piping, evolving from poor is no problem with having condensers at
understanding of its principles. These princi- ground level. The biggest reason for putting
ples have been detailed in recent papers by
them there is to reduce their capital and
Kister and Hanson (“Control Column Pressure
maintenance costs. Less structure is required
via Hot Vapor Bypass”, Chemical Engineering
Progress, February, p. 35, 2015) and Kister when the condenser is placed close to the
(“Flooded Condensers Controls: Principles and ground. Access for maintenance is easier.
Troubleshooting”, Chemical Engineering, Jan- There is one operational consequence to
uary, p.37, 2016). When configured correctly,
consider. Putting the condenser close to the
our experience is that hot vapor bypasses are
seldom troublesome. ground normally necessitates a vertical rise to
the overhead reflux drum. The drum is in-
Another troublesome pressure/condenser con- stalled at a higher elevation to make the in-
trol is by cooling water throttling. It has induced stallation of pumps cheaper and easier.
low cooling water velocities and high outlet Therefore, the condenser operates at a high-
temperatures, leading to fouling, corrosion, er pressure than the drum because of the
and instability, even boiling of cooling water. static head between them.
This is more of a problem in chemical towers,
when venting an inerts stream from the reflux For most applications with total condensers,
drum requires a temperature control at the the liquid will be sufficiently subcooled to pre-
drum to avoid product loss or product contami- vent vaporization in the line to the reflux
nation. A third issue is low points that accumu- drum. Partial condensers, on the other hand,
late condensate in the pressure-controlled va- may have problems with unstable two-phase
por product lines with the condensate back- flow regimes in the outlet line to the drum.
pressuring the column.
Having a condenser at ground level is not a
Reboiler and preheater controls have been good choice when the higher pressure creat-
troublesome in both refinery, chemical, and ed by the static head increases upstream
olefins/gas towers. Temperature control prob- costs. One such application is a fluid catalytic
lems with preheaters are common, often due cracker (FCC) main fractionator overhead
to disturbances in the heating medium or due system. The extra liquid height can create
to vaporization in the feed lines. Almost all the significant cost or capacity problems for the
reboiler case histories reported involved a la- upstream FCC air blower. On larger, modern
tent-heat heating medium. Hydraulic problems units the air blower is an axial compressor.
such as “stall” are common when the control These compressors have limited head capa-
valve is in the steam/vapor line to the reboiler, bility and small changes in the downstream
while loss of reboiler condensate seal is pressure profile caused by the static head
 18

between the exchanger and the reflux drum Correct piping is mandatory. Liquid leaving
could have large consequences. the condenser is subcooled, and dew point
vapor will collapse onto it causing instability
Henry: Copyright © by Henry Z. Kister, reprint- and hammering. Figure 5a shows a configu-
ed by permission. ration that I have seen more than two dozen
Money and environment. The hot vapor by- times, none of which worked. The bypass va-
pass scheme permits mounting water-cooled por must enter the vapor space of the reflux
total condensers at ground level instead of on drum (Figure 5b) with no previous contact
a platform above the reflux drum. Locating with the subcooled liquid. The bypass must
large cooling water condensers at ground level be free of pockets where liquid can accumu-
eliminates the need for massive condenser late; any horizontal runs should drain into the
support structure and for piping cooling water reflux drum. Most important, liquid from the
to high elevations and provides easy access condenser, as well as any other subcooled
for maintenance. Keep in mind that for a 7- liquid streams like the reflux pump minimum
meters long elevated condenser, a 20-meters flow recycle, must enter the reflux drum near
long platform is needed because the tubes the bottom of the drum (Figure 5b).
need to be pulled out at the turnaround. With Operation is likely to be troublesome if the
the hot vapor bypass scheme and ground-level drum liquid surface is agitated. Agitation may
condensers the piping is simple, the control be due to high-velocity impingement of the
valve is small, the response is fast, and there hot vapor jet on the liquid surface, due to up-
are no concerns about drawing vacuum in the ward-directed subcooled liquid jet reaching
cooling water return pipes at the high eleva- the liquid surface, as well as other causes.
tions. These advantages can translate into Agitation of the liquid surface can be avoided
handsome savings in steelwork, platforms, by judicious baffling (Figure 5b).
trolleys, and maintenance. These savings can
be major in large installations, especially Because of the liquid leg between the con-
where a battery of condensers rather than a denser and the drum, sudden reduction in
single exchanger is used. Further, with the in- drum pressure can rapidly suck the liquid
creasing environmental awareness, the elimi- right out of the condenser, causing a major
nation of the massive platforms, steelwork, upset. There is also the possibility of U-tube
and piping reduces the carbon footprints of the oscillations. Both issues can be mitigated by
plant. adding a throttling valve in the liquid leg be-
tween the condenser and the drum (Figure
As stated in my reply to 11 above, about one 5b).
third of the reported pressure and condenser
control case histories are associated with in- This technique can suffer from interaction be-
correctly configured ground-level condensers tween the drum and the condenser liquid lev-
controlled by hot vapor bypasses, evolving els. To minimize the interaction, the pressure
from poor understanding of its principles. controller should be tuned much tighter than
These principles have been detailed in recent the drum level controller. This can be an is-
papers by Kister and Hanson (“Control Column sue if the reflux drum is small, and the level
Pressure via Hot Vapor Bypass”, Chemical controller needs to be tuned fast to avoid
Engineering Progress, February, p. 35, 2015) overflow or loss of level. This scenario is un-
and Kister (“Flooded Condensers Controls: common; we have encountered this situation
Principles and Troubleshooting”, Chemical En- only once, but another case was reported in
gineering, January, p.37, 2016). When config- the literature.
ured correctly, our experience is that hot vapor
bypasses are seldom troublesome. Figure 5 Because of the liquid leg between the con-
shows samples of incorrectly and correctly- denser and the drum, non-condensables ac-
configured arrangements. Some key consider- cumulate in the condenser and need venting
ations are: from their accumulation points. If a vent line is
absent, instability and capacity bottlenecks
This method is only suitable for total conden- are likely to result.
sers, i.e., no vapor product. It should not be
used for partial condensers, as it depends on Leakage of vapor through the bypass valve at
subcooling. the closed position can substantially reduce
condenser capacity. Under sizing of the by
 19

pass control valve may lead to inability to keep In summary, this method has major cost and
the tower pressure up in cold winter days environmental advantages in large water-
when the drum is not insulated. In some cas- cooled total condensers, and we would highly
es, the reflux drum vapor space may need to recommend it in the correct applications. To
be insulated to minimize interference from rain make it work it is imperative to understand its
and snowstorms. principles and configure it properly. When
configured correctly, our experience is that
We have seen cases when the hot vapor by- ground level condensers with hot vapor by-
pass control valve is manipulated by the drum pass controls are seldom troublesome.
pressure instead of the tower pressure. We do
not recommend this. Dynamically, this control 13. WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES AND
is inferior because the vapor volume in the DISADVANTAGES OF MULTIPLE DOWN-
drum is much smaller than in the tower and COMER TYPE TRAYS?
more variable in response to ambient changes.
Andrew: I will only address generic trays with
There are other less common issues described multiple downcomers here, not specialized
in the cited articles above. designs used in proprietary tray configura-
tions.
A
Trays with multiple flow paths add extra
downcomers to extend the weir length and
reduce liquid load per length of weir. This re-
duces tray pressure drop and is the most im-
portant reason for using them—their ability to
handle high liquid loads. The reduced pres-
sure drop also increases their vapor handling
capacity.
The main disadvantage of multiple-pass trays
is that they increase the minimum liquid rate
as well. Blowing, which reduces efficiency,
can occur at low liquid rates. As weir length
increases, so does the liquid rate at which
blowing starts. Multiple-pass trays generally
have less capacity range than single-pass
B trays.
Two-pass trays are relatively straightforward
to understand and design. Trays with three
passes or more include non-symmetrical sec-
tions, requiring a more detailed understand-
ing of hydraulics to get constant vapor-to-
liquid ratios in all sections. Design and analy-
sis of trays with three or more passes should
be left to specialists.
Multiple-pass trays are also used to reduce
the flow path length across the tray. However,
if the only purpose is to reduce flow path
length, a stepped tray with an intermediate
weir is often more effective.
Figure 5. Hot vapor bypass controls with Mike: Multiple downcomer type trays have
ground-level condensers (a) Incorrect arrange- been employed very successfully for over 50
ment, hot bypass vapor collapsing onto sub- years in many applications and at exception-
cooled liquid, leads to instability, poor control, ally large diameters. Efficiencies are some-
hammering (b) Correct arrangement, vapor times slightly less than with crossflow trays.
going to vapor, liquid to liquid, no contact be- Multiple downcomer trays employ significantly
tween hot vapor and subcooled liquid. more metal and therefore cost more. Their
capacities, however, are often 20% higher
 20

Karl: The challenge of these types of trays is trays can be placed at tighter spacing and
estimating the correct efficiencies. They can still give substantial capacity gains. Alter-
be at least 10% less efficient due to the low natively, the tray spacing can be opti-
path flow length. But they can be installed on mized to give more capacity, more stag-
lower tray spacing and end up with higher es, or both.
overall tower efficiency, with the advantage of
higher capacity. Rarely do you get higher ca- 2. The small holes make such trays prone to
pacity and efficiency. plugging. Such trays are not a good appli-
cation for fouling services.
Henry: Copyright © by Henry Z. Kister, reprint-
ed by permission. 3. There are some troubleshooting issues
with multiple downcomer trays, mostly at
These are excellent high-capacity trays for the lower pressures (< 10 barg). Since the
correct applications. Their capacity enhance- downcomers have no static seals, they
ment is a result of three factors: are prone to vapor to breaking in
(“blowby”). In addition, with the large num-
1. The addition of downcomers increases ber of downcomers, metering the correct
weir lengths, thus lowering the weir loads amount of liquid to the various panels be-
(the weir load is the quantity of liquid flow- comes an issue, and can lead to maldistri-
ing per unit weir length). This shifts the op- bution and dry regions. Dry regions often
erating point to the left on Figure 6. Towers lead to or aggravate blowby issues. Good
that have high weir loads with conventional initial liquid distribution is critical, and we
trays (especially > 80 m3/h/m of outlet have seen problems with feed and reflux
weir) can significantly gain capacity by the entry. These troubleshooting issues can
additional weir length. The designs usually cause large reductions in tray efficiency,
aim at bringing the towers to the maximum forcing operator to use excess reflux and
region (20-30 m3/h/m of outlet weir). Tow- reboil, and often run into a capacity limit.
ers that operate at low weir loads (< 50 These issues are discussed with tips on
m3/h/m of outlet weir) have little to gain how they can be diagnosed using gamma
from this type of trays. scans in Kister’s article (“Gamma Scan
2. These trays use truncated downcomers, Quantitative Analysis Can Diagnose and
terminating just over about halfway through Mitigate Channeling in High-Capacity
the tray spacing. Liquid issues from holes Trays with Truncated Downcomers”,
or slots at the bottom of these downcom- Chem. Eng. Progr., April, p. 45, 2013).
ers. This allows perforating what normally 4. Due to the ease of losing the downcomer
would be the dead seal areas under the seal, the turndown of multiple downcomer
downcomers and gains active area. trays is relatively low, typically about 1.5,
3. These trays usually use small perforations, compared to 2 for sieve trays, 2.5 for fixed
typically 5 mm, and seldom more than 7. valves, and 4-5 for moving valve trays.
Smaller holes gain capacity, with 5 mm 5. Multiple downcomer trays are very difficult
holes typically giving 7% higher capacity to inspect at the turnaround. This again
compared to 13 mm holes at weir loads of emphasizes the need to avoid them in
20-30 m3/h/m of outlet weir. fouling services. When metallurgists need
4. The capacity can be further enhanced by to inspect the tower wall for corrosion at
incorporating slots that impart a forward turnarounds, this can be prohibitive.
push to the liquid, together with anti-jump 6. They are expensive, especially when
baffles that catch this liquid and divert it there is a need to change tray spacing,
into the downcomers. which may require special techniques to
The disadvantages of these trays are: avoid or minimize welding to the tower
shell. For a new tower, the expense can
1. The additional downcomers reduce the be offset by reducing column height or
flow path length, which lowers tray efficien- diameter.
cy. The efficiency of this type of tray is typi-
cally of the order of 10% less than conven- 7. Multiple downcomer type trays are far
tional trays. This would normally mean a more sensitive to out-of-levelness than
stage loss; however, the capacity gains are conventional trays. Many towers have ex-
so high, that the multi downcomer type perienced severe efficiency loss because
 21

the trays were not installed level to the tight tray was blocking liquid flow appreciably.
vendor specs. Sticking to these specs can be Once the tower was idled and entered, the
challenging in tall towers, especially during engineers found that a tower revamp crew
windy conditions when the tower sways, and had left a vacuum cleaner (yes, a vacuum
waiting for the wind to drop may prolong the cleaner) in one of the tray’s downcomers.
turnaround.
Karl: The tower should be scanned it the tow-
er is have challenges. If a tower is having
challenges the simple checks should be per-
formed first. Confirm the levels, take a tem-
perature profile, and pressure profile. These
simple checks will then lead to an answer of
when a tower should be scanned.
Henry: Copyright © by Henry Z. Kister, re-
printed by permission.
Commercial gamma scanning has been suc-
cessfully applied to troubleshoot tens of thou-
sands of towers for over five decades. Scan
data have traditionally been interpreted by
visual examination of the scans to detect
Figure 6. A typical tray capacity diagram, va- changes or trends in entrainment, froth (or
por (V) versus liquid (L), with the liquid load spray) heights, and liquid holdup.
expressed as weir loads (liquid flow rate, m3/h, Most gamma scan applications are qualita-
divided by outlet weir length, m). The upper tive, even many of those that may claim to be
curve is a typical jet flood curve, slightly steep- quantitative. Qualitative gamma scans can
er than in reality to illustrate the principle. The readily detect gross abnormalities such as
diagram shows a maximum vapor-handling flooding, missing trays, collapsed trays, ex-
capacity at a weir load of 2-3 gpm/in (20-30 cessive liquid level in the bottom sump, or
m3/h /m of weir length) . heavy foaming. This technique can also help
Christian diagnose a flood mechanism and shed light
on more subtle abnormalities such as high or
First of all, we have to distinguish between low tray loadings, excessive entrainment, ex-
multi-pass or multi downcomer trays. Both de- cessive weeping, blockage, and multipass
signs have their application in columns with liquid maldistribution. Gamma scans per-
high liquid loads. Multi pass type trays, like 2 , formed on a routine basis can also be used to
4 or 6 pass trays, deliver a stable efficiency, monitor deterioration in column performance
when properly designed. Some have a report- due to fouling, corrosion, and other factors.
edly lower efficiency due to reduced flow path
length and different liquid guiding on the tray In packed towers, a “grid” of four equal
panels. Furthermore, all of them come with a chords is often shot (Figure 7), one chord af-
dynamically sealed downcomer, which limits ter the other. For each chord, the source and
the operating range of the tray. If not properly detector are moved simultaneously down the
designed, this tray type shows a high risk of bed, taking shots every 2 to 4 inches. This
gas by passing. Additionally, some of them do “grid” gamma scan looks for maldistribution
not have a manway, which excludes the possi- and channeling, which is by far the main
bility of inspection during turnarounds or for cause of packed tower efficiency loss. When
trouble shooting. liquid distribution is good the four chords give
the same detector readings. Differences be-
14. WHEN SHOULD TOWER SCANNING BE tween the chords are interpreted as bed mal-
UTILIZED? distribution.
Mike: The best reason to scan is when liquid Judicious setting of the chords can also pro-
cannot get down the tower. Several years ago, vide a measurement of liquid height and
a paper was given at a Chicago Engineering frothiness in collectors, parting boxes, and
Conference describing a trayed tower that was distributors, and identify trough or pan over-
having capacity problems. Gamma scanning flows or level unevenness causing liquid
showed that one downcomer on one particular
 22

maldistribution or premature floods. Overflows detectors right across at strategically-placed

