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The effect of operating pressure on distillation column throughput

Article in Computers & Chemical Engineering · June 1999

DOI: 10.1016/S0098-1354(99)80204-X

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Zhi-Yong Liu Megan Jobson

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 Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplement (1999) 5 831-5834
~ Pergamon
(;) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved
PI\: 5009 8·1354/99/00090-3

The Effect of Operating Pressure on Distillation Column

Throughput
Zhi-Yong Liu and Megan Jobson
Department of Process Integration, UMIST, P.O. Box 88, Manchester, M60 lQD, UK

Abstract- In retrofit design, design engineers often want to increase the throughput of an existing distillation
column . Among the operating parameters, pressure is very important. Some researchers state that increasing
pressure can increase the throughput. Others claim that decreasing pressure can increase the throughput. This paper
investigates the effect of operating pressure on the throughput of an existing distillation column .
Operating pressure has a very complex influence on distillation performance. It affects relative volatility between
the components, molar vapour flow rates, flooding limitations and vapour density. Taking account of all these
factors, it is shown that the effect of changing the operating pressure is strongly related to the operating pressure
itself. When the operating pressure is less than about 3 bar, increasing pressure can increase the throughput of the
existing column; when pressure is greater than about 7 bar, decreasing pressure can increase the throughput; and
when pressure is in an intermediate range, pressure changes have little influence on the throughput. However, one
might specify the operating pressure for other reasons, such as to promote heat integration, meet equipment
constraints, etc. This paper provides a clear and quantitative picture of the influence of pressure on the throughput of
an existing distillation column. The understanding of these effects is very important for both retrofit design and
grass-roots design.

Keywords: Distillation column, operating pressure, throughput, capacity

Introduction
In retrofit design, chemical engineers often want to increases. Plant operators exploit this phenomenon by
increase the capacity or throughput of an existing decreasing column pressure during cool weather. Some
distillation column. Among the operating parameters, column revamps take advantage of this phenomenon by
pressure is very important. This paper explores the adding a refrigeration system to allow operating at
effect of pressure on the capacity of a distillation lower pressures." Kister and Townsend (1984)
column . The complex r~lationship between pressure analysed a C1 splitter in an ethylene plant. They
and the area required for a given throughput is showed that a low pressure (114 psia, 7.8 bar) scheme,
analysed to provide some design guidelines. using an open ethylene refrigeration cycle, had $8.4
In many references. the authors state that increasing million lower capital cost and $1.2 million lower
pressure can decrease the diameter of a distillation annual operating cost, compared with the high-pressure
column for a given separation. For example, Winkle (281 psia, 19.1 bar) C1 splitter scheme. The results of
(1967) noted that ''vapour volume increases as pressure Kister and Townsend showed that for the low-pressure
decreases, and larger diameter columns are required to scheme, the reflux ratio (2.8), column diameter (14.5
handle the increase in vapour volume. This increase in feet) and number of trays (105) are smaller than those
size of column increases the investment cost." Kister for the high-pressure scheme (reflux ratio: 4.2; column
(1992) pointed out that the one of the favourable diameter: 15.5 feet, number of trays: 130). Castillo and
effects when raising column pressure is that it Dhole (1995) studied the ethylene cold-end process.
"increases vapour density and therefore vapour- They pointed out that when operating pressure of the
handling capacity. This leads to major reductions in de-methaniser was decreased from 3500 kPa to 3100
column diameter and capital costs under vacuum, and kPa, the throughput of the columns in the process could
to smaller reductions up to pressures of 50 to 150 psia be increased.
(3.4 to 10.2 bar)." Kister realised that when pressure is From the above discussion, it can be seen that there
higher than 3.4 bar, the column diameter decreases less is no common interpretation of the effect of pressure on
as pressure increases, compared to vacuum conditions. the capacity of distillation columns. An understanding
However, he did not give the whole picture of the of these effects will allow opportunities to be exploited
influence of pressure on the column diameter. in order to increase the capacity of existing distillation
Humphrey and Keller (1997) believed that "at higher columns.
pressures and temperatures, vapour pressures increase
and viscosities decrease. The result is higher efficiency Pressure effects on column hydraulics
and vapour capacity, and lower column diameter." The influence of pressure on distillation processes is
However, some other authors state that decreasing very complex. We shall only discuss the influence of
pressure can increase the capacity of a distillation pressure on the capacity of distillation columns in this
column. Capps (1993) found that "for high-pressure study. For a distillation column, the net area required
systems, a decrease in the operating pressure allows an for vapour flow, A:J, can be calculated from (Wankat,
increase in feed rate. This occurs because relative
1988):
volatility increases, but also because flooding capacity
5832 Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplement (1999) S831-S834

