Distillation-Column Operation, Control and Troubleshooting

Introduction

The success of every company depends of each employee's understanding of the business's key components. Employee training and development will unlock companies' profitability and reliability. When people, processes, and technology work together as a team developing practical solutions, companies can maximize profitability and assets in a sustainable manner. Distillation is the most common separation technique and is energy-intensive. Distillation can consume more than 50% of a process plant’s operating energy cost. A way to improve an existing plant’s operating cost or to reduce a new distillation system’s operating cost is to improve the efficiency and operations by correct equipment selection, process optimization, and control. It is strategically important that your operations team understands the fundamentals of process unit operations concepts. This is the difference between being in the best quartile of operational ability and being in the last quartile. There is a vast difference in the operational ability to operate companies and most benchmarking studies have confirmed this gap in operational abilities. Whether you have a team of new or seasoned employees, an introduction or review of these concepts is very beneficial in closing the gap if you are not in the best quartile or maintaining a leadership position. Most studies show that a continuous reinforcement of best practices in operational principles is the most effective way to obtain the desired results. Training and learning should be an ongoing continuous life-long goal.

Objectives

This course will guide the participants to develop key concepts and techniques to design, operate, and troubleshoot a distillation system. These key concepts can be utilized to make design and operating decisions. Training and development is an investment in future success - give yourself and your employees the keys to success.

Product recoveries, purities, and energy utilization can be improved in most distillation systems. This cannot be achieved without first and understanding of distillation principles and design. These principles need to be understood in advance of designing, operating, and troubleshooting a distillation column for the operator, designer, or problem-solving to be effective.

By the end of the training, participants will be able to:

• The operation, control, and troubleshooting of a distillation column and its associated equipment
• An overview of distillation, practical solutions as well as the theory
• An understating of essential distillation concepts
• Valuable practical insights for trouble-free design and field-proven techniques for commissioning, start-up and shutdown of distillation operation
• The fundamental knowledge of distillation control
• To tailor your approach to specific design, analysis and troubleshooting problems

Training Methodology

This is an interactive course. There will be open question and answer sessions, regular group exercises and activities, videos, case studies, and presentations on best practice. Participants will have the opportunity to share with the facilitator and other participants on what works well and not so well for them, as well as work on issues from their own organizations. The online course is conducted online using MS-Teams/ClickMeeting.

Who Should Attend?

This course is intended those who are making day to day decisions regarding operation, design, maintenance, and economics of process industry plants such as Line Operations personnel, Operation Supervisors, Line Maintenance personnel, Maintenance Supervisors, Senior Plant Supervisors, Operations Engineers, Process Support Engineers, Design Engineers and Cost Engineers as well as Technical Engineers, Operating Engineers, Process Support Personnel, Chemist, and Managers.

Course Outline

DAY 1: INTRODUCTION

• General Column Design

• The components of a distillation system, more than just a tower – it is a system of different components

• History of distillation

• Different types of distillation columns

• Differences among batch, flash, and multistage distillation process

• Relative advantages of the tray and packed columns

• Steps in the process design

DAY 2:  THERMODYNAMICS AND EQUILIBRIUM

• Vapor-Liquid Equilibrium

  • Select the correct vapor-liquid equilibrium equation for your system

  • Review vapor pressure and equilibrium diagrams

  • Interpret mole fraction equilibrium curves, commonly called y-x diagrams

  • Azeotropes and the challenges they create for distillation

• Stages & Transfer Units Efficiencies

• Calculate the number of equilibrium stages using short cut methods

• Calculate minimum reflux and stages using graphical & analytical methods

• Determine the number of theoretical stages needed in a distillation column

• Stage Efficiency

• Methods for determining the efficiency

• Calculate an overall column efficiency for tray columns

• Calculate point and tray efficiencies, and their difference

• Calculate the number and height of transfer units for packing

• Effects on distillation column by changing the amount of reflux and reflux temperature

• How flooding and foaming effects efficiencies and capacities

DAY 3: COLUMN DESIGN

• Tray Column Design

  • The major design differences between tray types

  • The operational limits for trays – operating window

  • Size a distillation column for a given vapor and liquid rate

• Packed Column Design

• The different types of packing and their characteristics

• The best type of packing for a given system

• Size a packed column diameter for a given vapor and liquid rate

• Designing columns for fouling service

• Designing columns for vacuum service

• Designing Columns for improved operation and maintenance

DAY 4: PROCESS CONTROL

• Distillation Column Control

• Functions of Process Control

• Characteristics of a Continuous Process

• Select appropriate composition and column pressure control schemes

• Process settings during the column operation

• Typical controlled and manipulated process variables

• Level • Pressure • Composition • Temperature • Flow

• Controller Performance Criteria

• Final Control Elements

• Control Algorithms

• Open and closed loop tuning strategies

• Feed Forward Control of an Ideal Process

• Feedback and Feed Forward Control Loops

DAY 5: TROUBLESHOOTING

• Introduction

  • Evaluate operation of a packed column

  • Evaluate operation of a tray column

  • Use tools to diagnosis problems

• Installation

• Common column installation mistakes

• List tasks to ensure a proper installation

• Common start-up problems and understand how to correct them

• Commissioning

• Utilizing Process Engineering Software for troubleshooting