and plugging (which too will cause overflows) locations along the column shell. Starting in
were identified as major troubleshooting issues the unflooded condition, the rates (reflux,
in packed towers (Kister’s book “Distillation boilup, feed, or whatever variable is studied)
Troubleshooting”, John Wiley & Sons, 2006)). are raised until the amount of radiation trans-
mitted sharply falls in one of the vapor spac-
In addition, grid scans can normally detect the es, indicating liquid accumulation and there-
position of the bed, the disappearance of some fore flooding. Stationary monitoring can diag-
of the packings (e.g., by being corroded away), nose where the flooding starts, calibrate liquid
significant blockages and local flooded re- level instruments, detect entrainment, and
gions. overflow from packing distributors, and detect
floods due to high bottoms level. Stationary
monitoring is also valuable for accurately de-
termining the flood rates, permitting engi-
neers and operators devise a strategy for
pushing the tower to its limits or revamping.
Gamma scans can detect plugging, presence
of vapor in liquid lines, and presence of en-
trained liquid in vapor lines. This technique
can give reliable quantitative numbers when
performed properly.
Capacity-enhancing features of high-capacity
trays such as push valves, truncated down-
comers, and multiple downcomers, bring with
them unique troubleshooting challenges. Ex-
cessive forward push may generate exces-
sive froth gradients, truncated downcomers
do not have a static liquid seal, which may
permit vapor passage up the downcomers
(“blowby”), and multiple downcomers lead to
non-symmetrical active areas which may pro-
Figure 7. Packed tower grid scan mote channeling and maldistribution. These
are difficult, often impossible, to diagnose us-
In CAT (Computer Aided Tomography) scans, ing conventional troubleshooting techniques
a gamma scan source is placed, and a number such as vendor software, ΔP measurement,
of detectors (typically about nine) are set and qualitative gamma scans. Judicious multi
around the bed at evenly spread marked radial -chordal gamma scans with quantitative anal-
positions, all at the same elevation. Once ysis (Kister, H. Z., “Use Quantitative Gamma
done, the source is moved to the position of Scans to Troubleshoot Maldistribution on
the nearest detector, the detector to the posi- Trays”, Chem. Eng. Progr., February, p.33,
tion of the source, and the scan is repeated. and April, p.45, 2013) is the best tool for diag-
This continues until the source is placed in all nosing these issues. With this technique, sev-
the radial positions around the bed. The pro- eral parallel chords are shot along the flow
files obtained are then integrated to give the path (Figure 2). Froth heights, froth densities,
two-dimensional absorption density profile, liquid heads, and entrainment index data are
which identifies liquid-rich regions (high densi- determined for each tray at each chord and
ty) and drier regions (low density). The CAT are plotted to-scale on a tray diagram. From
scan can be repeated at additional elevations these plots, channeling patterns can be in-
along the bed, but this runs up the costs. This ferred.
technique is used primarily to identify the na-
ture of maldistribution in packed beds. It is also Recently, Tracerco introduced quantitative
invaluable in showing a center-to-periphery packed tower gamma scans. The liquid
liquid maldistribution that grid scans cannot holdup of the packing is calculated as the dif-
identify. ference between the density inferred from the
scan and the dry packing density available
Stationary monitoring (“time studies”) places a from the packing vendor. A large difference
number of stationary gamma ray sources with between the two indicates that there could be
 23

some liquid accumulation or solids there, sug- Karl: Most pumps and compressor have a
gesting flooding or plugging. This type of scan minimum flow of 60%. Rarely is a plant run-
is effective for evaluating the extent of maldis- ning less than 60% due to these constraints.
tribution and bed plugging. But I have seen design jet flood designed at
30% - at the normal design unit rate, which
Christian: Tower scanning gives you more in- leads to low tray pressure drop and low tray
formation about distribution of the liquid inside efficiency. I prefer to design jet flood 50% or
the column during operation. Also “dislocated” higher. Jet flood can go to 110% without los-
internals/trays can be detected. Typically, it ing efficiency, if you have good down comer
can help to locate the problem and also to capacity – so at 50% you still have 60% safe-
make assumptions about possible options to ty factor. Many operating companies still re-
solve the problem. However, it does not usual- quire downturn of 33% and vendors are re-
ly allow for solutions without opening the col- quired to meet this requirement even though
umn. So, you have to decide whether it makes the plant will almost never be running at 33%.
sense to scan the column or to directly open it.
Christian: Typical turn down ratios for pack-
15. WHAT IS A GOOD TURN DOWN PER- ings are:
CENTAGE TO KEEP GOOD EFFICIENCY?
•1st and 2nd Generation Packing: 1 : 3
Andrew: Most specifications arbitrarily call for
a turndown to 50% of maximum capacity. •3rd and 4th Generation Packing (RMSR/
RMXR): 1 : 4
Packing has an exceptionally large capacity
range and turndown is usually not a problem. •Structured metal Packing (RVT RMP
The challenge in packed towers lies with the 250):1:6
liquid distributors. Most liquid distributors
should perform well from 100% to 50% of rate. For random and structured packing, the “turn
The range can be extended by using more down ratio” may not be the proper design cri-
complex, more expensive, and larger equip- teria. It is more useful to discuss minimum
ment. Even so, it is unusual to see a liquid dis- and maximum gas factors and liquid loads.
tributor with a realistic operating range wider Limitations are normally fixed by the tower
than 33% to 100%. Pushing a gravity distribu- internals, mainly liquid distributors and col-
tor to operate below its minimum reasonable lecting trays which have lower operation
flow rate leads to a gradual, but accelerating, ranges than packing media.
drop in performance. Exceeding maximum Typical turndown rates for trays are:
rates tends to result in a rapid performance
drop. For pressure-spray distributors the •Movable Valve trays (e.g., V1): 1 : 4-5
trends are reversed.
•Sieve and fixed valve trays: 1 : 2-3
As for trays, most single pass trays will oper-
We are always working to improve product
ate reasonably well in the 33-100% range.
performance. For example, our MRV Fixed
This is true of sieve trays as well as valve
Valve Tray shows good and constant efficien-
trays. The more tray passes, the smaller the
cy over a wide operating range of 1 : 4, com-
turndown range. Special high-capacity trays
pared to the typical operating range of 1:2-3
with dynamically sealed downcomers may
for standard fixed valve trays (FRI test unit,
have reduced operating ranges for the liquid
total reflux).
rate. Special designs can accommodate much
larger turndown ranges. Trays with ranges of Besides that, there are special tray designs
10% to 100% can be built, but the required that show much higher turndown ratios (e.g.,
features normally lead to higher tray pressure bubble cup trays) but have other disad-
drops and either lower capacity for the diame- vantages (cost, pressure drop). Dual flow
ter or higher tray spacing. trays are used in some special applications;
they only have a very low turndown ratio.
Mike: Plant operators can select any turndown
percentage that they truly need. Tray design-
ers can adjust the tray design to accommodate
those needs. Here is an extreme example: If
a trayed tower needs to be turned down to 1%
of full rates, that tower can indeed achieve
good efficiencies as such rates - as long as
the tray spacings are 100 inches.
 24

Kister Sloley Geipel Resetarits Kolmetz

ABOUT THE AUTHORS After receiving BS and MS degrees in chemi-

cal engineering, Mr. Mike Resetarits’ career
Henry Z. Kister is a Fluor Corporation Senior began in 1974, at Union Carbide Corpora-
Fellow and Director of Fractionation Technolo- tion. While there, Mike worked on the devel-
gy, with a vast background in all phases of dis- opment of the MD distillation tray and the MU
tillation, including operation, troubleshooting liquid-liquid extraction tray. The ECMD tray
controls, design, and start-up. At Fluor, Henry was invented with Dr. Mike Lockett. Several
designs, revamps and advises on distillation Union Carbide businesses were acquired by
processes, equipment and controls for the UOP in 1988, at which point Mike became a
chemical, petrochemical and oil industries. He UOP R&D Manager. In 1999, Mike joined
is Fluor's representative to the FRI Technical Koch-Glitsch as their R&D Director and later
Advisory and Design Practices Committees, is as their Global Tray Product Manager. Mike
a Fellow of AIChE and IChemE, and is a mem- helped to lead the development efforts asso-
ber of the US Academy of Engineering. Henry ciated with Ultra-Frac trays and Flexipac HC
is the author of three distillation textbooks, structured packing. Mike spent appreciable
over 120 technical articles, and has presented time in the field, running pilot plant tests,
this course over 530 times in public and for starting units, performing troubleshooting
major corporations in 26 countries on all six work and collecting data. He is coauthor of
continents. 17 patents and over 60 presentations and
Andrew W. Sloley is a Principal Consultant at articles.
Advisian. His current responsibilities include Karl Kolmetz is a Senior Technical Engineer-
consulting, conceptual design, and front-end ing Professional / Senior Manager at KLM
design for the refining and petrochemical in- Technology Group. He is the Editor for Engi-
dustries. His experience includes detailed pro- neering Practice Magazine and the Handbook
cess and mechanical design and troubleshoot- of Process Equipment Design. He has au-
ing for distillation systems. Previously he thored more than 140 publications on a varie-
worked at Exxon Chemicals, Glitsch, PCS, ty of subjects for product recovery, trouble-
The Distillation Group, and CH2M HILL. His shooting, training, project management, pro-
specialty is the area of distillation, product re- cess design, process safety management
covery, and heat integration. This has included and simulation with safety and environmental
conventional distillation, extractive distillation, focus. His research interest focuses on how
liquid-liquid extraction, and complex heat- to apply the fundamentals of engineering to
integrated processes in the refining, petro- practical applications. The Handbook of Pro-
chemicals, and chemicals industries. cess Equipment Design has over 100 chap-
Christian Geipel received his Master’s in Me- ters on a variety of process equipment includ-
chanical and Process Engineering from TU ing, line sizing, pumps, compressors, relief
Darmstadt/Germany in 2000 followed by his valve, flares, separators, distillation and oth-
PhD in thermodynamics from TU Darmstadt/ ers. Karl is a Certified Practicing Engineer
Germany (Prof. Stephan) in 2006. From 2004- (CPE) from the International Association of
2013 he held various positions in the field of Certified Practicing Engineers
thermodynamics and process design for AUDI (www.iapce.com).
and LINDE ENGINEERING in Germany. Since
2013, he has been one of the managing direc-
tors of RVT Process Equipment GmbH.
25
 26

Catalysts | Heart of Hydroprocessing Units

Rajesh Sivadasan

INTRODUCTION CATALYSTS
Refining industry is going through many chal- Catalysts are materials which when added to
lenges. Chief among them being the use of a chemical reaction increases the rate or the
technologies and catalysts which reduces the speed at which the reaction is occurring. Eve-
carbon footprint of products they produce while ry reaction proceeds via a path/mechanism
at the same time raising the performance of called the reaction mechanism with a particu-
products. lar activation energy associated with it. This
activation energy is the minimum amount of
With increasing frequency, refiners driven by energy required to take the reactants to the
economics, are processing heavier and more condition in which they will start reacting with
difficult crudes, while at the same time have to each other to carry out the chemical reaction.
meet the increasingly stringent product specifi- If this amount of energy is not available, no
cations. Attaining these goals require altera- reaction will happen. As shown in Fig 1, intro-
tions in either process and/or catalyst design. duction of catalyst results in a different path/
Hydroprocessing technologies allow produc- mechanism whose associated activation en-
tion of cleaner and better performing premium ergy is much smaller than that without the
products. It has become an integral part of in- catalyst and results in a higher reaction rate
dustry and practically it is impossible to attain at the same temperature.
product specifications without passing through
at least one hydroprocessing step. Catalysts
HYDROTREATING CATALYSTS
are “the heart” of hydroprocessing technolo-
gies and its performance is critical to refinery’s Hydrotreating process is applied either as a
profitability. Going forward, its importance will finishing step of final products or as an inter-
increase in the coming decades to combat cli- mediate step to prepare feed for downstream
mate change. processes like reforming, fluid catalytic crack-
ing or hydrocracking. The process involves
This paper will provide a brief introduction on chemical reactions between organic com-
hydrotreating and hydrocracking catalysts pounds containing the contaminants and hy-
commonly called as hydroprocessing cata- drogen in presence of a catalyst. If these
lysts.

Fig 1: Energy diagram

 27

contaminates are not removed, it may result in Ni or Co oxides and from 8-24 wt% as Mo
emissions and cause environmental problems, oxides. Active forms of these metals are their
damaging ecosystems as well as human sulfide forms and good sulfiding is essential
health. Based on the types of contaminants for achieving full performance potential.
removed, the reactions can be called as hy-
The interaction between metal and support
drodesulfurization or HDS (removing sulfur),
also has a big impact on activity. Before
hydrodenitrogenation or HDN (removing nitro-
1995, most catalysts were of “Type I” kind in
gen), hydrodeoxygenation or HDO (removing
which the metals had a strong interaction with
oxygen), hydrodemetallization or HDM
the support. Since then, “Type II” catalysts
(removing metals) and hydrodearomatization
have become the industry standard which
or HDA (saturating aromatics). Process flow
relies on careful tuning of the metal-support
schemes are pretty much similar for most hy-
interaction and have found wide acceptance
droprocessing processes; however, the oper-
in a variety of hydrotreating applications es-
ating severity varies, determined by variables
pecially in ULSD production and hydrocrack-
like type of contaminants, depth of contami-
ing pretreat. Active phase in Type II catalyst
nant conversion, hydrogen partial pressure
has weak interaction with the support and has
and catalyst. Typically, the reactions are con-
more stacking of MoS2 slabs than Type I giv-
ducted in fixed trickle bed reactor(s) with cata-
ing it more intrinsic activity. As shown in Fig
lyst pellets stacked in a packed bed and gas
3, further improvements in Type II catalysts
(hydrogen) and liquid (oil) flowing co-currently
have enabled them to provide significantly
from the top of the reactor.
higher activities. This has been made possi-
Catalyst activity is determined by several fac- ble with better raw materials, improved manu-
tors including the type/quantity of metals, dis- facturing techniques including use of che-
persion of metals and metal-support interac- lates, optimisation of metal dispersion on sup-
tion. Though metals with different groupings port, enhanced promoter effectiveness and
have been researched, typically two groups of advanced analytical tech-niques giving more
metals are used in the production of commer- insight into catalyst morphology.
cial catalysts. The active phase normally com-
prising metal from Group VI (Molybdenum-Mo)
and the promoter metals from Group VIII
(Nickel-Ni and Cobalt-Co). Other promoter
metals can also be added to improve the per-
formance, for e.g., Phosphorous is added to
NiMo catalysts with the objective to improve
HDN activity. Traditional hydrotreating pro-
cesses mainly employs CoMo and NiMo com-
binations. One of the key components opti-
mised during catalyst manufacturing process is
the quantity of metals or metals loading. As
shown in Fig 2, activity of catalyst increases
Fig 3: Development progress – from Type I
with higher metals loading but after a peak,
through Type II (Haldor Topsoe, 2016)
activity drops off. There is an optimal loading
for each support, which varies from 1-6 wt% as
The metals are supported on a carrier
(support). The nature of support plays a key
role in the morphology, dispersion, and cata-
lytic activity of the prepared catalysts. The
support also provides the mechanical
strength to the catalyst as well as high sur-
face area to maximize metals dispersion.
Among the available and developed supports
for hydrotreating catalysts, gamma alumina (γ
-Al2O3) has been widely applied due to its
reasonably high surface area, porosity and
thermal stability, excellent mechanical
strength, very good morphology, easy availa-
bility and low cost.
Fig 2: Relationship between metals and activity
(ART, 2015)
 28

To process a particular feed, a universal cata- hydrogenates the unsaturates that are formed
lyst or a catalytic system does not exist and during the cracking step. The main composi-
catalyst selection must be tailor-made. In low tion of any hydrocracking catalyst contains an
pressure units that need low reaction severity, acid support for cracking/ isomerization func-
a CoMo combination is typically applied. For tions and metals for hydrogenation/ dehydro-
high pressure units were the reaction severity genation functions.
is high, a NiMo combination is normally pre-
ferred. To optimise for particular reactions For cracking catalysts, hydrogenation func-
within “zones” in reactor, a stacked combina- tion is provided by Group VI (Mo, Tungsten-
tion of CoMo and NiMo catalysts is sometimes W) and VIII base metals (Co, Ni) or noble
chosen to provide the best performance rather metals (Platinum-Pt or Palladium-Pd), with
than just using one combination alone. Fig 4 extensive use of base metals as these are
illustrates an example on balancing HDS activ- relatively cheap. Most commonly used combi-
ity while minimising hydrogen consumption nations in industrial hydrocracking catalysts
using stacked combination. As NiMo catalyst is are NiMo and NiW in their sulfided form. Met-
added to the system, there is a significant al pairs such as CoMo and CoW have limited
boost in HDS activity and the product sulfur use because of their lower hydrogenation ac-
goes down before eventually hitting a mini- tivities. Though not widely used as base met-
mum (max HDS activity). With increase in per- als, noble metals exhibit much higher activi-
centage of NiMo catalyst, hydrogen consump- ties than the sulfided base metals in a clean
tion also increases. In the region where the reaction environment and are typically used
system shows the best HDS activity, hydrogen in the second stage of a two-stage hy-
consumption is only slightly greater than that drocracking process. In the first stage opera-
of all CoMo system, and well below that for all tion or in a single-stage process, noble met-
NiMo system. als tend to lose their advantage over the sul-
fided base metals due to the presence of con-
taminants, primarily H2S. Without significant
performance advantage, it is not economical
to operate with noble metal catalyst under
these process conditions. The metal loading
for base metal catalyst varies from 1-6 wt%
for Ni oxides and from 8-20 wt% for Mo or W
oxides. In addition to metals loading, atomic
ratio of metals is also important as it impacts
the hydrogenation activity of the catalyst. A
study of the hydrogenation activity of Group
VI and VIII using toluene as a model com-
pound in the presence of H2S, concluded the
optimum atomic ratio to be about 0.25 as
shown in Fig 5.
Fig 4: Balancing HDS activity while minimising
H2 consumption (ART, 2014)
Good HDN activity is the primary function of a
hydrotreating catalyst in a hydrocracking unit
as the organic nitrogen compounds are detri-
mental to the performance of cracking catalyst.
The rate limiting step in HDN reaction pathway
is aromatic ring saturation because in most
refractory nitrogen compounds the nitrogen
atom is incorporated in the aromatic ring which
needs to be saturated first before the nitrogen
can be extracted. As a result, NiMo catalyst
are used as hydrocracking pretreat catalysts.
HYDROCRACKING CATALYSTS
Compared to hydrotreating catalyst, hy- Fig 5: Correlation between conversion and
drocracking catalyst performs a dual-functional atomic ratio (UOP, 2004)
role where it cracks the high molecular weight
hydrocarbon and then simultaneously
 29

Since the acid function is responsible for isom- catalyst having more larger pores than the
erization/cracking reactions, cracking catalyst zeolite catalyst. Larger pore structure of
activity is primarily determined by the total amorphous catalyst support preferentially
acidity of the catalyst. Acidity is a function of converts heavy molecules and combined with
silica to alumina ratio and is provided either by its lower activity result in higher yields of the
amorphous (alumina and silica-alumina) or heavier products.
crystalline (zeolites) components which also
acts as the support. Of several solid oxide ma-
terials used as amorphous supports, silica-
alumina is most widely used due its high acidi-
ty and low cost. Cracking catalysts made with
amorphous solid oxide have high selectivity
towards distillate products. Zeolites are mi-
croporous, crystalline aluminosilicates with tet-
rahedrally coordinated framework aluminium.
Among various zeolite materials, modified Y
zeolite is most successfully applied in industri-
al hydrocracking. Most zeolites are synthe-
sised from a slurry consisting of silica, alumina
and caustic. The synthesised zeolite is modi-
fied by ionic exchange and thermal or chemi-
cal treatment called dealumination to obtain an Fig 7: Comparison of pore structure (UOP,
active catalyst; an ultra-stable Y (USY) zeolite 2004)
with appropriate unit cell size (UCS). Catalyst
The product yield depends on metal to acid
manufacturing operating severity determines
activity ratio of the catalyst in use and in-
the degree of dealumination. As the degree of
creases with increasing ratio. The yield could
dealumination increases, silica to alumina ratio
approach maximum when a catalyst can ex-
increases and UCS decreases as shown in Fig
hibit ideal cracking behaviour. The product
6. Since the properties of dealuminated Y zeo-
distribution characteristics are quite different
lite can be varied so widely during manufactur-
between amorphous catalysts and those con-
ing process, USY is the most versatile material
taining Y zeolite. Fig 8 shows the incremental
for hydrocracking. A high UCS USY zeolite will
yield as a function of the distillation tempera-
have higher activity and are typically used in
ture of the product slates for both types of
naphtha production while a low UCS USY zeo-
catalyst. At the same conversion level to 700°
lite will have lower activity and are used for
F, amorphous SiO2·Al2O3 catalyst shows a
distillate production.
much higher distillates selectivity whereas the
product of Y zeolite catalyst is heavily skewed
toward naphtha. The Y zeolite catalyst being
significantly more active than the amorphous
catalyst lacks the proper metal/acid balance.
As a result, excessive secondary cracking
occurs over the Y zeolite catalyst shifting the
product to lighter boiling range.

