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VOLUME 6 NUMBER 21 APRIL 2020

SPECIAL FEATURES

How to design and optimize Bubble Cap Trays

Considerations for Reactor Scaleup

Key Process Considerations For Caustic Treatment In CDU

Processing of Heavy Crudes – Challenges and

Opportunities to the Downstream Industry

Punch List– The Conclusive Specific Comments Writing

The Benefits of a Safety Committee

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How to... BUBBLE CAP TRAY

How to design and optimize Bubble Cap
Trays | Part 2
Dr.-Ing. Volker Engel

Tower trays and internals are the heart of all distillation

columns. Their design is an essential part of a process
engineer’s task and determines the process reliability
and economy.
This article is the 2nd part of a series on different kinds
of trays and internals.
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Bubble Cap trays have been used for about 80

Fig. 1: Gas Flow Path
years in technical applications and are a very well
studied tray type. Nowadays, they are mainly used
for handling low liquid loads, as for this field of ap- As long as the riser is higher than the outlet weir

plication there are only few alterna- tives! and the panels and risers are liquid-tight, the tray

On a distillation tray vapor enters liquid and forms is able to handle very small amounts of liquid. This

a two phase regime (bubbling, froth, spray). The is the main advantage of this tray type and a typi-

tray types differ mainly in the way the vapor enters cal field of application.

the liquid. For Bubble Cap Trays the gas flow path The main disadvantages are the relatively high
is very different compared to other tray types and costs for the equipment and a higher pressure
is depicted in Fig. 1. drop compared to other tray types.
Before entering the liquid, the gas ascends in the
There are many different types and sizes of bub-
riser (a), is redirected in the top of the cap (b)
ble caps. Historically, there are cast iron types
(reversal area) and then flows downwards in the
(still in use!), oval, rectangular and round bubble
cylindrical annular gap (c). Finally, the vapor enters
caps.
the liquid layer through vertical slots, holes or the
skirt of the cap (d). Today, new bubble cap trays are usually equipped
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with bubble caps with an outer cap diameter of 2 panel (Fig. 3).
inch, 3 inch, 4 inch or 6 inch. As the caps are fab-
ricated by deep drawing, the material thickness is
about 1mm. For special materials types or thick
materials, the caps are rolled and welded.

There are several types of cap designs (Fig. 2).

Fig. 3: Fastening of Risers

The values of the riser area, the reversal area, the

annular gap as well as the escape area of the bub-
ble cap have to be balanced. As the fabrication
possibilities are on the one hand confined by the
riser dimension, which is limited by the available
pipe dimensions, and on the other hand by the
cap, which is restricted to the dimensions of the
deep drawing tools, you will have to find a com-
promise to have almost equal values for all areas.

The relative free area (riser area per active area)

is typically about 5 to 10% and the resulting total
Fig. 2: Bubble Cap Designs pressure drop per tray is about 8 to 12mbar. The
tray spacing is usually not less than 500mm (for
The cap is normally bolted (double nut!) to the large tower diameters it should be higher due to
riser, sometimes welded, sometimes wedged. (It inspection and maintenance reasons).
is not fun to move on the top of bubble caps for
The Operating Area of a bubble cap tray is de-
maintenance or inspection duty.)
fined by different limits. In Fig. 4, a qualitative op-
The caps are categorized by the top level of the eration diagram is shown. Please note, that the
gas opening and the area of the openings position and shape of all curves depend on the
(expressed by a function of the “opened” height physical data, the tray and cap geometry and the
of the slots / skirt). gas/liquid load. Each curve can be limiting!

The pitch of the bubble caps is important for the The Operation Point (Op in Fig. 4) of the design
function of the tray: In standard applications it is case (as well as the minimum and maximum load)
triangular and expected to be 1.25 .. 1.5 times the has to stay inside all limiting curves. For stable
cap diameter [HOPPE/MITTELSTRASS 1967]. operation and good efficiency there is a useful

The risers are welded or pressed in the tray panel operation area with narrower limits (e.g. 80%-

or gasketed by pulling the riser flange to the tray FFCF and 85%-FFJF curves).
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Fig. 4: Qualitative Operation Diagram for Bubble Cap Trays

The first step in analyzing a design is – of course

– calculating all relevant parameters. For a bubble
There is a system limit set by the superficial vapor
cap tray design there are 10 main parameters
velocity in the tower. When the vapor velocity
shown as curves in Fig. 4. These parameters are
exceeds the settling velocity of liquid droplets
discussed in this article. There are some additional
(„Stokes Law Criterion“), vapor lifts and takes
effects you will have to look at: entrainment, head
much of the liquid with it. A well known model
loss at downcomer exit (clearance), flow regime,
was published by STUPIN AND KISTER 2003.
downcomer residence time, efficiency, sealing, con-
struction issues, statics, … This flooding effect cannot be reduced by use of
Please note, that all free suppliers’ software only other tray types or by increasing tray spacing.
show a limited number of these parame- ters and The only way is to enlarge the vapor cross sec-
therefore are not save to use for design, rating and tion area (e.g. enlarging tower diameter or reduce
troubleshooting of trays. For save design you downcomer area).
should be able to calculate all parameters! (e.g.
software TRAYHEART OF WELCHEM)
In the following sections, all 10 main parameter There are several definitions in literature for the
curves of Fig. 4 are described. Each suggested ac- so called Jet Flood. Similar definitions are Entrain-
tion for preventing a certain effect may result in ment Flood, Massive Entrainment, Two- Phase
fertilizing another. The main task for designing Flood or Priming. For practical under- standing,
trays is to balance these different and contra- Jet Flood describes any liquid carried to the tray
dicting effects. above by the gas stream. This leads to a shortcut
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recycling of the liquid with loss of tray efficiency, The level of the liquid in the downcomer is the
additional pressure drop and additional downcom- result of (i) head loss at the clearance, (ii) the liq-
er load. For good tray performance, the Jet Flood uid height on the outlet deck, (iii) an inlet weir (if
value should be less than 75-80%. present) and (iv) the pressure drop of the tray
itself. All these effects can be expressed by “hot
You can reduce Jet Flood by
liquid height”. This resulting level in the down-
a. lowering the gas velocity (higher open area,
comer has to compensate these effects! Taking
i.e. more bubble caps, higher escape area)
into account the aeration of the liquid in the
b. enlarging the tray spacing downcomer, the level has to be less than tray