factor will decrease the area required for vapour

VMWv
A::d = (1) flow.
Pv u., 3. The increase in flow parameter, Ffy, as pressure
where V is the vapour molar flow rate, MW v is the increases will decrease the flooding velocity of the
average molar weight of the vapour, Pv is the density colunm. As can be seen from eqs (4) and (5), this
of the vapour and Uop is the operating velocity of the factor will increase the area required for the
distillation colunm.
vapour. A;:
excludes area that is not available, for As can be seen from the points above, the effect of
example, downcomer area. Uop can be related to the operating pressure on the required area is complex. It
flooding velocity, Upood• will be shown in the following sections that different
=
ti; (fraction) UPood (2) factors dominate in different pressure ranges.
This fraction typically falls in the range of 0.65 to 0.9
(Wankat, 1988). In this study, we assume fraction = Low pressure region
0.75. At low pressures, the flow parameter, F,y> is small
From eqs (1) and (2), one can obtain, and the flooding factor, K, is not sensitive to changes in
VMWv pressure. This can be seen from Fig. 1.
A;: =
Pv (fraction) Uflood
(3)

The flooding velocity is given by (Wankat, 1988):

Uflood=K~PL-PV (4)
J
Pv
0.1..j-----+----"""'-d
From eqs (3) and (4) one can obtain,
30.5
Ar<Jl
0<1

MWv V
0.01 -+-----I----~
=
(fraction) 0.01 0.1
FlY
V Fig. 1. Capacity factor for flooding of sieve trays. The
= (Constant) (5) curves were obtained using the formula of Kessler and
KJpV{PL - Pv) Wankat (1988).
0.1

where K = cs [
~] (6) At low pressures, (PL - Pv) Z PL, and PL is not
sensitive to changes in pressure. We expect, therefore,
and Csb is a function of the flow parameter Flv (Csb that the most sensitive parameters will be V and pv. The
decreases as F ,vincreases, as shown in Fig. 1): change in Pv with pressure can be estimated by
F ,v= WL f& (7)
applying the ideal gas law:
WvVP: Pv=RT
1 P
(~

Eq. (5) gives the basic relationship between the

Pv =-;= R T (9)
required net area for vapour flow, A;': , vapour molar
In order to assess the influence of the parameters V
flow rate, V, the vapour and liquid density, Pv and PL,
and the parameter K. If the actual net area for vapour and pv, let us consider an example in which an
equimolar mixture of propane and n-butane is distilled.
flow is greater than the net area required, A;': , given The simulation results are shown in Table 1.
by eq. (1), the capacity of the column can be increased
until flooding occurs. If the actual net area is less than Table 1. Simulation results for C:/C4 separation at low
A;':, the colunm may flood. That is, in a retrofit pressure, calculated using HYSIM (HYSIM Manual,
design scenario, the potential for increasing the colunm 1993)
throughput by modifying pressure can be assessed by P TconJenser pv V
determining the effect on the area required for vapour bar K kmol/m' krnol/h
flow. I 231.9 0.048 793.4
The effects of pressure on the hydraulic 2 248.9 0.104 839.6
performance of a distillation column are summarised %Change*
below: 100 115 5.8
1. When pressure increases, relative volatility * (Value for 2 bar - Value for 1 bar)Nalue for I bar.
between the components will decrease. This will
increase reflux ratio and molar flow rates in the From Table 1, it can be seen that for the C:/C.
column, As a result, the area required for vapour system, in the low-pressure region, Pv is far more
flow will increase. sensitive to the change in pressure than V. As pressure
2. As pressure increases, vapour density will increases, vapour density will increase. From eq. (5), it
increase. From eq. (5) it can be seen that this follows that when pressure increases, the net area
 Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplement (1999) S831-S834 5833