Fig 6: Correlation between zeolitic unit cell size

and Si/Al ratio (UOP, 2004)
Catalyst pore structure plays an important role
in how they convert the feed. Fig 7 shows the Fig 8: Comparison of product profiles (UOP,
difference in the pore structure of an amor- 2004)
 30

CONCLUSIONS Li Wang and Hemant Gala – Hydrocracking

Catalyst Technology. AICHE Spring National
The pivotal role of hydroprocessing units in a Meeting, 2004.
modern refinery hinges on its unique ability to
produce a wide range of premium quality prod- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ucts with catalyst technology at its heart.
Pushed by more stringent fuel quality legisla-
tions, catalyst vendors are combining state-of-
the-art characterization and manufacturing
techniques to come up better catalysts and
innovative catalyst selection techniques to un-
lock opportunities which can significantly en-
hance refinery profit in a sustainable way and
cause less damage to the environment. Rajesh Sivadasan holds a Chemical Engi-
REFERENCES neering degree and is a Principal Specialist
based in The Netherlands. His 25 years of
Charles Olsen and Brian Watkins – Increased experience in Hydroprocessing area include
activity in FCC pretreat. PTQ Magazine, 2015 roles in technical service, plant operation,
process modelling and optimization, trouble-
Michael T Schmidt – Developments in hy- shooting, commissioning, turnaround support,
drotreating catalyst. PTQ Magazine, 2016 start up and training with companies like
UOP, KBC, Albemarle and IndianOil.
Woody Shiflett, Charles Olsen, Dan Torchia
and David Brossard – Optimising hydropro-
cessing catalyst systems. PTQ Magazine,
2014
 31

De-scaling Application:
Why the Pump Fails?
Abhijeet Keer

1.0 INTRODUCTION If we look at the Process of descaling in de-

tail, we will realize the pain points associated
It is essential for the steel rolling mills to im- with the system. The Descaling operation is
prove efficiency and product quality. One of an intermittent operation. The Billet or slab
the key factors in determining the quality of the that rolls over the production line has a cycle
final product is the scale removal process; time. It passes through various stations for
scale which isn't properly removed can be certain period of time. Descaling section be-
combined with the steel billet as it passes ing one of the first stations that the slab en-
through the mill, resulting in defective or lower counters, once it comes out of the reheating
quality steel. This process of removal of furnace. Hence the process of Descaling is a
Scales is called Descaling. cyclic one. As shown in fig.1, when the mate-
Steel slab or billet heated to approx. 1200˚C in rial reaches Descaling section called as de-
reheating furnace is transferred to roller tables scaling box, the descaling valve opens and
on its onward journey to rolling mill stand the specially designed spray nozzles installed
where it will be rolled in multiple passes to on top and bottom header, spray the jet of
achieve lower thickness or desired shape. water on the material. The descaling valve
Slight oxidizing atmosphere is maintained in remains open typically for 20 to 60 seconds
reheating furnace. That is why, it results in the of cycle time depending upon the length of
formation of Iron oxide scales on the Steel bil- the steel slab and closes again. The Steel
let. Scale formed in the reheating furnace need billet/slab, in order to attain required thick-
to be washed before sending the material to ness has to go through multiple passes
mill stands. through the rollers. Hence, in some cases, in
one cycle lasting for 5 to 7 minutes, descaling
2.0 PROCESS DESCRIPTION valves open and close for 5 to 7 times, some-
times at the interval of 30 seconds or less.
The Process of descaling i.e. Striking of Water
Jet with High impact Energy can be accom- Since the system has a cyclic operation with
plished through different ways. Different meth- fluctuating demands, this is likely candidate
ods such as direct descaling or indirect descal- for the use of Accumulators. The energy effi-
ing have been incorporated. Let us understand ciency of the operation, as can be seen, is
how this works. low. Of course, the measure contributing fac-
tor for the energy consumption being the
Direct descaling involves using a High pres- Pump. As the efficiency of the descaling pro-
sure usually a Multistage Centrifugal Pump cess depends on the impact of water jet, it is
which will deliver the required amount of flow quiet certain that the system will need the
through the Nozzles attached to header in the High pressure pump with moderate flow.
Descaling Box. In case of direct method, one Hence this calls for the usually high speed
thing that must be noted is that, the total de- Multistage Pumps, since there is clear ad-
mand of the flow for descaling is served by vantage of efficiency in case of centrifugal
Pump alone. pumps. However, the large amount of Bypass
Whereas in In-direct method, the Pump along flow time during the life time of the pump, the
with the accumulator is used. The accumulator energy wastage is considerable and hence, it
is a pressure vessel which stores the fluid at is essential to reduce the size of the pump
high pressure and supplements the pump flow which will in turn means reducing the flow.
as and when required. So use of accumulators gives this liberty for
Now, the question may arise, what is the need reduction in size of the pump. The accumula-
for such different methods of direct and indi- tors supplement the Pump by adding the re-
rect. quired amount of flow when necessary. With-
out the accumulator, the pump size would
 32

have been larger to meet the demand of the 1. Frequent Change of operating point
operation. 2. Running the pump on bypass flow
3. Varying system resistances
This shows the first and foremost pain point of 4. Quality of water being Pumped
the System i.e. intermittent operation.
5. High speed application
6. High pressure meaning high system re-
Secondly, if we refer to fig.1 again, we will see sistances
that there is recirculation valve placed near to
Reservoir from where the Pump is taking the
Suction. As we have seen, the operation of These are some of the causes of problems
descaling is intermittent one; there is a dwell associated with the Pump, which lead to fre-
time in the operation. Till the next cycle starts, quent breakdown of the equipment.
the pump has to keep running and hence, the
flow of the pump is routed through recirculation The typical failures encountered by the
valve, back to the reservoir. The operating Pumps are high vibration, high bearing tem-
point for the pump usually in this condition is peratures, seizure, even shaft breakage is not
Minimum allowable continuous flow, which uncommon.
shall be sufficient so that, there will not be any
undesired Temperature increase of the water
being pumped and secondly the vibrations of The frequent changes in operating condition
the equipment shall not go beyond the limit. lead to transient operations and also lead to
fatigue loading of the pump. If we observe the
cross section of one of these typical multi-
So our second pain point highlighted here is stage pumps, we see that the shaft of the
the running of pump towards left of the perfor- pump is carrying a radial and huge amount of
mance curve. Axial thrust due to the high pressure opera-
tion. The shaft being slender and with number
3.0 VARIOUS PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED of impellers mounted will deflect. Of course, it
WITH THE PROCESS will be designed to keep the deflection within
limit but the simultaneous action of Axial
thrust, and that too fluctuating, present the
Now, as we understand the system, let us list conditions, which are needed to be analysed
out the problems associated with the pumping in detail during the design stage and will be
of the water required for the operation.

Fig.1
 33

different for each application. Many of the thrust bearing. Balancing drum on the other
times, these transient conditions are over- hand, requires additional thrust bearing to car-
looked rather not even considered during the ry residual axial thrust
enquiry stage. The result being the frequent
failure of the pump on field. For intermittent operation and high axial
thrust, such as this, of course balancing drum
is the obvious choice. One of the key things
Most commonly observed pain point is the vi- here worth noticing is that, the design of the
bration of the equipment. One thing to note balancing drum is for single duty point, which
here is the design of Rotor of the multistage is Best efficiency point of the Pump. Hence for
pump. Here is the quick simple calculation to all other operating points, especially at lower
illustrate, how one might go wrong, if the sub- flows, the Axial thrust will change and will be
mitted operating conditions by the customers huge due to high pressure at lower flow.
are not assessed properly.
Let’s say the operating speed of the equipment These fluctuations in the Axial thrust could
under consideration is around 4500 rpm. even lead to relative movement between the
Now, at this operating speed if we want to keep Bearings thrust plate and the Shaft. And this
the vibrations below 2.5 mm/s then it is impera- likely to result in the Fretting damage as well.
tive to balance the Rotor dynamically at grade Fretting occurs when there is an oscillating
G2.5 as per ISO 1940. Now let’s do some movement between two surfaces which are
basic calculation; having almost zero clearance. In case of
thrust plate, it is mounted on the shaft with the
V = r x w ; where v = vibration velocity mm/s
Interference fit, but due to huge amount of
r = eccentricity, mm thrust and that too fluctuating; the fretting
w = angular speed, rad/s damage is likely to happen.
now,
Also during design stage, one needs to take
care of the elongation of the shaft due to load-
ing and should select the material which will
remain stiff without any excessive deflection.
Hence, r = 5.3 microns
One more problem associated with intermit-
Which means that, the eccentricity allowable tent operation that might be overlooked during
for the centre of mass at given operating speed the selection of the equipment is, the changes
is only 5 microns. Now, if we are assembling in nozzle loads. This leads to the misalign-
the impellers on the Shaft, there must be some ment of the equipment, which leads to higher
clearance for the assembly of shaft with the vibrations, uneven wear, bearing temperature
impeller, surely now, if we choose the sliding fit rise, etc.
between shaft and impeller which might result
in minimum limit higher than this 10 microns Along with that, if the pump is running at lower
( radially 5 microns). This will surely lead to flow, means at higher system resistance,
higher vibrations. there are chances of flow separation on the
Now, this all what we discussed is for the Best suction side of the vane. This in turn disturbs
efficiency point of the pump. One can guess, the head generation and results in flow pulsa-
what will happen when the pump is running on tions in the fluid and also in the pump compo-
the left of the curve where the vibrations are nents. Another problem is the suction or dis-
inherently higher due to flow transients. charge recirculation due to low flow condi-
tions. Mostly, in case of low specific speed
Another point of interest could be checking the pumps such as these, discharge recirculation
natural frequencies of the baseplates as well could be more pronounced which could even
as complete assembled pump. One should lead to damage at the Impeller shroud outside
make sure; the pump is not in resonance while diameter and vane tip area.
operating at given operating speed.
Another pain point is the descaling water used
In case of Multistage Pumps, the axial thrust accumulates with solid particles. Despite pre-
that the Shaft needs to carry is huge. There are filtration, not all particles can be removed from
various means by which the Axial thrust can be the water. Solid particle accumulation in the
compensated. For multistage Pumps, balanc- process water can be harmful for the sealing
ing disk or balancing drum are usually em- in the liquid end and other wetted parts. This
ployed methods to counter Axial thrust. Balanc- also results in uneven wear of the hydraulic
ing disk completely balances the axial thrust components, especially close clearance areas
and hence does not require an additional such as mechanical seals. The wear at impel-
ler outside diameter is also not uncommon.
 34

4.0 CONCLUSION

The descaling operation being a cyclic one is

critical for the pump and associated accesso-
ries and piping as well. Hence careful evalua-
tion and exact formulation of specifications for
the equipment is very essential. During design
stage, one need to address at least the points
listed above, in order to have trouble free oper-
ation of the equipment.

5.0 REFERENCES

High-pressure water heat-state descaling sys-

tem of electrohydraulic unloadinhg valve 2001,
Luo Jianhua, Liu Shouhua, Li Xiangwen
CN1404933A.

Accumulator system with centrfugal pump;

Robert J. Lindsey, Cincinnati, Ohio, assignor to
american steel foundries, chicago, ill., a corpo-
ration of new jersey application june 2, 1955,
serial no. 512,691patented nov. 18, 1958

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Abhijeet Keer is a young passionate engineer,

who has been working in the Design field of the
Centrifugal Pumps for over 6 Years. The me-
chanical Construction and Materials are his
strong skills. With over 6 years of his Career
working as a Design Engineer with major play-
ers in Pump Industry, KSB limited and Kirlos-
kar Brothers Limited, he has developed strong
affinity towards this field. He completed his
Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering
from University of Mumbai, India. He enjoys
writing articles related to Pumps and applica-
tions. His professional experience covers new
Product design and developments, material
selection and application engineering and com-
plete mechanical constructions.
35
 36

How to...Downcomers | Part 5

All About Downcomers and Weirs
Dr. -Ing. Volker Engel

Tower trays and internals are the heart of all The size and shape of the downcomer is
distillation columns. Their design is an essen- specified by the liquid flow rate, whereas the
tial part of a process engineer’s task and de- size of the active area is determined by the
termines the process reliability and economy. gas load.
This article is the part of a series on different One of the main tasks at designing a proper
kinds of trays and internals. tray is to choose suitable values for these two
areas. This sets the tower diameter!
In almost all tray towers, the liquid flows hori-
zontally from the inlet, gets in contact with the FLOW PASSES
vertical streaming gas, generates a two-phase
layer on the active area, leaves the tray at the One of the very first steps in the design of a
outlet weir and degases in the downcomer tray is to deal with the liquid load: It shows,
while passing to the next tray below. how many downcomers per tray are required
and how the downcomer(s) have to be de-
The main focus in tray towers is often only the signed. To handle the liquid load, you have to
active area (type of tray, pressure drop, froth supply the appro-priate downcomer area as
height, efficiency, ...), where the mass transfer well as enough weir length.
takes place. To understand all the complexity
of trays, it is necessary to get an overview of To achieve this goal, there are different lay-
the various shapes and layouts of downcom- outs with one or more downcomers and spe-
ers. cial down-comer shapes. (Some other de-
signs like Dual-flow trays, baffle trays, shower
DOWNCOMERS (DC) decks, ... have no down-comers.)
The main function of the downcomer is to col- In the easiest case, there is only one down-
lect all liquid from the active area, degas the comer (Fig. 2). The liquid is streaming from
liquid, lead the liquid to the next tray and seal one side of the tower to the other. There is
the downcomer against gas bypass (Fig. 1). one active area and one flow path. This
(common) design is called 1-pass or Single-
pass tray. The tray design is turned by 180°
at each stage. It is used for tower diameters
up to 3m. (For some special applica-tions you
will even find 1-pass trays up to 8m.)

For higher liquid loads and larger diameters,

two liquid paths are needed (Fig. 3). This
leads to two different tray designs, which are
used alternately for the stages (therefore the
odd tray numbers belong to one design, the
 37

inboard design has a center downcomer, the load of each active area for each design case
other (outboard design) has two side down- (min / design / max).
comers. The liquid is strea-ming from the cen-
ter down-comer to the side downcomers and
on the next stage from the sides to the center
downcomer. The active area is symmetrical
on each tray. 2-pass designs are often used in
practice.

The next logical number of downcomers

would be the 5-pass tray. You will find it in lit-
erature, but rarely in practice.
For large tower diameters the 6-pass tray is
used (Fig. 6). Since it is symmetrical to the
tower center line, there are “only” three differ-
The next logical step is the 3-pass tray design
ent active areas per tray and four different
(Fig. 4). There is a side downcomer and an off
down-comer shapes per tray. Therefore the
-center downcomer. The design is rotated by
calculation is similar to that of the 3-pass tray.
180° per stage. There is only one design for
The outboard layout has two side down-
all trays (as for the 1-pass design). This is an
comers and two off-center downcomers, the
ad-vantage in terms of the investment costs
inboard layout has one center downcomer
compared to the 2- and 4-pass tray design.
and two off-center downcomers.
On the other hand there are three different
shaped active areas per stage and a very dif-
ferent geometry of the downcomers. There-
fore it is not easy to design this 3-pass tray for
a wide operation range and you will not find
this type very often in practice (but you will!).

