Designing Distillation Columns
for Vacuum Service
Karl Kolmetz
Andrew W. Sloley
Timothy M. Zygula
Peter W. Faessler
Wai Kiong Ng
K. Senthil
Tau Yee Lim
Prepared for
The 11th India Oil and Gas Symposium
and International Exhibition
6-7 September 2004
Grand Hyatt
Mumbai, India
Published in
Hydrocarbon Processing
May 2004
Abstract
Many hydrocarbon separation applications can be improved by vacuum distillation. The relative volatility of many hydrocarbon binary pairs of components improves with lower pressure, improving the separation efficiency. At lower pressures hydrocarbon components vaporize at lower temperatures, reducing the degradation of products by condensation or polymerization.
Typically applications of distillation columns in vacuum service include refinery vacuum columns, ethyl-benzene / styrene distillation, mono- / di – / tri - / ethanolamine distillation, and oleo chemicals. A review of each of the applications can provide an insight to the overall picture of designing columns for vacuum service.