required for vapour flow will decrease at low Overall effect of pressure changes on required area
pressures. This agrees with the intuition of most design Let us consider the overall effect of pressure
engineers. changes on the area required for vapour flow. Fig. 3
shows how the vapour molar flow rate and the term
High pressure region
K ~ Pv (p L- Pv) change with pressure for the CfC.
When pressure is high, however, the situation will
be different from that at low pressures. At high separation. From Fig. 3, it can be seen that when
pressures, relative volatility between the components pressure increases, vapour molar flow rate increases
will become smaller compared with that of low steadily. On the other hand, the term K~PV(PL - Pv)
pressures. Therefore, for the same separation, both increases faster than Vat low pressures, but approaches
vapour and liquid flow rate will be larger than those at a limit at high pressures. Relating these effects back to
low pressure. This will increase the area required for eq. (5), it follows that at low pressures, increasing
vapour flow. From Fig. I, it can be seen that as Flv pressure can decrease the required area for a given
increases (as a result of an increase in pressure), Csb separation, but at high pressures, increasing pressure
will decrease. It follows that parameter K will will increase the required area.
decrease. This will also increase the area required for
vapour flow. Another factor, J
Pv (PL - Pv) will
2.5
increase as pressure increases. This will decrease the III
required area. However, the effect on this factor will ,.,0
~ 2
tend to diminish as pressure increases.
2
<l)
E 1.5
Table 2. Simulation results for CfC. separation (stage ~
1tJ
2) at high pressure (calculated using HYSIM) a.
p K 1
V ~Py(PL -py)
bar kmol/h kmol/m' mls 0 5 10 15

5 985 74.9 0.268 Pressure. bar

10 1273 100.8 0.177
% Change Fig. 3. Change in numerator (molar flow rate of vapour
100 29.3 34.6 -34.0 Y) and denominator [K~PV(PL -Pv) of eq. (5)] as
pressure changes for the CfC. separation.
Table 2 shows the simulation results of the CfC.
separation discussed abq,ve for stage 2 in the General considerations
distillation column. From the results shown in Table 2,
The above discussion is based on the CfC.
J
it can be seen that the parameters, V, Pv (p L- Pv ) separation only. This is a moderately difficult
and K all change by a similar amount. Since no effect separation. We now consider two other examples, a
dominates, all the 'parameters should be considered in difficult separation, propylene/propane (C)-/C), and an
our analysis. From these results, it can be shown that easy separation, butanelhexane (CJC 6) .
the area required at 10 bar is 12.5% greater than that at The net area required for vapour flow is determined
5 bar. The required area of each stage of the column for the C)-/C), CfC. and CJC 6 separations for a range
for three different pressures is shown in Fig. 2. of pressures. Fig. 4 shows how the maximum area
required changes as pressure is increased from 1 bar to
10 bar.
~ 1.2....-------------,
1.2
~ "0
~ P=7.5 l!!
.E :;