The choice of a certain design (number of

passes) and setting the width of the down-
comer results in a certain length of the flow
paths. This flow path length is relevant in
terms of hydrau-lics (contact time of the gas-
liquid mix-ture) as well as in terms of practice
The 4-pass tray has two tray layouts (Fig. 5):
(the flow path length is the maximum width of
One stage is equipped with two side down-
one dimen-sion of the manway). Therefore
comers and one center downcomer
you have to check these hydraulic and securi-
(outboard), the other with two off-center down-
ty aspects, too.
comers (inboard). As each layout is symmet-
rical to the tower center line, there are only MULTI-DOWNCOMERS
two different active area shapes. Therefore it
The designs described above are called con-
is easier to calculate than the 3-pass-design –
ventional multi-pass trays and they are
but as the liquid splits up in two different ac-
“bound” to the circle geometry of towers. In-
tive areas (with different froth heights, pres-
stead of using the tower shell as part of the
sure drop, ...), the calculation of 4-pass trays
downcomer wall, you can place downcomer
needs a complex iteration for the individual
 38

boxes in the active area. These designs are vapor and liquid rate is low (medium to high-
called Multi-Downcomer designs (”MD trays”). pressure systems).
There are different principles: REVERSE-FLOW
You can place the downcomer boxes over the Another design for the flow path is the so-
entire diameter of the tower and rotate the de- called Reverse-Flow tray (Fig. 10). It is used
sign by 90° per stage (Fig. 7). The crossing to achieve long flow paths and long contact
points of the boxes are blocked to have no liq- times between gas and liquid.
uid shortcuts.

DOWNCOMER SHAPES
The side downcomer in a classic design is nor
Another option is to place the downcomer box- -mally chordal (Fig. 11). This design is com-
es only on one half of the cross section area parably easy in construction and fabrication
and rotate the designs by 180° per stage (Fig. for tower attachments and tray parts.
8). These designs are also known as Calming
Section trays.

For high liquid loads you can have multi-

Another type is shown in Fig. 9. It is also
chordal designs (Fig. 12). Especially at the
known as HiFi-tray (Shell).
side down-comers you are struggling with the
geometry of round towers: changing the width
of the side downcomer has great effect on the
area, but small on the weir length. With a mul-
ti-chordal design you can achieve a long(er)
weir length without increasing the correspond-
ing chordal downcomer area.

These MD trays are normally used for large

liquid load when volumetric ratio between
 39

At the design of multi-chordal downcomers, DOWNCOMER FLOODING

you have some degrees of freedom. Normally
There are two flooding effects related to down
you will find 5 segments as multi-chordal,
-comers. One deals with the maximum
some-times 7 segments. The construction and
through-put, the other with the liquid level in
fabrication of a multi-chordal tray is more ex-
the down-comer.
pensive than a chordal design.
The first one is called Choke Flood and is re-
SLOPED DOWNCOMER
lated to the cross-sectional area of the down-
The gas-liquid mixture entering the downcom- comer and the physical properties of the liquid
er has the average density of the phases. and the gas. If there is not enough area for
During the degassing process, the density the degassing (upflowing gas and downflow-
increases and ideally becomes the liquid den- ing liquid) the downcomer “chokes”. In result,
sity at the bottom of the downcomer. You can no liquid will pass trough the down-comer and
take benefit from this change in density (i.e. the tower starts flooding.
change in volume) by reducing the cross sec-
The standard model for calculating the max.
tional area of the down-comer over its height.
volume flow rate through a downcomer was
This adjustment is called sloped or stepped
published by Glitsch in 1993 (here in SI-units):
downcomer (Fig. 13).

The equations are based on gas density rG,

liquid density rL, tray spacing TS and system
It can be applied on all types of downcomers factor SF. This last parameter describes the
(side, center, off-center, multi-downcomers, difficulty of degassing. You can find lists of
...). The benefit of this design is the gain of values for different appli-cations in literature
active area on the next tray. (ref. to References at the end of article).
TRUNCATED DOWNCOMER The second flooding effect is the so-called
Aerated Downcomer Flood (also called Down-
Another possibility to maximize the active ar-
comer Backup Flood): In this case the liquid
ea is to use truncated downcomers (Fig. 14).
level in the downcomer exceeds the total
In this design the floor of the next tray is not
down-comer height. The level in the down-
the bottom of the downcomer – the downcom-
comer is the result of “border effects” (Fig.
er ends above the active area. For Multi-Down
15):
--comers this design is standard. The area
below the downcomer can be used (partly) as
active area.

1. The two-phase layer on the next tray seals

the downcomer. It is calculated by the physi-
cal height of the weir plus the weir crest
height.
Truncated downcomers bring us to some fun-
2. The hydraulic gradient of a tray produces
damental hydraulic considerations.
an additional liquid head in the downcomer.
(Depends on contact elements and flow path
length.)
 40

3. The liquid is accelerated by leaving through To achieve a uniform overflow at the entire
the clearance. This rise in kinetic energy is length of the downcomer, you can use
taken from potential energy and results in an Notched Weirs (Fig. 17). At low loads the liq-
additional liquid head. uid uses the bottom parts of the notches. At
higher loads the entire weir is used by the liq-
4. The pressure p1 of the gas is higher than
uid.
the pressure p2 at the tray above. This differ-
ence in pressure results in liquid head in the To achieve a uniform overflow at the entire
down-comer. length of the downcomer, you can use
Notched Weirs (Fig. 17). At low loads the liq-
All these values are calculated as “clear liq-
uid uses the bottom parts of the notches. At
uid”. In praxis the liquid in the downcomer
higher loads the entire weir is used by the liq-
contains gas (calculated as so-called Aeration
uid.
Factor) and leads to a higher level in the
downcomer than the clear liquid height. If this
level exceeds the downcomer height plus weir
height, the down-comer will not be able to
handle the load and floods.

For safety reasons (e.g. during installation or

inspection) it is strongly recommended to
have plain tops at the notches.
Another possibility to adapt long weirs for
There are some calculation models for the small liquid loads is to block the weir (Fig. 18).
Aeration Factor in literature (ref. to Refer- The weir length is reduced to the openings.
ences at the end of article). An additional effect of a blocked weir: it keeps
the two-phase layer on the active area.
A short glance back: We started the discus-
sion with truncated downcomers. Since the
height of the downcomer is relevant for the
Aerated Downcomer Flood (and a truncated
downcomer is less in height), truncated down-
comers are only applicable, if there is no prob-
lem with Aerated Downcomer Flood.
OUTLET WEIRS
The liquid-gas mixture enters the downcomer
at the outlet weir. The standard weir is a plain The number and width of the blocks depend
bar of about 50 mm height. In liquid limited on the weir crest height you have to achieve.
systems or on trays running in the froth re- The method of blocking is not only relevant for
gime, the weir height might be more. The spe- small liquid loads, but also for balancing the
cific weir load should be more than 4.5 m3/m/ different weir lengths of 2-and-more-pass lay-
h (or 5 mm weir crest height). Why? outs. The block should be at least as high as
the two- phase layer of the active area.
If the weir crest height is very low, any level-
ing issues of the tower (due to tower attach- Blocked weirs prevent workers/inspectors
ments, tower installation or even wind) can from climbing over the center/off-center down-
cause problems: If a part of the weir is not in comers to the other pass! If there is no man-
use, this part of the active area is stagnant – hole in each pass, there should be manways
no mass transfer will happen (Fig. 16). in the blocked weir.
Sometimes you will find weirs with adjustable
height. These are built in when it is known that
the load will change in the future.
ANTI-JUMP BAFFLES
At center, off-center and multi-downcomers,
the liquid enters the downcomer from both
sides. At high liquid loads and small down-
comer widths, you have to install so-called
Anti-Jump Baffles (Fig. 19). These baffles en-
sure, that only half of the area is used by each
side.
 41

Sealstatic = HW – HCL.
For liquid-tight trays (e.g. bubble cap or tunnel
trays) this seal is present, whenever liquid is
on the tray. For all other tray types (e.g. sieve,
float valves, fixed valves) the seal is only
working, if there is enough gas for no weep-
ing.
Just like for the weir blocks, Anti-Jump Baffles
If there is no Static Seal (due to design, poor
have to be as high as the two-phase layer on
hydraulics or at startup of the tower) there is
the active area. Therefore they block the pas-
the risk of gas bypassing the active area
sage during inspections. It is good practice to
through the downcomer.
have bolted manways in the baffles.
During operation the weir crest generates ad-
SWEPT-BACK WEIR
ditional liquid height (How) (Fig. 22) and gen-
To achieve a long weir, you can use a so- erates a Dynamic Seal
called Swept-back Weir (Fig. 20). The down-
Sealdynamic = How + HW – HCL.
comer stays chordal, but the weir is – similar
to the shape of multi-chordal downcomers –
longer than the chordal length.

So-called high capacity designs are often run-

ning with no static but only dynamic sealing.
WEIRS FOR STARTUP RADIUS LIP
For high capacity trays you will find so-called The acceleration of the liquid in the clearance
Weir Spouts (Fig. 21): At tray floor level, there results in liquid head (ref. to Fig. 15, Aerated
are rectangular openings. Down-comer Flood ). To reduce this effect,
you can add a Radius Lip (Fig. 23). This
These holes help to fill the downcomer initially
shape lowers the outlet orifice coefficient.
at startup of the tower. During operation they
help to reduce the weir crest height. They are
only used, if the tower is always running at
high liquid loads and there is no minimum
load issue.

CLEARANCE INLET WEIR

The last aspect of downcomers is the design To ensure sealing of downcomers you can
of the liquid outlet (= inlet to the next tray). place an Inlet Weir in front of the clearance
(Fig. 24). Even at a very small liquid load,
The liquid is leaving the downcomer through
there will be no gas bypass through the down-
the so-called Clearance. The outlet velocity of
comer. The inlet weir can only function if it is
the liquid should be less than 0.45 m/s. If it is
higher than the clearance. It can also be
higher, the liquid will splash and overrun the
notched (for low liquid loads).
first rows of contact elements (see later).
The inlet weir is helpful for the startup of the
The height of the clearance HCL is normally
tower and at low liquid load – but the down-
less than the outlet weir height HW to have a
comer tends to blocking in fouling systems.
Static Seal
 42

As discussed at the Aerated Downcomer

Flood, one part of the liquid level in the down-
INLET PUSHER
comer depends on the liquid level on the next
tray. For part (Fig. 15) you have to take A special design (“NYE-tray”) for the inlet is to
into account the inlet weir height plus the inlet push gas near the clearance through holes to
weir crest height. Therefore an inlet weir the active area (Fig. 28). It also helps to initi-
“costs” down-comer height in respect to down- ate the two-phase layer. It is not easy to de-
comer flooding (especially at low tray spac- sign this layout for a large operating region.
ings).
RECESSED SEAL PAN
The effect of sealing can also be achieved by
the so-called Recessed Seal Pan (also called
Inlet Pot, Fig. 25). The main advantage over
the inlet weir is, that it “costs” no downcomer
height. But of course it is more complex in
construction and fabrication. It is normally
combined with a sloped downcomer.
SEAL PAN
The last downcomer of a tower/section is
sealed by a special Seal Pan (Fig. 29) or sub-
merged in the bottom liquid (Fig. 30).

INTERRUPTER BAR
At float valve trays you may sometimes find
elements, that are looking similar to inlet
weirs. They are not for sealing the downcomer
but to keep the first valve row functional (Fig.
26). The bar is about 13mm high and is called
Interrupter Bar.

BUBBLING INITIATORS
At high liquid outlet velocity, the liquid over-
runs the first rows (of fixed valves, sieve
holes, ...). To break the impulse at high ca-
pacity trays there are Bubbling Initiators (also
In any case, the gas inlet should not affect the
called Bubbling Promoters, Fig. 27). They are
outlet of the liquid. It is good practice to make
placed instead of the first row of “normal” con-
the last downcomer long enough to bypass
tact elements. The gas outlet openings of the
the gas inlet.
Bubbling Initiators are not oriented towards
the downcomer (to prevent gas entry through
the clearance).
 43

DRAW-OFF (DRAW)
You will find seal pans not only at the very last
downcomer of a tower. Whenever there is a
change in flow path number and/or tray orien-
tation (“transitions”), the liquid is transferred
to the next tray (or to a liquid distributor) by
pipes. Fig. 31 shows some examples for Draw
-Offs from a seal pan.
In all cases you have to ensure that the seal is MECHANICAL ASPECTS
not affected by the Draw-Off.
The active area is carried by the support ring,
the downcomer (at the outlet weir side) and
the downcomer seal segment (at the inlet).
There-fore these downcomer elements have
to be designed to withstand the dead load
plus the liquid load.
For large tower diameters, the upper part of
the downcomers (so-called Downcomer
Truss) will be fabricated in a higher material
thickness (Fig. 35).

One of the advantages of tray towers is the

possibility to draw off liquid at each stage.
These intermediate Draw-Offs are normally
done with the help of Recessed Seal Pans
(Fig. 32).

Whenever the downcomer elements would

not fit through the manhole, the elements
have to be divided, too. (A benefit of a down-
comer wall consisting of two parts is the op-
portunity to adjust the clearance height during
installation.)

FEED TO DOWNCOMER
In downcomers there are used so-called
As mentioned before, you will install so-called
Down-comer Brackets (Fig. 36). They support
False Downcomers (FDC) to feed liquid on
the downcomer seal segment and prevent the
the top tray of a section (Fig. 33). They are
walls from vibration. In center/off-center down-
designed accordingly to the downcomers of
comers the brackets additionally connect the
the following trays.
walls and keep them in place – in best case
even at a pressure surge. (A well-known fail-
ure pattern is when the downcomer walls are
pushed inwards after a pressure surge and
the panels of the active area therefore slip
and fall.)

To feed liquid to a tray within a section, it is

good practice to feed near the downcomer
clearance (feed pipe with holes directed to the
area above the clearance, Fig. 34). If there is
the danger of two-phase or super-heated liq-
uid, you will shield the downcomer wall by a
so-called Impingement Baffle.
 44

CALCULATED PARAMETERS REFERENCES

The following parameters have to be calculat- Glitsch Ballast Tray Design Manual. Bulletin
ed and checked for all downcomers at each 4900, 6th edition, Dallas (1993)
load. This can hardly be done by hand, but
Hoppe, K.; Mittelstrass M.: Grundlagen der
with suitable software. Any software that does
Dimensionierung von Kolonnenböden, Stein-
not show all of these parameters carries the
kopff Verlag, Dresden (1967)
risk of overlooking relevant values. Since the
supplier's free software does not do this, com- Kister, H. Z.: Distillation Operation, Mc Graw
mercial software (ref. TrayHeart) should be Hill (1989)
used.
Liebermann, N.: Process Equipment Malfunc-
Parameters of the downcomer: tions. Techniques to Identify and Correct Plant
Problems. McGrawHill (2011)
• Residence Time
Liebermann, N.; Liebermann, E.: A working
• Clear liquid level in downcomer
guide to Process Equipment. McGrawHill Ed-
• Aeration Factor of downcomer ucation (2014)
• Aerated liquid level in downcomer Lockett, M. J.: Distillation tray fundamentals,
Cambridge University Press, New York (1986)
• Liquid head caused by clearance
Norton Valve Tray Design Manual: Company
• Liquid outlet velocity
publication, 7/96 VTDM-1-E (1996)
• Max. liquid volume flow through
Nutter Engineering: Float Valve Design Manu-
downcomer al, (1976, April, rev1)
For the outlet weir the following parameters Stichlmair, J.: Grundlagen der Dimensionier-
have to be calculated: ung des Gas/Flüssigkeit-Kontaktapparates
Bodenkolonne, Verlag Chemie, Weinheim
• Specific liquid load of weir
(1978)
• Weir crest height
Stichlmair, J.; Fair, J.: Distillation – Principle
• Throw width over weir and Practice, Wiley-VCH New York (1998)
• Liquid ratio through spouts WelChem Process Technology: TrayHeart
Software. Tower Internals Calculation Soft-
If there is an inlet weir:
ware.
• Specific liquid load of weir
Internet: www.welchem.com; Info: ser-
• Weir crest height vice@welchem.com
CONCLUSION
There are many layouts and designs for
downcomers and weirs. The effort for the en-
gineer is to combine the best options to
achieve an optimum for the very different as-
pects as startup, statics, hydraulics and inter-
action with the active area. The hydraulic de-
sign of downcomers has to be as accurate as
the design of the active area.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Volker Engel studied process engineering at
the Technical University of Munich and did his
Ph.D. thesis on packed columns with Prof.
Johann G. Stichlmair. Since 1998 he has
been the managing director of WelChem Pro-
cess Technology GmbH and head of the
TrayHeart software. TrayHeart has developed
into a state-of-the-art design tool for trays and
internals in process technology.
45
 46

