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Auxiliary process vessels are essential for fulfilling the functioning of some of the major process

equipment for example a wrongly selected vapour liquid separator in the evaporator may result in
loss of a valuable product or contamination of steam in case of multiple effect evaporator system.
Steam contamination may require condensate treatment before it is sent to boiler as boiler feed
water.

Some of the auxiliary vessels, most often used are reflux drums, liquid-liquid separators and vapour-
liquid separators.

Reflux Drum:

A reflux drum is an integral part of the distillation/fractionation columns. Generally, the reflux drum
is placed in a horizontal position. Design of the drum will be practically the same as the column
design pressure. Fractionating columns are operated either under positive pressure, near
atmospheric pressure or under reduced pressure (vacuum), depending upon the system. The design
temperature would be the same as that of the condenser design temperature on the vapour side.
The material of construction will be compatible with the process fluid. Diameter of the drum is
based on a liner velocity of about 0.15m/s and minimum 20% of the drum diameter is provided as
vapour space.

If the system operates under reduced pressure and vacuum is pulled off reflux drum, sufficient care
must be taken to avoid a liquid entrainment in the vacuum system. This can be achieved by installing
a demister pad as discussed under entrainment separators

In case there is possibility of an immiscible phase (say water as the heavier phase), a special draw off
arrangement in the form of a boot is provided as shown in figure. The drum design is similar to the
design of a pressure vessel design.

Compressor Knock out drum

The function of a knock-out drum is to provide enough residence time to the compressed gas vapour
such that the liquid is separated. Residence time for gas may be about ten minutes. The exit gas
moves through the demister pads to knock-out any entrained liquid.

The ratio between the length and diameter varies between 3 and 5 depending upon pressure. The
design pressure depends on compressed gas pressure and so would the design temperature. The
knockout drum essentially serve as an entrainment separator. In order to facilitate drainage of
liquid, the drum may be installed in a slightly inclined position.

The compressed gas enters at one end exists at other end through demister pads to knock off
residual entrained liquid. The mechanical design of the drum and supports would be similar to a
pressure vessel design. At times space may demand the knockout drum to be in a vertical position.
In that case nozzle orientation needs change. A typical schematic diagram of knockout drum is
shown in figure.

Liquid-Liquid Separators:

Liquid-liquid separator are generally horizontal vessels. For very low flow rates vertical vessels are
used. The design pressure and temperature are based on fluid pressure and temperature. Process
fluid compatibility would decide material of construction. The feed nozzle size must be such that it
would avoid jet effect making separation rather difficult. A baffle placed in front of inlet feed nozzle
is generally adequate to avoid the jetting effect.
If dispersion is stable (which is the case most of the time), a coalescence device is used in the
separator to enhance phase separation. A stable dispersion is passed through a coalescence device,
resulting in a larger diameter of droplets which can be settled is usual way.

The coalescence device could be plate type of knitted wire mesh type (wire of metal, fibre glass or
plastic). The plates would also be packed depending upon difficulty of separation. It is possible to
design knitted wire mesh type device to reduce contaminant level as low as 5ppm.

Vapour/Gas liquid Separators:

Gas liquid operations many times results carry over in the form of fine droplets ranging from 0.01
m to 1000 m. For instance, the sprays may result in liquid droplets 500-1000m while steam
coming out of vaporizer drum may carry liquid water droplets in the range typically (0.1 m to 25
m). Such liquid carry over in vapour is very common in evaporators, distillation columns, gas
absorbers, refinery vacuum tower, knockout drums. For many process operations it is essential that
stream is free of liquid (or even solid) and particulate matter. For instant if suction of a compressor
contains liquid droplets, it may pose severe maintenance problems. Similarly, if steam fed to a
reformer carriers liquid droplets with it the temperature of superheated steam may not reach the
desired temperature. For the heat supplied will be utilized to vaporize water than carrying out
sensible heat exchanger.

A variety of gas/vapour-liquid separators are usually available. Liquid droplet size and carryover of
particular matter are major factors deciding their selection. Gravity separators, cyclone separators
and impingement type of separators are among the most commonly used.

Gravity Separators:

In the gravity separators, gas or vapour enters at one end of a horizontal drum. The gas velocity is
now reduced considerably due to the larger diameter of drum compared to feed pipe diameter. The
liquid droplets hence settle and the liquid is drained through a boot. The exit gas may be passed
through demister pad mounted at the other end of the drum.

Cyclone Separators:

It is a cylinder vessel where a gas/ vapour stream enters tangentially and swirls downward and then
passes through a central pipe. Due to centrifugation, liquid droplets are collected at the bottom and
the accumulated liquid can then be drained. The inlet velocity should be in the range 30-50 m/s Very
high velocities may result in the gas carrying liquid due to creeping up phenomenon.

Impingement Separators:

The most commonly used gas/vapour liquid separators in chemical process industry are based on
droplet coalescence or capture by internal impaction, direct interception or Brownian diffusion and
coalescence. In its simplest form, it consist if a baffle placed in a vapour/gas perpendicular to
direction of flow. The liquid droplets hit the baffle and are drained in the form of a liquid. They can
hit even a pipe and then be separated while changing direction of flow.

Some typical arrangement are shown in figure. For large flow rate, vane shaped mist eliminators
could be used. It consist of a series of a series of baffles or vane between which gas / vapour laden
with liquid droplets travel. The change in direction results in impaction also. The space between two
baffles could be 5 to 50mm or more depending on allowable pressure drop and liquid carry-over. To
narrow a passage may cause flooding thereby carrying liquid into exit gas stream. All the above types
are suitable for liquid droplets of 25micron to 50 micron.
Wire mesh mist eliminators:

The most popular mist eliminators are wire mesh eliminator with wire mesh thickness ranging from
0.1 to 0.3mm and a void fraction of 0.95 to 0.99. The thickness of knitted wire pads could vary
between 100 and 300 mm depending upon application. The material of construction may be SS,
monal, nickel, inconal, titanium, copper, AL, Teflon depending upon compatibility with process fluid.
In other words the material could be anything that can be drawn or extruded.

Wire mesh mist eliminators can remove droplets > 3micron. They have excellent turn down ratio of
30 to 110 % for design capacity.

While installing wire mesh mist eliminators, the following points should be considered.

1) Generally they are installed in a vertical position with gas up-flow.


2) Gas or vapour should be distributed uniformly over the mist eliminator pad.
3) When there are limitation inside a process equipment an internal baffle element can be
used prior to wire mesh mist eliminator to ensure uniform flow.
4) In order to remove solids adhering to the bottom face, it is desirable to spray from bottom
side.

Wire mesh eliminator are not suitable for removing submicron mist as in the case of sulphuric acid
plant. For such service, fibre bed mist eliminator are ideal. The fibre bed mist eliminator consist of
densely packed fibre bed with steel support. Fibre diameter and bed voidage are selected in such a
way as to provide mechanical stability of the element. The fibres (generally glass fibres) are such that
they will not absorb liquid. For densely packed mist eliminator, pressure drop is higher than in wire
mesh type eliminator.

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