..
~ 0.7
P=5 ~
1tJ
0;
c l!!
1tJ

~ Q;
Z
l" 0.2 +-------.------~ 0.8
o 11 22 0 5 10
Stagenumber
P. bar
Fig. 2. Area required for vapour flow in the column at
different pressures (CfC. separation, pressure in bar) Fig. 4. The maximum required area for a difficult
separation (C)-/C), a moderately difficult separation
We may conclude that, when pressure is high, (CiC.) and an easy separation (CJC 6) . All diameters
increasing pressure cannot decrease the area required are normalised for the base case, 1 bar.
for vapour flow. Instead, the area will increase when
pressure increases.
S834 Computers and Chemical Engineering Supplement (/999) S83/-S834

From Fig. 4, it can be seen that for all three cases, Acknowledgement: Z.-Y. Liu would like to
the effect of increasing the operating pressure is acknowledge the financial support of ORS Scholarship
similar. In the low-pressure region (P < 3 bar), an and the Process Integration Research Consortium.
increase in pressure can decrease the required diameter
of a distillation column; in the high-pressure region (P Notation
> 7 bar), increasing pressure increases the required
diameter; at moderate pressures, a change in pressure
A:d Net area required for vapour flow
affects the required diameter very little.
c.; Defined in eq. (6)
F lv Flow parameter, defined in eq. (7)
The above discussion is based on the separation of
K Flooding parameter
binary light hydrocarbon systems. Some other
separations, such as benzene/toluene and some MW I' Average molar weight
multicomponent systems with up to 20 components U Velocity
have also been investigated. These same trends were V Vapour molar flow rate
observed. V Specific vapour volume (volume per
mole)
Conclusions W Mass flow rate
Operating pressure has a complex effect on the
capacity of a distillation column. The rules of thumb Greekletters
that have been suggested to date do not provide p Molar density
adequate guidance to design engineers. It has been a Surface tension
shown by examples in this paper that the influence of
pressure on the diameter required for distillation Subscript
column is strongly dependent on pressure itself. In flood At flooding conditions
other words, for different separation systems (easy or L Liquid
difficult separations, binary or multicomponent op Operating
mixtures), achange in pressure has a similar influence V Vapour
on the required area (diameter). In the low-pressure
region (P < 3 bar), increasing pressure can decrease the References
required diameter of a distillation column; in the high- Capps, R.W., 1993, Consider the Ultimate Capacity of
pressure region (P > 7 bar), increasing pressure will Fractionation Trays, Chern. Eng. Prog., 89, (3), -37-
.increase the required diameter; at intermediate 42.
pressures, pressure change has little influence on the Castillo, FJ.L. and Dhole, V.R., 1995, Pressure
required diameter. These results provide guidelines for Analysis of the Ethylene Cold-End Process, Compo
the retrofit ....and grass-roots design of distillation & Chern. Eng., 19, 5 89-5 94.
columns. Especially because they do not always agree Humphrey, J.L . and Keller, II, G.E., 1997, Separation
with our intuition, they can lead to design solutions Process Technology, McGraw-Hill, New York, p
that would otherwise be overlooked. 343.
For low-pressure distillation, especially vacuum HYSIM Manual, 1993, Hyprotech Ltd., Calgary,
distillation, the operating pressure should be as high as Canada.
possible to increase the throughput of an existing Kessler, D.P. and Wankat, P.C., 1988, Correlations for
column. For high-pressure distillation, the operating column parameters, Chern. Eng., 87, (10),138.
pressure should be as low as possible. However, the Kister, H.Z., 1992, Distillation Design, McGraw-Hill,
temperature of the condenser utility (for example, New York, p 90.
cooting water) is often the constraint. Then, as Kister, H.Z. and Townsend, R.W., 1984, Ethylene
indicated by Capps (1993), during coot weather, the From NGL Feedstocks. 4. Low-pressure C 2 splitter,
operating pressure can be reduced according to the Hydro. Proc., 63, (I), 105-108.
temperature of the cold utility. In this way, one can Wankat, P.C., 1988, Equilibrium Staged Separations,
both increase the throughput of an existing column and Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, pp 386-389.
decrease the energy cost. Winkle, M.V., 1967, Distillation, McGraw-Hill, New
York, p 198.

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