Cold Eye Review of Project Progress or

Any Situation
Lalit Mohan Nainwal, C Eng. (India), MBA

Since everything is person to person, every- Management seeks the exact report of any
thing counts or nothing counts at all. Many project’s progress at various stages/phases
times whether it is in projects, events, inci- let it be Engineering, Procurement, Execu-
dents or a survey one has to go through cir- tion/Construction, and Completion.
cumstances where he/she has been asked or
he/she is required to report/state exactly what Let’s go in details of progress on each phase,
he has seen/reviewed. One is expected to 3a. Engineering Progress Reporting
state facts without adding anything in it due to
his/her previous experience, existing An expert is asked to go to an engineering
knowledge, or added knowledge by others contractor’s office or at a consultant’s office,
while viewing/reviewing the situation. One is the first thing will come to anybody's mind
neither expected to exaggerate nor understate. that how can someone review the actual pro-
A statement of facts or report which states how gress when most of the things are in soft form
the progress/situation is as of that moment of in computers of various designer or engineer-
visit/review without being judgemental or emo- ing function heads?
tionally attached at all is a cold eye review re-
port. answer is, the expert will have a schedule
and expected deliverables list from engineer-
1. History ing with him and he will have a clear under-
standing of the job before he proceed to re-
Historical book Mahabharata in India has a view. Once the review started, he will note
record of first cold eye review. A battle, which down the facts against schedule & delivera-
was being narrated by Sanjay to a blind king, bles not expectations or statements of team
namely Dhritarashtra, without being attached members who are working on that job.
to any of both parties indulged in battle. Sanjay
was the person with the capability to see what 3b. Procurement Progress Reporting
is going on at the battleground and he has to
state the facts to the king. In short cold eye When an expert is about to review procure-
review means an emotionless review of any ment progress, he will be informed by so
situation or any work in progress. many sources, we had MRs ready, this was
floated to vendors, that was EQ or CQ from
2. Why it’s termed Cold Eye Review vendors, but an expert is expected not to get
involved in any opinions and check against
The review report author or originator is ex- agreed procurement schedule baselines
pected to be an experienced professional/ whether the progress is made as required
subject matter specialist in whatever field the and where exactly the procurement stands on
review being performed, his vision without at- the day of review.
tachment is expected in the final submission,
his review namely cold eye review ignores ad- 3c. Execution/Construction Progress Report-
vice and search facts beyond appeasement. ing
Cold eye here is something to tell the reader of
that report that this is what I saw exactly This is the most complicated work in case
against given scope, specs, drawings, or de- someone is requested to ascertain the correct
tails in any form. progress in huge projects or someone is ex-
pected to provide cold eye review of a huge
3. How Cold Eye Review is a necessity in Pro- event. The expert will find many works are
jects ongoing and will be dragged by many on the
percentage progress they want to report. The
An unfortunate fact that false reporting always cold eye review involved experienced profes-
occurs, there are several reasons, excuses sional/subject matter expert will have to iso-
and misunderstandings why it occurs, let’s not late himself from influences and check reality
 47

on the ground against agreed schedule or 7. Discussion / Reporting findings of cold eye
time frame, quality standards, or other rele- review
vant documents.
To avoid conflict and in an attempt to make
3d. Completion Progress Reporting things work as per plan again, the cold eye
review report will be taken up for discussion
Unfortunate that many works in projects or with senior level team direct related to or in-
huge events marked verbally complete but so volved in execution. The management put for-
many things remain to be done, I am not go- ward findings to have a responsibility matrix
ing into punch listing here but an expert shall developed and targets set again to close the
keep in mind that complete means complete findings. Management can have an insight
in all sense. In cold eye review the EP/SME where were the lapses and can correct from
will check it against required inspection rec- their end too.
ords vs signed off records, verifying things
physically by himself. 8. Action plan for implementation of cold eye
review findings
4. How can management ask Cold Eye Re-
view on the prevailing situation Once discussion with all concerned complet-
ed, the detailed implementation plan will be
Experienced Professional / Subject Matter generated and all responsible will have a say
Expert is always asked to help on finding facts before the action plan is finalized. All lapses
and to the best understanding of facts, man- or grey areas where no one seems taking the
agement uses it to compare with what is re- work can be redistributed to team members
ported. Normally from any event or work there and the action plan is finalized and imple-
will be many sources providing information to mented.
many heads at the same time. An execution
head will get reports from his project involved 9. Conclusion
team that so and so activity is complete but
the quality team is not coming to inspect, at Cold Eye Review is key to success for the
the same instance quality team’s head will be complicated work which has huge volumes
appraised that execution/construction has not and huge teams working. It brings the efforts
yet completed the work and raised request to toward a single goal. Cold eye review is a hot
inspect. There will be ambiguity and cross work to be completed when nothing else
fights among departments and professionals. seems to give correct reports.
Management needs to carefully choose a per- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
son who can have a viewpoint not inclined to
any team when he is on his mission to pro-
duce a cold eye review report.
5. Cold eye review is not punch listing, why
it’s so & how?
Cold eye review is a detailed document that
provides insight into the current situation and
has no influence on upcoming works or prepa-
rations. The Cold eye review for a work if
seen incomplete will mark it incomplete even
Lalit Mohan Nainwal has always strived for
if it’s argued that whole preparation is done
knowledge, Lalit continued his education with
and work will be completed within a short
his career as a shipwright apprentice and
time. Its not punch list which can mark work
achieved his AMIE(Mech), C Eng (India) &
as partially complete with few comments
MBA. Apart from Indian Navy's Docks, Lalit
open.
worked with several renowned EPC compa-
6. Outputs of Cold Eye Reviews nies in India & abroad such as Tata Projects,
SKE&C, and KBR Inc. in major projects such
Cold eye review is expected to deliver a crys- as HRRL, KPPC Aromatics, Pearl GTL, and
tal clear picture of a project progress or ongo- Ichthys LNG Project.
ing event where does it stand when the study/
review was done.
48
 49

Evaluating Pipeline Operational

Integrity | Sand Production
Jayanthi Vijay Sarathy

Piping systems associated with production, classified on three levels – Level 1, Level
transporting oil & gas, water/gas injection into 2 and Level 3. Level 1 procedure repre-
reservoirs, experience wear & tear with time & sents longitudinal area of metal loss
operations. There would be metal loss due to based on the maximum defect depth and
erosion, erosion-corrosion and cavitation to overall defect length. The ASME B31G,
name a few. The presence of corrosion de- RSTRENG 085dL, and DNVGL RP F-101
fects provides a means for localized fractures method for single defect can be classified
to propagate causing pipe ruptures & leak- as Level 1 methods. Level 2 procedure
ages. This also reduces the pipe/pipeline max- represents longitudinal area of metal loss
imum allowable operating pressure [MAOP]. based on the defect depth profile. The
RSTRENG Effective Area method and
The following article covers methods by DNV DNVGL RP F-101 method for complex
standards to quantitatively estimate the ero- shaped defects can be classified as Level
sion rate for ductile pipes and bends due to the 2 methods. Level 3 assessment methods
presence of sand. It is to be noted that corro- involve using Finite element methods
sion can occur in many other scenarios such (FEM) provided the FEM model is validat-
as pipe dimensioning, flow rate limitations, ed against experimental results.
pipe performance such as pressure drop, vi-
brations, noise, insulation, hydrate formation 3. Corrosion failures are caused by two main
and removal, severe slug flow, terrain slugging mechanisms – Leakage resulting in a rel-
and also upheaval buckling. However all these atively small loss of product and Rupture
aspects are not covered in this document. causing a sudden release of pressure
which propagates in isolation.
Based on the erosional rates of pipes and
bends, the Maximum Safe Pressure/Revised 4. To understand corrosion assessment pro-
MAOP is evaluated based on a Level 1 As- cedures, two terms come into play – Foli-
sessment procedure for the remaining strength as Bulging factor [MT] and flow stress [sf].
of the pipeline. The Level 1 procedures taken Folais factor represents the bulging effect
up in this article are RSTRENG 085dL method, of a shell surface that is thinner in wall
DNVGL RP F-101 (Part-B) and thickness [WT] than the surrounding shell.
PETROBRAS’s PB Equation. It takes into account the work-hardening
effect, i.e., the increase in the stress con-
GENERAL NOTES & ASSUMPTIONS centration levels as the corrosion defect
1. In evaluating corrosion defects, the gener- begins to bulge before eventually causing
ally accepted or traditional approach is the a failure. The flow stress is the stress at
ASME B31G code which gives overly con- which the corrosion defect is predicted to
servative results in terms of lower burst cause a failure.
pressures with which operators repair/ 5. In pipeline assessment literature, SMYS &
replace the corroded pipe/pipeline seg- yield strength are used differently. Specif-
ments. This represents higher mainte- ic Minimum Yield Strength (SMYS) is the
nance costs necessitating the need to fol- absolute minimum yield strength for a par-
low a procedure that meets pipeline integri- ticular material grade specified by ASTM
ty requirements while also lowering mainte- standards. Whereas, yield strength is ob-
nance, repair & replacement costs. tained from mill conducted tensile tests. In
2. To assess pipeline integrity, standard cor- cases, where the yield strength value is
rosion assessment procedures are not available, SMYS can be used instead.
 50

6. When a corrosion defect occurs inside a 9. The potential for sand particles to get car-
pipe/pipeline, the defect tends to propa- ried from the formation to well bore in oil &
gate longitudinally. ASME B31G mandates gas wells is subjected to the reservoir ge-
a maximum allowable longitudinal length ology. With the onset of water formation or
[LM] for a given defect depth [d]. As per rapid change in well conditions, there is
Modified ASME B31G method i.e., 085dL sand formation. Employing a zero rate of
method, defects are classified as Long de- sand production would be economically
fect and short defect based on the condi- infeasible. Therefore sand management
tion, LS2/Dt = 50, Where D = Pipeline Out- programmes are put in place whereby up-
er diameter (OD) and t = pipeline nominal stream facilities are equipped with sand
wall thickness. When field measured de- traps with necessary safeguards that aid
fect’s longitudinal length, L < LS, the de- in achieving an acceptable sand rate. The
fect is termed as short defect. When L > standard used for this article is DNVGL
LS, the defect is termed as long defect. RP O501 which provides empirical models
The DNVGL RP F-101 method does not that cover plain erosion & not the com-
classify defects in relation to their longitu- bined effects of corrosion-erosion, droplet
dinal length. The pressure strength of long erosion & cavitation. The article therefore
defects is a function of the longitudinal de- considers plain erosion which leads to
fect length [L]. The Longer the defect, low- corrosion pits in the pipeline & the associ-
er is the failure pressure However a limit ated MAOP is computed using the stand-
exists in the value of L, beyond which any ard corrosion assessment methods.
large increase in the longitudinal defect
length, L produces very little reduction in
10. When applying the original ASME B31G
the failure pressure.
method in simplified form (Appendix L of
7. Long Internal defects are one of the vari- ASME B31.8), the Safe Operating Pres-
ous causes for geometry corrosion in- sure given as P’ must first be calculated
duced damage that occur in oil & gas pipe- using the pressure corresponding to a
lines. These occur on the pipe/pipeline hoop stress equal to 100% of SMYS for
the operating pressure, P. The resulting P’
bottom due to accumulation of liquids in-
is the estimated failure pressure, which
cluding water. Whereas long external de- must then be divided by the design factor/
fects are caused on the pipeline’s outer desired factor of safety to obtain the cor-
surface due to loss of protective coatings. rect P’.
8. ASME B31G assumes a parabolic profile
across the area of the defect, i.e., Area of
defect = 2/3´d´L, where, d = Defect depth
and L = Defect longitudinal length. Where-
as with the RSTRENG 085dL method, the
defect area is approximated as 85% of the
peak depth, i.e., by using a factor of 0.85,
i.e., Defect Area = 0.85´d´L.

6.
7.

Figure 1. Corrosion Shape Approximation

 51

CASE STUDY
A case study is made for a case of 30 MMscfd
of well fluids transported through an 8” DN
carbon steel flowline from the well head to a
trunk line. The design details are, (3)
Parameter Value Unit

Operational Life of Pipeline 25 Years

(4)
Pipeline Diameter [DN] 8.625 in
INCLINED PIPE EROSION RATE – DNV RP
Pipeline Wall Thickness [WT] 3.18 mm
O501
PSL1
API 5L Spec -
X65 The flowline profile over the terrain would
Ultimate Tensile Strength [su] 530 MPa have inclined sections. With the onset of wa-
ter production from the wells, quartz sand par-
SMYS [S] 448 MPa
ticles from wells [50 ppmW, 300 µm, 2,650
Design Pressure [DP] 93.5 bara kg/m3] impinge at an impact angle of 300. As
per DNVGL RP O501 [Rev. 2015], for ductile
Design Temperature [DT] 100 0C
materials, the maximum erosion occurs for
Gas Flow Rate [mg] 31,657 kg/h impact angles in the range of 150 to 300,
whereas brittle materials experience maxi-
Liquid Flow Rate [ml] 14,928 kg/h
mum erosion at normal impact angle. The
Gas Density [rg] 42.0 kg/m3 erosive wear can be estimated as,

Liquid Density [rl] 713.2 kg/m3

1.34E-
Gas Viscosity [µg] kg/m.s
05
(5)
4.72E-
Liquid Viscosity [µl] kg/m.s
04 Where,
2.58E-
Mixture Viscosity [µm] kg/m.s mp = Sand Flow rate [kg/s]
05
Gas Velocity [Vg] 5.9 m/s K=Material Constant (2´10-9 for Steel Grades)
Liquid Velocity [Vl] 0.16 m/s n =Material Constant (2.6 for Steel Grades)
Sand Content [ppmW] 50.0 ppmW Up = Particle Velocity [m/s] (Vg + Vl)
Average Sand Particle Size 300 µm rt = Pipeline density [kg/m3]
No. of Pipe Diameter [900
1.5 [-] At = Pipeline Area exposed to Erosion [m2]
Long Elbow]
Inclined Pipe Impact angle [a] 300 degrees F(a) = Function characteristic of ductility [-]

WELL FLUIDS MIXTURE PROPERTIES The value of F(a) is calculated as,

The mixture density and mixture viscosity of
the well fluids can be determined as follows.
(6)

(1) For the condition, F(a)Î [0, 1] for a Î [0, p/2]

Note: 1 mil = 1/1000th of an inch

(2) The sand flow rate based on ppmW is calcu-

lated as,
Therefore applying the above correlations,
 52

The characteristic impact angle, a for the pipe

bend geometry is calculated from the radius
(7) of curvature. The radius of curvature, Rc [i.e.,
The erosion rate can be calculated beginning bend radius] for a bend is expressed as num-
with estimating the function characterizing ber of pipe diameters. Considering a 900 long
pipeline ductility, F(a) as follows, elbow, the bend radius in terms of number of
pipe diameters is 1.5, i.e., Rc = 1.5.

For 300, (8)

(14)
(9)

The sand flow rate based on ppmW is,

(15)

The length of the 900 bend is estimated as,

(10)

The pipeline area exposed to erosion is,

(16)

(11)

The erosion rate is therefore calculated as, (17)

As per DNVGL RP O0501, the erosional rate

[E] for pipe bends is computed as,
(12)

(13)
(18)
PIPE BEND EROSION RATE – DNVGL RP
O501 Where,

Pipeline bends are prone to erosional wear. E = Erosion Rate [mm/year]

When the flow direction in the bend changes, mp = Sand Flow rate [kg/s]
sand particles crash against the bend wall,
instead of following the flow direction. Assum- K=Material Constant (2´10-9 for Steel Grades)
ing a straight length [10D] before the bend, n =Material Constant (2.6 for Steel Grades)
the erosion rate is estimated as,
Up = Particle Velocity [m/s] (Vg + Vl)

rt = Pipeline density [kg/m3]

At = Bend Area exposed to erosion [m2]

F(a) = Function characteristic of ductility [-]

G = Particle Size correction function [-]

C1 = Constant accounting for multiple impact
of sand particles at the bend’s outer end [2.5]
GF = Geometry Factor
 53

The geometry factor [GF], is taken to be 1.0 The pipeline area exposed to erosion is,
based on the assumption that the straight line
section, upstream of the bend is greater than
10D. For straight line section less than 10D,
the GF increases to 2 or 3. To arrive at the (29)
particle size correction term, G, the dimen-
The function characterizing pipeline ductility,
sionless parameter A is calculated first.
F(a) as follows,

(19) For 300, (30)

The diameter relation [g] and critical diameter
relation [gg] is calculated as, (31)

Therefore the erosion rate is computed as,

(20)

Where, dp = Average Particle diameter

(32)

(33)
(21)
MAX SAFE PRESSURE IN CORRODED AR-
The particle size correction function [G] is, EA

With sand erosion occurring due to sand flow,

defects begin to form on the pipeline inner
(22)
surface. These defects have a certain depth
The pipeline Bend Area exposed to erosion is, of penetration [d] for a given wall thickness of
the pipe [t]. The following section provides
calculations for the maximum safe pressure
(23)
for operation based on RSTRENG 085dL
Applying the expressions to the case study, method, DNVGL RP F101 Single defect meth-
od and PETROBRAS PB method.
(24) As per ASME B31G, for a pit depth of up to
10%, the pipeline can be continued to be op-
erated with the existing MAOP. For a pit depth
(25) between 10% and 80%, the pipeline needs to
be operated at the revised/reduced MAOP
based on the corroded wall thickness. For a
(26) pit depth greater than 80%, the pipeline would
Therefore since g < gg, the particle size cor- have to repaired or replaced.
rection function is,
As per ASME B31G, for a contiguous corrod-
ed area having a maximum depth of more
(27) than 10% but less than 80% of the nominal
pipe wall thickness, Lm should not extend
The critical particle diameter [dp,c] is calculated
along the longitudinal axis of the pipe for a
as,
distance greater than calculated from the ex-
pression,
(28)
 54