c. lowering the froth height on the tray deck (by spacing plus weir height.

reducing weir height or weir crest height) To reduce a high Aerated Downcomer Backup

d. enlarging the active area (i.e. the gas flow ar- value you have to

ea) by sloping the downcomers a. reduce the pressure drop of the tray (ref. to
3)

In most cases there is specified a maximum allow- b. reduce the head loss of the clearance (use

able pressure drop of the tower. You have to en- higher clearance height or radius lips or re-

sure that the pressure drop per tray does not cessed seal pans in case of insufficient sealing)

exceed a certain value. This leads to a limiting c. avoid inlet weirs

curve within the operation diagram.
Please note, that it is no option to enlarge the
To reduce the pressure drop of a design, you can downcomer area to reduce this flooding effect!

a. lower the gas velocity by enlarging the num-

ber of bubble caps or change their geometry
At high gas loads, the space between the caps is
b. lower the froth height on the tray deck (by dried - the liquid can’t enter this region and is
reducing weir height or weir crest height) blown to a froth layer above the caps. This is not

c. enlarge the active area (with place for more a recommended and stable regime! The effect is

bubble caps) by reducing the downcomer area close to the Blowing effect of sieve trays (where

or sloping the downcomers the liquid layer is “disconnected” from the tray
panel and blown upwards).

Therefore, the bottom skirt of the bubble cap

This limiting effect is also known as Downcomer
should not be used for the gas outlet. (In a teacup
Backup Flood. It describes the (aerated) backup of
design, the skirt should not be blown totally free.)
the downcomer due to pressure drop effects. It is
important to not mix this up with the To prevent overload of caps, you can

Choke-Flood-effects (ref. to 9). a. adapt the design of the caps (more slots, en-
large width of slots, higher skirt)

b. enlarge the number of caps

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work properly (Fig. 5): At the tray inlet the liquid

“closes” the caps. The gas will use less liquid af-
The slots of bubble caps are opened by the gas fected bubble caps for passage. This leads to a gas
flow. To have a stable operation, the gas has to maldistribution and a bad efficiency of the tray. If
open all slots of all bubble caps. If there is not the liquid head of rows with high gradient gets too
enough gas (minimum slot velocity not reached), high, weeping occurs!
the bubble caps are pulsating. To reduce gas maldistribution you have to
To reduce Pulsating you have to a. reduce the number of cap rows (e.g. by
a. change cap design (less slots, reduce width of switching to a design with more flow passes)
slots) b. cascade the active area
b. reduce number of bubble caps

The uniform thickness of the two-phase layer is

essential for the successful operation of a tray.
To achieve this uniform flow, the tray panels have
to be in level and the outlet weir has to be in-
Fig. 5: Maldistribution
stalled accurately.
To compensate small tolerances, the weir crest
should be higher than 3mm and the weir load
The maximum liquid throughput of a down- com-
more than 9 m³/m/h. In case of low weir loads
er is limited by the liquid velocity and the effect of
you will normally have to consider gasketing the
overload (so called Choke Flood). The maximum
tray to avoid any leakage and loss of liquid.
allowable liquid velocity in the down- comer de-
To ensure these minimum values, you can use
pends on the density ratio of gas to liquid, the tray
a. notched weirs
spacing and the system factor. (The system factor
b. blocked weirs
describes the difficulty of phase separation. For
common applications it is 1.0.) The most popular
downcomer choke flooding calculation was pub-
In all types of trays the liquid must have a driving
lished by GLITSCH 1993.
force to flow from the inlet to the outlet. As long
Another effect of Choke Flood at center and off-
as there is no gas driven flow (as generated by
center downcomers is initiated by the mutual in-
fixed valves or push valves) the hydraulic gradient
terference of the two liquid flows into the down-
is the main reason for liquid flow.
comer.
Because the bubble caps are obstacles in the liquid
To prevent downcomer Choke Flood you have to
flow pass, the hydraulic gradient is significant high-
a. enlarge the downcomer area
er for bubble cap trays than for other trays.
b. implement more flow passes (with in sum an
Why might the hydraulic gradient be a problem?
overall higher downcomer area)
At a high hydraulic gradient, the tray will not
c. enlarge the tray spacing (if limiting)
d. install anti-jump baffles for center / off-center
downcomers