Comparison of Performance Characteristic Prediction of Sieve Tray with and without Down comer

Abstract

A sieve tray is a type of tray that is widely used in separation in industry. While sieve tray without down comer, frequently called dual flow sieve tray is commonly used to increase the effective area, so it can increase tray capacity. Dual-flow sieve tray operations can be classified into two categories, it is froth and transition based on gas/vapour velocity, so that there are parts of holes that are only flown by gas/vapour and at the same time there are parts of holes that are only flushed with liquid. Performance characteristics studied include clear-liquid height, dry and wet pressure drop, efficiency, and entrainment. The study aims to compare performance characteristic of sieve tray with and without down comer. The sieve tray without down comers showed almost 50% higher capacity compared to the sieve tray with down comers. However, sieve tray without down comers has 40% lower pressure drop compared to that with down comers. The results can ensure that the trays performance prediction for 298 mm diameter with open area in the range of 77-80%, 5 mm diameter holes, 12.5 mm hole spacing and 35 cm tray spacing satisfying and optimistic can be utilized in the distillation process.