In this case, the measured max corroded area

depth [d] and measured longitudinal length [L]
in the inclined pipe is 0.04” and 3” respective-
(34)
ly. For the selected wall thickness of 3.18 mm,
Where, d/t is 0.32, i.e., 32% pit depth.
Lm = Maximum Allowable Longitudinal length Similarly for the pipe bend, the measured max
of corroded area [in] corroded area depth [d] and measured longi-
D = Pipeline OD [in] tudinal length [L] is 0.06” and 1.3” respective-
ly. For the selected wall thickness of 3.18 mm,
T = Pipeline selected Wall thickness [in]
d/t is 0.48, i.e., 48% pit depth.
The constant B is estimated as,
Therefore for the inclined pipeline,

(41)

(35) Since L2/Dt < 50, the Folias bulging factor is,
As per ASME B31G, B cannot be > 4.0. For
corrosion depth [d/t] between 10% and
17.5%, the value of B is to be limited to 4.0. (42)
For e.g., with d/t = 0.32, the value of B & Lm
is, (43)

Therefore the max safe pressure is,

(36)

(44)
(37)
RSTRENG 085DL METHOD
(45)
The max safe pressure with RSTRENG
085dL method is determined as follows, Performing similar calculations for Pipe Bend
with d = 0.06” and L=1.3”, the Max safe pres-
sure is 90.0 bara.
DNV RP F101 SINGLE DEFECT METHOD
(38) The max safe pressure with DNVGL RP F101
single defect method is determined as,
Where,
SMYS = Specific Min Yield Strength [MPa]
D = Pipeline OD [in]
(46)
M = Folias Bulging Factor [-]
Where,
For the condition, L2/Dt £ 50, M is,
su = Ultimate Tensile Strength [MPa]
D = Pipeline OD [in]
M = Folias Bulging Factor [-]
(39)

For the condition, L2/Dt > 50, M is,

(47)

(40)
 55

Applying the DNVGL RP F101 Single defect RESULTS

method to the same inclined pipe and pipe Summarizing, the max safe pressure is 88.4
bend data for an ultimate tensile strength of bara for pipeline and 90 bara for pipe bend,
530 MPa, the max safe pressure is, Max Safe Pressure,
Method
Pf [bara]
(48) Inclined Pipeline
-
Pipe Bend
RSTRENG 085dL 88.4 90.0
DNV RP F101 Single De-
(49) 91.9 96.3
fect
Petrobras PB 94.3 99.7
(50)
Design Pressure [DP] 93.5 93.5
Performing similar calculations for pipe bend
Max Safe Pressure, Pf 88.4 90.0
with d=0.06” and L=1.3”, the Max safe pres-
sure is 96.3 bara. Based on the erosion rate for an operating
period of 25 years, the pipeline WT lost is,
PETROBRAS PB METHOD
Inclined Pipeline
The max safe pressure with PETROBRAS PB Parameter
Pipe Bend
method is determined as,
Erosion Rate [mm/y] 0.0078 0.0496

WT Lost in 25 Years [mm] 0.20 1.24

(51)

Where, REFERENCES
su = Ultimate Tensile Strength [MPa] “Managing Sand Production and Erosion”,
DNVGL-RP-O501, Aug 2015 Edition.
M = Folias Bulging Factor [-]
“Manual for Determining Remaining Strength
of Corroded Pipelines”, ASME B31G-1991
(52) “Folias Factor”, Science Direct, https://
www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/
Applying the PETROBRAS PB method to the folias-factor
same inclined pipe and pipe bend data for an
“Modified Equation for the Assessment of
ultimate tensile strength of 530 MPa, the max
Long Corrosion Defects”, Adilson C. Benja-
safe pressure is,
min, Ronaldo D Vieria, Jose Luiz F. Friere,
Jaime T.P. de Castro, https://
www.researchgate.net/publication/24965714
(53)

(54)

(55)

Performing similar calculations for Pipe Bend

with d = 0.06” and L=1.3”, the Max safe pres-
sure is 99.7 bara.
 56

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Vijay Sarathy holds a Master’s Degree in

Chemical Engineering from Birla Institute of
Technology & Science (BITS), Pilani, India
and is a Chartered Engineer from the Institu-
tion of Chemical Engineers, UK. His expertise
over 14 years of professional experience co-
vers Front End Engineering, Process Dynam-
ic Simulation and Subsea/Onshore pipeline
flow assurance in the Oil and Gas industry.
Vijay has worked as an Upstream Process
Engineer with major conglomerates of Gen-
eral Electric, ENI Saipem and Shell.

PT. Dinamika Teknik Persada

is an Engineering Consultants focused on
providing engineering and technical services to
the oil and gas industry.
We develop innovative and cost effective solu-
tions and helping our clients to achieve high per-
formance from their assets by providing exper-
tise, novel methods and appropriate tools

-FEED to Detailed engineering

PT Dinamika Teknik Design
Persada provide Engi- -Independent Design Verifica-
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- Processing plants
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- Onshore pipelines Tangerang 15322 – Indonesia
- Offshore pipelines Phone / Fax : +62 21 53150601
Email : info@dtp-eng.com
57
 58

Safety Talk Series

Electric Shock Hazard Prevention
Chris Palmisano, MESH, IFAC

Some people believe that low voltage shocks

can’t harm them. Actually, these low voltage
jolts can be fatal. The severity of a shock is
measured by three factors—the quantity of
current flowing through the body; the path of
the current as it passes through the body;
and the duration of the current.

Faulty tools can be responsible for an acci-

dent. Tools should receive proper care so
they will not become faulty. They should al-
ways be returned to their proper place,
should be handled with care, and should be
inspected regularly.
This month we are excited to be rolling out our To reduce the hazard of electric shock, third-
NEW Safety Talk Series! Every other month, wire grounded or approved double-insulated
we will provide a safety talk for our readers on tools must be used. Any extension cords you
a new topic. They can be used as resource to use must have three-pronged plugs. When
share with your employees as a Safety Talk or repairing extension cords make sure the po-
Tool Box Talk, to help you maintain a safe and larity is correct
healthful workplace.
There are three factors involved in accidental
Today’s topic is one: grounding mishaps which should be recog-
nized. All of these factors are contributed by
ELECTRIC SHOCK HAZARD PREVENTION people and they are:
There are several precautions against acci-  Lack of knowledge of safety precautions,
dental grounding that we all should observe  Ignoring hazards or safety rules
when using portable electric tools. Check your  Neglect.
tools for these conditions:
Again, it’s important to check your tools be-
 Defective or broken insulation fore using them. If they appear broken, defec-
 Improper or poorly made connections to tive, or in poor condition, report it to your su-
terminals. pervisor. Do not use the tool until it has been
 Broken or otherwise defective plugs. approved for further use.
 Loose or broken switches.
 Sparking brushes. STAY ALERT ON THE JOB AND DO NOT
TAKE ANY UNNECESSARY CHANCES
If any of these conditions exist, have the tool
repaired before using it, or report it to your su-
pervisor. Do not use the defective tool.

When it comes to electrical safety, don’t at-

tempt to repair or adjust portable electric tools
while they’re plugged in. Do not use portable
electric tools in the presence of water, flam-
mable vapors or gases, unless the tool is spe-
cifically designed for such use.
 59

Pneumatic Dilute Phase Solids Conveying

Joe Bonem

INTRODUCTION  A blower to provide the energy necessary

Solids conveying is used throughout the in- to move the solids to the next processing
dustrial and business world. It is used from step. The system shown here is a typical
drive-through banking depositing to heavy in- closed loop nitrogen system where the
dustry. While the pneumatic design can vary nitrogen is returned to the suction side of
from dilute phase to dense phase and from the blower. However, an air conveying
vacuum systems to pressure system, this pa- system would be similar except the blow-
per deals with pressurized dilute phase sys- er and return line would not be required.
tem concepts. These concepts will be helpful  Piping to transfer the dilute phase to the
in both design and problem solving areas.. next processing step. While the piping
The paper contains guidelines, conclusions layout may seem trivial, it is very im-
and the results of calculations. These calculat- portant in solids conveying as discussed
ed values are based on proprietary correla- later.
tions. These proprietary correlations have  The final separation of the solids from the
been validated in commercial operations of a conveying gas which is usually done by a
pressurized transfer system with a length of cyclone or “dust collector”.
400 feet as well as limited laboratory data.
Wherever possible the correlations have been An engineer confronted with the design or
confirmed by actual plant data. problem solving associated with the system
shown in Figure 1 struggles because relative
The physical properties of the solid being con- to more traditional engineering aspects, the
veyed are those of a spherically shaped poly- technology is not well defined, not easily
olefin. It is not known to what extent the corre- available and not covered in the academic
lations are valid for other solids. The paper is world. The purpose of this paper is to intro-
focused on systems where the gas is either duce the non-expert to terminology and cal-
nitrogen or air. However, the concepts are val- culation approaches for dilute phase pneu-
id for other gases. The dilute phase pressur- matic conveying. Because the calculations
ized system is generally one where the solid use proprietary correlations, only the results
to gas ratio is less than 5 pounds of solids per of the calculations are show. However, the
pound of gas. Although there are literature ref- author is available for consulting in the dis-
erences of a solid to gas ratio being as high as cussed field.
10. Pressurized systems are defined as a
system where the final pressure is above at- The paper presents results of calculations for
mospheric pressure. The initial pressure will important criteria such as required velocity to
then depend on pressure drop in the convey- suspend the particles and pressure drop in
ing system. An example of this system is the system. In addition to results of calcula-
shown schematically in Figure 1. tions, there are guidelines and values provid-
ed that will aid in the design and problem
When considering the dilute phase pressur- solving of these dilute phase transfer sys-
ized system shown in Figure 1, there are 4 tems.
major components that each can contribute to
the success or failure of a system. They are: While the thrust of this paper is a solids con-
veying system handling air or nitrogen, the
 A means to transfer the solids from a lower same concepts would apply to systems
pressure to the higher pressure conveying where the gas is a hydrocarbon. For exam-
system. This can be a rotary feeder or a ple, in the production of polyolefins, the efflu-
screw conveyer. The system shown here ent from a reactor often flows from high pres-
is a rotary feeder. There are also cases sure to a lower pressure where the motive
where the solids are at higher pressure force is provided by vaporizing liquid from a
and a rotary feeder or valving system Is liquid phase reactor or reactor gas from a gas
used to control the solids flow. phase reactor.
 60

KEY CONCEPTS indicate that particle density has little effect

The Key Concepts consist of the following: on saltation velocity. This statement seems
counter intuitive. It is associated with the
 Gas Rate – This is the linear velocity of the compensating effects that the denser single
gas based on the total cross sectional area particle and lower volumetric solids flow have
of the pipe. on the saltation velocity.
 Solids to Gas Ratio-This is normally ex- While saltation velocity is associated with hor-
pressed in weight terms such as lbs. sol- izontal flow, the comparable term for vertical
ids/lb. gas. However, other units are often flow is “choke factor”. If the gas flow rate
used. The key to remember is to confirm does not provide a choke factor above the
what units are being used. minimum, solids will tend to build up in the
 Solids Entrance Design- The solids en- bottom of the vertical riser and then surge
trance design to the gas stream is im- into the receiving vessel. In the cases shown
portant to get the solids moving in the di- here, the saltation velocity is always greater
rection of the gas stream. In addition, the than the velocity required to avoid choking.
conveying gas that fills the rotary feeder
must be vented. These features are de- In an operating facility, it is often difficult to
scribed later. know if saltation is occurring. Figure 5 shows
 Piping Design – The key to a successful pressure drop in the conveying line as a func-
piping design is to minimize elbows. The tion of gas rate. As shown in this figure, there
pressure drop in elbows is discussed later. is a minimum point. The minimum point in this
 Pressure Drop in piping – The presence of figure is generally considered the point of in-
solids in the 2 phase flow increases the cipient solids saltation. Incipient solids salta-
pressure drop particularly in elbows. tion is defined as the point where the lines
shown in Figure 5 intersect. As shown in this
These areas are discussed in the following figure, as the gas flow is decreased from the
paragraphs. highest rate shown on the right of Figure 5,
the pressure drop decrease until the mini-
GAS RATE mum pressure drop is reached. At this point,
the solids begin to settle out. As the gas rate
The gas rate must be high enough so that the continues to be decreased, the solids level
solids move uniformly. While dense phase builds in the pipe and begins to restrict the
transfer is a mechanism where the solids flow gas flow causing the pressure drop to in-
rate varies with time, in dilute phase flow the crease. Conversely as the gas flow rate is
solids flow rate to a receiving vessel is reason- increased from the left side of the figure, the
ably constant. This does not necessarily mean restricted area decreases as the flow is in-
that the solids are traveling at the same veloci- creased and the solids slide along the bottom
ty as the gas This difference between gas ve- of the pipe. As the gas rate continues to in-
locity and solids velocity is referred to as slip crease, the depth of solids in the pipe de-
velocity. The most important criteria to assure creases and the area of gas flow increases.
that the solids flow rate to the receiving vessel This results in a decrease in pressure drop.
is constant is gas rate. At the point of incipient saltation, the solids
Gas flow rate should be above the saltation begin to be picked up into the gas stream.
velocity. Saltation velocity is defined as the However, there will still be a layer of solids
minimum velocity in horizontal piping to pro- sliding along the pipe. As the gas rate is in-
vide the constant solids rate to the receiving creased more solid fluidization occurs and the
vessel. This definition also implies that the sol- solids are eventually uniformly disbursed in
ids are dispersed uniformly in the flowing gas the flowing gas stream. The point where most
stream. A typical calculated saltation velocity is of the solids are disbursed in the conveying
60-85 fps. This is for a nitrogen/air system gas is defined as the saltation velocity. If the
conveying polyolefin particles with a diameter gas rate is increased further, the pressure
of 700-1500 microns at pressures less than 10 drop will continue to increase. The saltation
psig. This calculated saltation velocity is gen- velocities discussed in this paper are 40-50%
erally increased by 15-25% to insure the suc- above this point of minimum pressure drop
cessful design of the conveying system. Figure (incipient saltation velocity).
3 shows the estimated effect of particle diame- While it might seem appropriate to be con-
ter on estimated saltation velocity for the de- servative and design the gas rate to be well
scribed system. Figure 4 shows the effect of above the saltation velocity. Besides wasting
solids rate on pressure drop at a fixed gas rate funds in overdesign of the system, there is a
for the described system. Similar calculations risk of the higher velocity causing the
 61

temperature of the solid particles to increase Piping Configuration Ratio of Pres-

past the melting point. At elbows the particles sure Drop for
approach a complete stop and the kinetic flow- Two Phases/
ing energy is converted to heat. If this heat is Gas only
not quickly dispersed throughout the particle,
some of the particle surface may be in the melt Horizontal Pipe 1.5 to 1.9
phase. These particles with melted surface
Vertical Pipe 1.9 to 2.5
may create agglomerates or other types of ir-
regular particles. Elbows or Bends 5.7 to 8.8
The particles that slow down at the elbows This summary shows the importance of el-
must then be reaccelerated to the solid’s ve- bows or bends in a piping layout. Table 2
locity. This reacceleration creates additional shows the basis for these calculations.
pressure drop. So any excess gas rate causes
both an increase in pressure drop associated SOLIDS ENTRANCE DESIGN
with reacceleration at elbows and pressure
The optimum design of solids entrance into
drop associated with the higher gas rates. The
increased pressure drop in the piping and re- the flowing gas stream is shown schematical-
acceleration at elbows will lead to higher pres- ly in Figure 2. In a pressurized system the
sure at the entrance from the rotary feeder. rotary feeder pockets will fill with gas as the
This increased pressure will increase the solids are discharged and flow into the con-
amount of conveying gas trapped in the empty veying gas stream. This gas will be vented as
pocket of the rotary feeder. Thus, enhanced rotary feeder rotate and solids flow into the
facilities must be provided to allowing venting pocket. If the solids are small enough, this
this gas. vented gas will fluidize them and they will be
The subject of minimum saltation velocity is so held up in the standpipe. Eventually they will
complex that experts in the field often indicate dump into the rotary feeder. This unsteady
that experimental work is the only way to accu- state creates fluctuating solids flow which can
rately predict it. The correlations used in this cause the dilute phase system to plug. The
paper seem to give reasonable results and are vessel design shown in Figure 2 should be
in general agreement with work published by large enough to allow the gas to disengage
F. Rizk. The Rizk relationship is shown below: from the solids and vent to a proper location.
Fr^a = Ø*10^b Figure 2 also shows a sloped solids entrance
that will assist in starting the solids flow into
V=Fr*(gD)^.5
the flowing gas stream in the same direction
a = 1.1*d+2.5 as the flowing gas.
b = 1.44*d+1.96 PIPING DESIGN
Where: The piping design for dilute phase solids con-
Fr = The calculated Froude number veying is very important. The two most im-
portant guidelines are;
Ø = The solids loading in wt. solids/wt.
gas  Piping runs must be either horizontal or
g = gravitational constant 9.81 m/sec2 vertical. Inclined piping runs have been
shown to have 30% higher pressure drop
D = Pipe diameter in meters than horizontal piping. In the case of the
d = particle diameter in mm conveying gas being a volatile hydrocar-
bon from a pressure reduction step, there
V = Saltation velocity in m/sec
will be a high rate of gas and the in-
SOLIDS TO GAS RATIO creased pressure drop will not be a con-
The amount of solids being conveyed with a cern. In this case it may be acceptable to
fixed amount of gas can impact the pressure use inclined piping.
drop. Figure 4 shows the impact of the solids  Elbows should be minimized. As indicated
rate on the estimated pressure drop. Table 1
earlier elbows cause particles to stop
shows this along with estimated saltation ve-
locity for the various solids rates. Table 1 also flowing until they are reaccelerated. The
shows the ratio of two phase (gas and solids) motive force for this reacceleration must
pressure drop to gas only pressure drop. The come from the conveying gas which cre-
ates an increased pressure drop.
 62

In addition to these guidelines, considerations are dependent on factors such as particle

for the design of a sampling system are often shape, particle density, and small particle ag-
of interest. In order to obtain representative glomeration that have a wide degree of error.
samples of the solid being conveyed, criteria As indicated earlier this often forces experts
are necessary. Two alternate sampling design to use small scale testing. Using transparent
are possible as follows: pipe, it is relatively easy to spot the point of
uniform solids flow. If it is not possible to ob-
1. In the first alternative the sample is taken
tain a visualize observation of the solids flow,
from a well dispersed stream of gas and
The technique described above and shown in
solids. The solids must have obtained uni-
Figure 5 can be utilized. As indicated earlier,
form dispersion in the flowing gas stream.
to obtain the desired flow regime of fully sus-
This can often require 30-50 diameters of
pended, the velocity should be increased by
length following the injection of solids. The
50% or more. With velocities developed in a
second criteria is somewhat more difficult
laboratory experiment the scaleup criteria for
to achieve. The sample line itself should
a commercial design must be developed.
extend into the center of the conveying line
Based on the proprietary correlations dis-
and the inlet should point directly into the
cussed earlier, the scaleup is probably best
flowing stream. In addition, the velocity in
done keeping the laboratory velocity constant
the sampling line going to the sample cy-
in the commercial plant. This will likely result
clone (or other solids-gas separator)
in a lower pressure drop in the commercial
should be designed for the same velocity
plant than observed in the laboratory for the
as the actual gas velocity in the conveying
identical piping configuration.
line.
SUMMARY
2. A second approach is to install a sampling
device on the outside curve of an elbow. At While the science involved in dilute phase
this point the solids will be sliding along the transfer is evolving, this paper provides some
elbow. If particle size distribution is im- exposure for the non-expert to this critical ar-
portant, this approach may give false re- ea. I would be interested in running my model
sults. on any set of actual data on a pro bono basis.
This will provide additional credibility for the
LABORATORY EVALUATIONS AND
model as well as some potential improvement
SCALEUP
areas for you.
The correlations to determine saltation velocity
TABLE 1: IMPACT OF SOLIDS RATE ON PRESSURE DROP

ITEM
Solids Rate pph 12000 14000 16000 18000 20000
Saltation Velocity fps 43 47 51 56 60
Gas Velocity fps 97 97 97 97 97
Solids Velocity fps 88 88 88 88 88
Total Calculated
Pressure Drop psi 2.9 3.2 3.5 3.8 4.1

RATIO OF TOTAL PRESSURE DROP TO GAS ONLY PRESSURE DROP IN

Elbows 5.7 6.5 7.3 8.1 8.8
Horizontal Pipe 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9
Vertical Pipe 1.9 2.0 2.2 2.3 2.5

TABLE 2: BASIS FOR CALCULATIONS

Operating Conditions unless variable is used as independent variable
 Gas Flow - 9000 pph
 Solids Flow – 20000pph
 Particle Size – Spherical with 700 microns average diameter
 Particle Density – 51.7 lbs/ft3
 Particle Size Distribution – The assumed particle size distribution is such that d15.9 /d50 equals 0.42. Where d15.9 =
The size particle that 15.9 % of particles are smaller than and d50 represents the medium particle size.
 Particle Specific Gravity - 0.828
 Discharge Pressure - 0.2 psig
Piping System Basis
 Horizontal Length – 400 feet
 Vertical Rise – 100 feet
 Number of elbows – 10
 Pipe ID – 8 inch
63
64
 65

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joe Bonem is a highly experienced process/

chemical engineer in areas such as oil produc-
tion using fracturing techniques, oil production
from the Canadian oil sands (including cleanup
of tailing ponds), refining of oil and production
of petrochemicals. Over the last few years, he
has consulted with several Fortune 500 com-
panies as well as some smaller companies.
The areas of consulting have included process
development and scaleup, process design,
plant problem solving and problem solving
training. He has conducted training courses in
the USA and Middle East (United Arab Emir-
ates and Bahrain) as well as worked with com-
panies in Japan, England, France, Italy and
Belgium. His specialties include: process engi-
neering and chemical engineering, plant prob-
lem solving and training; process scaleup and
development; and manufacturing and technol-
ogy of olefin based polymers.
 66

Considerations for Fabrication of Mass

Transfer Products
Neil Almeida, Consulting Tool Engineer

This article points out some of the technical the hole. This is clearly visible in the picture
points in the manufacturing/fabrication of as the area around the hole is largely dry.
Mass Transfer products.
The sharp edge of a laser cut hole does not
These do not affect the fabrication in a really allow the free flow of fluid through the hole.
significant way, but if noticed, could be very This is clearly indicated because the area
useful and make life easy from a manufactur- around the edges of the hole is quite wet.
ing point of view.

In this article will use a “Tray” as an example

of Mass Transfer product to illustrate the
points.

TRAYS
1A- SIEVE TRAY DECK – SURFACE TEN-
SION OF FLUID FLOW
Let us consider the Sieve tray deck (The fol-
lowing information equally applies to all kinds
of tray deck openings.) ,

Hole opening: Fig.1 Comparison of surface tension of on

fluid flow in Punched & Laser cut hole.
There are two methods of making a hole that
are predominantly used in the industry cur- Let us consider a fluid with more viscosity &
rently, they are: impurity is flowing through the holes.

 Laser cut As impurities rise, the sharp edges of a laser

 Turret punch. cut hole offer further resistance to fluid flow
which leads to fluid build up around the edg-
Both options are used widely nowadays due to es. This causes the surface tension to drop
their speed & accuracy. around the edges that leads to fluid build up.
This fluid build up can lead to reduction in
Fig.1 shows an example of holes made by hole diameter as impurities gather around the
both the methods. The Top half shows a edges of the hole. Because of the build up
punched hole, made on a CNC Turret press & the fluid level rises and never actually flow on
the bottom half shows a hole cut by a Laser the surface of the tray.
machine. Standard Pickling has been done
on both the samples. Some water was poured This kind of fluid build up may be become re-
on the samples to simulate fluid flow to ob- ally noticeable and affect performance in the
serve the difference in fluid flow on the surface long run. This loss of performance is general-
of the samples. The thickness of the tray is ly not taken into account during process cal-
inconsequential because we are considering culation.
the fluid flow pattern on the top surface of the
tray/deck. 1B FIXED VALVE – RISE OF FIXED VALVE
Fixed valves can be fabricated with a CNC
In a Turret punched hole the slight radius on Turret punch, a Normal OBC bigger neck
the surface of the tray at the edge of the hole, press/ or a NC Press. CNC Turret punch is
reduces surface tension so as to allow the free used if the production speed is important.
flow of the fluid without pooling at the edge of Fixed Valves should be produced using a
 67

Normal press if the Valve Rise is an important

consideration in the Mass Transfer process.

Fig.3 Strip layout for a progressive die & mul-

tistage single tool dies for manufacturing
Round floating valve.

progressive die can cost about 1.5 to 2 times

the combined cost of all the multistage tools,
increasing the product cost significantly.

Fig.2 Typ. View of Valve Rise in 3D & actual Naturally the production time for multistage
sample of Press for Fix Valve tools is higher than with a progressive die, but
the product yield is about 80% of the raw ma-
Fixed valves are not used in huge quantities terial which results in significant cost savings
generally. So, NC presses are used to bal- This is accomplished by tight nesting of prod-
ance the production rates and the valve rise. uct on a sheet. Fig 3 shows the difference in
NC press can produce valves at speeds com- product yield for a progressive die and multi-
parable to CNC Turret punch and produce stage multi tool production.
valves with bigger rise than a Turret punch.
The rise produced by a NC press is compara- Unlike random packing valves are not used in
ble to that of Normal OBC press. large quantities in Mass transfer, so it might
not be a good idea to choose a progressive
The top half of Fig.2 shows a 3D image of the die in this situation. It is advisable to choose
typical heights desired in fixed valves. The the manufacturing process based on de-
bottom half shows the actual picture of a fixed mand.
valve punched on a NC Press.
1D-STYLES OF TRAY DECK ASSEMBLY
The maximum height of a fixed valve pro- It is important to note that the choice of tray
duced in a CNC Turret was 8.0mm due to the deck design (joining different sections) is not
limitations of standard Turret Gap between top particularly dependent on process but is
& bottom turrets. heavily influenced by manufacturability and
ease of installation in a column.
NC presses can easily produce a life of 12-
13mm. It could easily go up to 15-16 mm rise.
We have made fixed valves with a 4.0mm
thickness in Hastelloy C276 on NC Press,
which cannot be done on a standard CNC
Turret punch due to limitations of a CNC turret
handling thicker material and loner runs.

1C-ROUND FLOATING VALVE

Round floating valves are manufactured in
one of two ways: with a single progressive die
or multi stage with multiple dies.

A Progressive Die can produce the valves at a

significantly higher rate allowing the producer
the ability to supply parts in near real time JIT, Fig.4 Different styles of Tray Assembly
but the product yield is about 50% of the raw
material thus increasing the product cost. A The three different styles of assembling the
 68

two sections of the tray deck are illustrated in area, it will result in better performance of the
Fig4., where process design remains intact for mass transfer process.
all and change has been made mechanically
considering ease for manufacturing as well as On a sieve tray section if we can extend the
installation. perforation area till the area specified for
clamping and fitting (illustrated in the pictures
The first style being the most awkward and above) and can match holes on adjacent sec-
difficult style, where two sections are joined tions, when they are clamped together, addi-
inside a column by bolting them together. The tional room can be created for an extra sieve
second style is an improvement on the first valve, opening up more process working area
style where a jog at each end of the section enabling better performance of the tray.
allows for the overlap of adjacent sections
making the bolting of the sections slightly easi- In a floating valve tray, we can make provi-
er than the first style and is commonly used sion for extra valves around the area where
for assembly of sections. two sections are joined together by cutting
the overlapped section of the bottom section
The third style, the latest development in join- in a extra large ‘U’ form to allow for the legs
ing tray deck sections which is considered of the valve to float up and down as illustrated
most installation friendly design and which is by the bottom half of Fig5.
an NBC (non-bolting construction) design that
allows the installer to hold a section by its ex- This kind of arrangement is not easy to make
tended teeth and sliding the teeth through the in a fixed valve tray unlike a floating valve
slots of the next section. tray because more material is needed at the
corner of a tray to prevent the tray from being
We know, installation in Column is not an easy torn away from base deck. A bigger slot
task and by choosing Third option, one can needs to be made on the bottom tray where it
save at least 50% of deck assembly time due is joined to the top tray. This slot needs to be
to NBC design. longer than the legs of the valve to allow easy
flow of fluid. This kind of arrangement is only
1E-POSIBILITY OF EXTRA VALVE possible in trays that have some room to
The top half of Fig. 5, shows a Sieve Tray in work around and not fit too tight in the col-
assembly position and the bottom half shows umn.
floating valves in assembly position.
These are some items to consider to in de-
signing better performing mass transfer prod-
ucts.

1F- PROVISION FOR STAND BY VALVE

A good option for the Trays to consider in
some cases would be to provide for extra
valves which are blocked off &are not used
under normal operations.

When the original set of valves clogged with

the impurities in the fluid, the blocked off
valves can be opened for continued opera-
tions of the column albeit at a reduced capac-
ity to allow for replacement to be ordered.

Fig.5 Typ. Proposed Place for extra valves This can shortened downtime of column.

From a process point of view, the ideal situa- Special Thanks: Mr.Karl Kolmetz, Mr. Kazuo
tion is to have perforations all over the ex- Watari, Mr. Ananth Halvi
posed (diametrical) area in a column. But me-
chanical limitations like joined tray decks sec- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
tions reduce the working area. This lost work- Neil J. Almeida ha over 18
ing area cannot be considered for process cal- years of experience as
culations in valve placement design. consulting Tool Design
Engineer in Mass Transfer and
If we can utilise a portion in this lost working have privilege to develop new
products for clients.
 69

Test Your Process Knowledge with These

20 Questions
Norm Lieberman, Process Improvement Engineering

You can gauge the extent of your knowledge 8. Which type of tray has a better potential
in process operations and engineering. The to develop efficient tray fractionation effi-
test assumes that you have completed high ciency.
school science. The game of “Twenty Ques- A. Sieve
tions” was popular when I was a teenager in B. Valve
the 1950’s. These questions are a mixture of C. Bubble Cap
operational and process engineering prob- D. Grid
lems. Score yourself based on the attached 9. When we change from a 4” pipe, to a 2”
answer page. If you get 100% correct, I will pipe, at constant volumetric flow, the
send you a free book, “Process Design for Re- pressure drop would increase from 2 psi
liable Operations, 2nd Edition”. to:
A. 4 psi
 Increasing the temperature of 1,000 ft3 of B. 8 psi
air from 60°F to 600°F, increases the air C. 16 psi
volume to about: D. 32 psi
 2,000 ft3 E. 64 psi
 10,000 ft3 10. Why does water passing through a cool-
C. 20,000 ft3 ing tower cool, to less than the ambient
2. The purpose of an impeller in a centrifugal temperature?
pump (in non-viscous flow) is to 11. What happens to the density of water as it
________? cools? Increases or decreases?
3. A steam vacuum ejector using 150# mo- 12. To increase the Net Positive Suction
tive steam, has an internal steam nozzle Head available to a pump, pumping liquid
where the steam velocity increases from from a vapor-liquid separator, at equilibri-
120 ft/sec to 12,000 ft/sec. Where does um, should we increase or decrease the
the energy come from to accelerate the vessel’s pressure?
steam? 13. Operators sometimes spray water on a
4. The purpose of a valve tray in a fractiona- hot pump suction line, to suppress cavita-
tor, is to fractionate between the lighter tion. Does this actually help the pump’s
and heavier components. True or false? performance?
5. A centrifugal pump mechanical seal flush 14. Steam turbines running with 400 psig
pressure should be: steam, exhausting to the atmosphere, are
A. Higher or close to the discharge using what property of the steam to drive
pressure. the turbine:
B. Just a little lower than the dis- A. Temperature
charge pressure. B. Pressure
C. Just a little higher than the suction C. Latent Heat
pressure. 15. When unloading a reciprocating compres-
D. Just a little lower than the suction sor, the most efficient way to reduce load
pressure. is:
6. The energy of an old-style reciprocating A. Open spill-back.
steam driven engine, using 150# pressure B. Open head-end unloader bottle.
steam, that exhausts to the atmosphere, C. Throttle the discharge.
comes from what property of the steam? 16. When we increase the thickness of an
7. How does lowering a distillation tower orifice plate, at constant flowing velocity,
pressure affect the relative volatility be- what happens to the pressure drop?
tween propane and butane? A. Higher
A. Bigger B. Lower
B. Smaller C. Unchanged
C. No effect
 70

17. Can the pressure inside of a fired heater ABOUT THE AUTHOR
radiant section, exceed atmospheric pres- Norm Lieberman has a degree in Chemical
sure? Engineering (Cooper Union, 1964). His princi-
18. How does wind affect draft in a fired heat- pal activity is field troubleshooting refinery
er: problems. Over 21,000 operators and engi-
A. Bigger neers have attended his 950 seminars since
B. Smaller 1983, that explain Troubleshooting Tech-
C. No effect niques. Lieberman has authored 11 books on
19. Why do the non-condensables, vented this subject. He resides in New Orleans,
from a steam heater, typically burn when where he was formerly the Plant Manager of
ignited? the Good Hope Refinery in Norco.
20. What is the best way to control reflux and
reboiler duty in a light-ends distillation tow-
er or an aromatic fractionator?

19. ANSWERS
1. 2,000 (remember Rankine or Kelvin)
2. Accelerate the flow – not to increase the
pressure.
3. Mostly from the temperature of the steam.
Almost none comes from the steam’s pres-
sure.
4. False. The purpose of the tray is to mix the
vapor flowing up from the reboiler, with the
liquid flowing down from the condenser.
5. C – Just a little bit higher than the pump
suction pressure.
6. It’s the latent heat – not its pressure.
7. Bigger
8. Bubble cap
9. 32 psi
10. Evaporation of the water.
11. Increases to 40°F (4°C) and then gets less
dense. A unique property of water.
12. At equilibrium, it doesn’t matter.
13. Yes
14. Temperature + Latent Heat (i.e., enthalpy).
15. Open the head-end (or crank-end) unload-
er bottle.
16. Lower – by a lot.
17. Yes
18. Bigger
19. It’s hydrogen from CO2 corrosion. The hy-
drogen ions cause hydrogen assisted
Stress Corrosion Cracking.
20. Closed-loop Spectroscopic analyzer con-
trol. Gas Chrome lag time is excessive.
Check with Tec5USA.

Thanks for taking our test. We hope that it will

help in your work. If you would like to have an
explanation of any of our answers, please
email: norm@lieberman-eng.com

Or, you can consult our website and select

one of the eleven books we have authored
pertaining to Process Engineering
(www.lieberman-eng.com).
 71

Guidelines for Process Plants Alarm

Grouping & Alarm Prioritization
Praveen Nagenderan C

1.0 IMPORTANCE OF ALARM SYSTEM presented at a rate that the operator can deal
Alarm systems are increasingly important in with, be easy to understand.
the safe management of plant and machinery.
Alarm systems forms an essential part of the 2.0 ALARM GROUPING
operator interface which provides vital support Alarm grouping is one of the important theo-
to the operator by warning them of situation ries in the plant alarm management system
that need their attention. Alarm systems thus where the alarms configured are to be
have an important role in preventing, control- grouped into different categories. All alarms
ling and mitigating the effects of abnormal sit- which are configured in the system should be
uations. The effects can be very serious if specified with a group name. The alarm
these alarm systems does not work well. grouping activity later supports alarm rational-
Alarm systems are a very important way of ization activity as well significantly for analy-
automatically monitoring the plant condition sis.
and attracting the attention of the process
plant operator to significant changes that re- 2.1 GENERAL GUIDELINES
quire assessment or action. They help the op-  Instrument tags related to process which
erator to maintain the plant within a safe oper- are configured with alarms are to be pro-
ating envelope. A good alarm system helps vided with the group name with respect to
the operator to correct potentially dangerous the respective defined process areas.
situations before the Emergency Shutdown These alarms are commonly called as
(ESD) system is forced to intervene. This im- “PROCESS ALARM”.
proves plant availability, helps to recognize  Safety systems related alarms shall be
and act to avoid hazardous situations, helps to provided with the group name of
identify deviations from desired operating con- “SAFETY”.
ditions that could lead to financial loss and  Equipment start/stop related alarms shall
helps to understand complex process condi- be provided with a group name of
tions. Alarms should be an important diagnos- “EQUIPMENT”.
tic tool and are one of several sources that an  Shut down valves, Blow down valves and
operator uses during an upset. Alarms are sig- Control valves related alarms shall be
nals which are annunciated to the operator, provided with a group name of “VALVES”.
typically by an audible sound, some form of  DCS or PLC system related and Commu-
visual indication, usually flashing, and by the nications related alarms shall be provided
presentation of a message or some other with group name of “SYSTEM”.
identifier. An alarm will indicate a problem re-  Electrical switch gear related alarms shall
quiring operator attention, and is generally ini- be provided with group name of
tiated by a process measurement passing a “ELECTRICAL”.
defined alarm setting as it approaches an un-
desirable or potentially unsafe value. Alarm 3.0 ALARM PRIORITY
Management helps to identify process prob- Alarm priority is used to aid the operator de-
lems like valves / equipment & instruments termining the order in which to respond to
malfunction and controller tuning problems, alarms. Effective prioritization typically results
reduces unplanned down time of plant, reduc- in higher priorities chosen less frequently
es production losses, prevents incidents, im- than lower priorities. Most of the alarms
proved productivity – both equipment’s and should be assigned to the lowest alarm priori-
personnel’s. Alarm systems should be de- ty (least important) and the fewest to the
signed to meet user needs and operate within highest alarm priority (most important) with
the operator's capabilities. This means that the the consistent transition between the two.
information alarm systems present should be The resulting priorities should have alignment
relevant to the operator’s role at the time, indi- with the consequence and allowable re-
cate clearly what response is required, be sponse time such that the lowest priority
 72

alarms have the least severe consequence which are having direct relation to the to-
and longest allowable response time and the tal plant trip or respective valve closure /
highest priority alarms have the most severe open status which gives very less re-
consequence (Example: Fire and Gas system sponse time for operator to take action
alarms) and the shortest allowable response can be considered for “CRITICAL”.
time.  Instrument tags which are configured with
alarms which performs remote operation
3.1 GENERAL GUIDELINES i.e. operation performed by operator to be
All alarms configured in the system will be pri- considered for “LOW” class.
oritized based on the class names.  Characteristically all bad PV (Process
Value) alarm shall be configured with low
 Facility shall generally use four classes for priority except for the points/tags with high
process related alarms and one class for priority alarm where bad PV shall also be
system related alarms. assigned high priority.
 Alarms which are grouped under SYSTEM  As per HAZOP study report, Alarms listed
should be classified as “SYSTEM”. as safeguards measures or recommenda-
 Other alarms which are grouped under tion shall be assigned with priority as de-
different names as per the alarm groups fined by the severity consequence matrix.
guidelines as specified above are to be
classified as “CRITICAL”, “HIGH”, 4.0 REFERENCES
“MEDIUM” and “LOW”. ANSI/ISA-18.2.2016 Management of Alarm
 Priority distribution of the process related Systems for the process industries
alarms class shall be: CRITICAL: 5%,
HIGH: 15%, MEDIUM: 30% and LOW: EEMUA PUBLICATIOn No.191 Edition 2
50%. (Determination of priority percentage Alarm Systems A Guide to Design, Manage-
is a case dependent activity with respect to ment and Procurement
the respective process industry/plant. Gen-
eral percentage which works and practical- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ly possible to implement were suggested
here).
 Alarms which are critical to process safety
of the protection of human life or personnel
safety protection by default are to be con-
sidered for “CRITICAL” priority class.
 Alarms for commercial loss or product
quality shall be considered for “CRITICAL” Praveen Nagenderan C is a Chemical Engi-
priority class. neer with experience in the field of Oil & Gas
 Instrument tags which are configured with production & processing facilities and Refin-
alarms having direct relation to the total ery process units. Professional experience
plant trip or a section trip shall be consid- covers in Production operations, Facility sur-
ered for “CRITICAL” priority class. veillance, Technical safety, Technical Ser-
 Instrument tags which are configured with vices - Process, and Projects. Praveen has
alarms which affects the section of the worked with major Oil & Gas companies in
plant but provides relative response time India namely Nayara Energy formerly known
to the operator or which doesn’t trigger as Essar Oil Limited and Cairn Oil & Gas.
total plant shut down immediately shall be
considered for “HIGH” priority class.
 Equipment stop related alarms shall be
considered for “HIGH” class based on the
criticality of the equipment with respect to
the process conditions whereas equipment
start related alarms shall be considered for
“LOW” class based on the criticality of the
equipment with respect to the process
conditions.
 Alarm priority class for Shutdown valves or
solenoid valve status alarms to be decided
based on the criticality of the process con-
ditions. Shutdown vales or solenoid valve
status feedback CLOSE/OPEN alarms
 73

Adding Value to Natural Gas | Gas to

Liquids and Petrochemicals Technologies
Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva

INTRODUCTION AND CONTEXT technologies currently is the conversion of

Despite the current scenario where is ob- syngas (CO + H2) in longer-chain hydrocar-
served a surplus of crude oil followed by low bons such as gasoline and other liquid fuel
prices, the downstream industry lives con- products, known as Gas to Liquids Technolo-
stantly with uncertainties related to guarantee gies (GTL). The liquid hydrocarbons produc-
of access and supply of crude oil in the quanti- tion can be carried out by direct syngas con-
ty and quality required, problems related to the version, in Fischer-Tropsch synthesis reac-
geopolitics or even about the exhaustion of tions or through methanol production as inter-
existent recoverable reserves are driving forc- mediate product (Methanol to Olefins technol-
es to the development of alternatives technol- ogies).
ogies the crude oil. This topic is especially at-
tractive to countries that present a lack of a Fischer-Tropsch is a chemical process
significant amount of crude oil reserves and through is possible the liquid hydrocarbon
great dependence by crude oil derivatives as production according to the following chemi-
Japan and China. cal reactions:

In this case, the look for alternatives to crude Paraffin Production:

oil aiming to sustain the energy demand nec- n CO + (2n+1)H2 = CnH2n+2 + nH2O
essary to sustain economic development be-
come a strategic issue, as mentioned earlier, Olefin Production:
mainly considering the volatility of the crude oil n CO + 2nH2 = CnH2n + nH2O
prices as well as the geopolitical scenario. De- These reactions are strongly exothermic and
spite the higher cost in comparison with the the CO/H2 ratio in the syngas is a key param-
traditional crude oil refining, the necessity of eter to define the hydrocarbon chain exten-
the production of high-quality fuels can make sion that will be produced.
the nonconventional alternatives attractive. An
example was the coal liquids hydrogenation The reactions occur normally under tempera-
during the Second World War to produce liq- tures that vary from 200 to 350 oC and oper-
uid fuels on a large scale due to the scarcity of ating pressures in the range of 15 to 30 bar.
crude oil by some countries. Crude oil produc- The catalyst commonly applied to these reac-
tion players with great reserves of natural gas tions is based on cobalt or iron as active met-
can find in the Gas to Liquid technologies an als deposited upon alumina as carrier.
attractive way to ensure higher added value to Figure 1 presents a block diagram for a typi-
his natural resources. cal process plant dedicated to producing liq-
uid hydrocarbons from Fischer-Tropsch syn-
GAS TO LIQUIDS ALTERNATIVE thesis.
One of the most promising and well-developed

Figure 1 – Block Diagram to a Typical Fischer-Tropsch GTL Process Plant

 74

Showed process in Figure 1 is based in the and better heat distribution, leading to higher
syngas gas generation from steam reforming campaign periods.
of natural gas, this is the most common route,
however, there are process variations apply- Most recently is observed a reduction trend in
ing syngas production through coal, biomass the demand by transportation fuels and some
or petroleum coke gasification route. refiners are looking for change his production
focus from transportation fuels to petrochemi-
The process starts with syngas generation cals. The gas to liquids can be applied in syn-
and, as aforementioned, the produced hydro- ergy with conventional refining processes to
carbon chain extension is controlled in the improve the yield of petrochemicals in the re-
Fischer-Tropsch synthesis step through the fining hardware through the production of
CO/H2 ratio in the syngas fed to the FT reac- high quality naphtha that can be applied to
tors (beyond temperature and reaction pres- FCC or steam cracking units to produce light
sure), following the produced hydrocarbons olefins, ensuring higher added value to the
are separated and sent to refining steps as processed crudes and gas as well as partici-
isomerisation, hydrotreating, hydrocracking, pation in a growing market.
catalytic reforming, etc. According to applica-
tion of the produced derivative (Gasoline, Die- Another attractive alternative and synergy
sel, Lubricant, etc.). opportunities to refiners is the production of
ammonia that are the base of any fertilizer.
Some side reactions can occur during the hy- Despite the flat demand over the last years, is
drocarbons production process, leading to expected a growing market in the next years
coke deposition on the catalyst, causing his due to the increasingly demand by food at
deactivation according to following chemical global level. As presented in Figure 2, is also
reactions: expected a growing demand of Methanol in
2 CO = C + CO2 the next years, this intermediate can be used
(Boudouard Reaction) to produce high demand products like formal-
dehyde that is applied to produce plastics and
CO + H2 = C + H2O coatings, allowing great added value to the
(CO Reduction) crude oil and natural producing chain.
The type of reactor applied in the FT synthesis AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGIES
step have strong influence on the yield and The several geopolitics crises over the history
quality of the obtained products, the cam- motivated the development of new technolo-
paign time of the process units also depends gies and the improvement of the Fischer-
on the type of reactor. Fixed bed reactors are Tropsch original process. There is a wide ar-
widely employed to FT synthesis, however, ray of process technologies developed aiming
show a reduced campaign time due to the low to liquid hydrocarbons production from syn-
resistance to catalyst deactivation phenome- gas, among the principal available technolo-
non. Modern process units apply fluidized bed gies we can quote the processes SYN-
or slurry phase reactors that present a higher THOL™ and SPD™ developed by Sasol
resistance to coke depositionon the catalyst Company, the GASEL™ process by Axens

Figure 2 – Primary Chemicals Production Forecast (IEA, 2020)

 75

Company, the E-Gas™ technology by Cono- CH4 + H2O = CO + 3H2

coPhillips company, the SCGP™ by Shell, the (Steam Reforming)
TIGAS™ developed by Haldor Topsoe Com-
pany, among others. CO + H2O = CO2 + H2
(Shift reaction)
Figure 3 presents a basic process flow dia-
gram for the GASEL™ technology developed 2H2 + CO = CH3OH
by Axens Company which apply a slurry
(Methanol Synthesis)
phase reactor.

As cited earlier, one of the main advantages of In the sequence, the methanol is dehydrated
GTL technologies is the possibility of applica- to produce Dimethyl-Ether which is posterior-
tion several raw materials to produce syngas, ly dehydrated to produce hydrocarbons, as
which ensures great flexibility. In regions with shown in the sequence:
large coal availability, the gasification technol-
ogies has strategic character given that the
great restriction of this fuel use in the energet- 2 CH3OH = CH3OCH3 + H2O
ic matrix due the high environmental impact, in (Methanol Dehydration)
these cases the coal conversion into syngas CH3OCH3 = C2H4 + H2O
and posteriorly in liquid hydrocarbons is very (Dimethyl-Ether Dehydration)
economically attractive, another alternative is
to apply renewable raw material (biomass) to The methanol conversion to olefins into hy-
produce syngas. drocarbons is called Methanol to Olefins
(MTO) or Methanol to Gasoline (MTG) tech-
On the other hand, in regions with great avail- nologies. The most known processes dedicat-
ability and easy access to large natural gas ed to converting methanol in hydrocarbons
reserves, the syngas production through natu- are the processes MTG™ developed by Exx-
ral gas reforming steam still is shown as the onMobil Company and the MTO-Hydro™ pro-
most economical route to produce this raw cess, developed by UOP Company. Figure 4
material in industrial scale. presents the process flow diagram for the
MTG™ process by ExxonMobil Company.
An alternative route to produce liquid hydro- The MTO technologies presents some ad-
carbons from syngas is the non-catalytic con- vantages in relation to Fischer-Tropsch pro-
version of the natural gas to methanol fol- cesses, once show higher selectivity in the
lowed by the polymerization to produce al- hydrocarbon production, furthermore, the ob-
kenes. Methanol is produced from natural gas tained products require lower additional pro-
according to the following chemical reactions: cessing steps to achieve commercial

Figure 3 – Process Flow Diagram for GASEL™ Technology by Axens Company

 76

specifications, another important point in that

promising aiming to isomerize selectively the
the installation cost is normally lower to MTO
n-paraffin produced by the Fischer-Tropsch
process plants when compared with FT units,
process, improving then the quality and the
once Fischer-Tropsch units are economically
added value of the produced streams, in this
viable only in large scale. Regarding the ole-
point is important to consider the high cost of
fins production, the maximization of these de-
the platinum catalyst being necessary an ad-
rivatives can be especially attractive in the cur-
equate economic evaluation to support the
rent scenario where there is a trend of reduc-
decision to catalyst change.
tion in transportation fuels demand followed by
the growing market of petrochemicals, creating LOWER ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
the necessity of closer integration between re-
Another characteristic that can make the GTL
fining and petrochemical assets aiming to
technologies even more attractive in the next
maximize the added value, share risks and
years is the increasing restriction to CO2
costs, as well as ensure market share in a
emissions from fossil fuel combustion, among
highly competitive scenario of the downstream
then, the natural gas. The possibility to fix
sector.
carbon through GTL process can represent
an efficient and profitable alternative.
The streams produced by GTL technologies
show reduced contaminants content (sulfur, The environmental footprint is one of the
nitrogen, etc.) as well as high-quality that great concern of the society related to the
makes these products attractive from the point crude oil production chain and the use of gas
of view of environmental footprint and profita- to liquid technologies can minimize the green-
bility, these characteristics leads to lower oper- house gases, allowing a more sustainable
ation cost when compared with the conven- and profitable growing to the society.
tional crude oil refining route once it’s needed
CONCLUSION
a lower hydroprocessing capacity as well as
less severe processes that can be a significant As exposed above the gas to liquid technolo-
competitive differential. In scenarios with crude gies can represent an attractive alternative to
oil shortage or overprices, these technologies some nations aiming to ensure a source of
can be competitive and achieve strategically high-quality liquid hydrocarbons capable to
character to some nations. sustain the economic development in a sce-
nario of lack of crude oil resources and sup-
Despite these advantages, the streams
ply crisis as well as allow a higher value addi-
produced by Fischer-Tropsch process tends to
tion to his natural resources.
present linear chain (essentially normal paraf-
fin) that lead to poor cold flow properties. In
market consumers with cold weather, the use
of hydroprocessing units with dewaxing beds
can be necessary to meet the quality regula-
tions and ensure adequate performance of the
final derivatives. Aiming to minimize this issue,
some researchers are studying the upgrade of
the traditional Fischer-Tropsch process
through the use of a new catalyst. The catalyst
Pt/H-ZSM-22 zeolite appears like the most

Figure 4 – Process Flow Diagram for MTG™ Technology by ExxonMobil

 77

REFERENCES
ROBINSON, P.R.; HSU, C.S. Handbook of
Petroleum Technology. 1a ed. Springer, 2017.
GARY, J. H.; HANDWERK, G. E. Petroleum
Refining – Technology and Economics.4thed.
Marcel Dekker., 2001.
IEA (International Energy Agency) - Primary
chemical production in the Sustainable Devel-
opment Scenario, 2000-2030 – 2020.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Marcio Wagner da Silva is Process Engi-

neer at Henrique Lage Refinery
(PETROBRAS) based in São José dos Cam-
pos, Brazil. Bachelor in Chemical Engineering
from University of Maringa (UEM), Brazil and
PhD. in Chemical Engineering from the Univer-
sity of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. Has ex-
tensive experience in research, design, and
construction to oil and gas industry including
developing and coordinating projects to opera-
tional improvements and debottlenecking to
bottom barrel units, moreover, Dr. Marcio
Wagner has an MBA in Project Management
from Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
(UFRJ) and is certified in Business from
Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV).
 78

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