Mass Transfer-I
Equipment for gas liquid operations
CH 421
Lecture 12
Dr. Hemant Kumar
Department of Chemical Engineering
DDU Nadiad
10/19/2020 Mass transfer-I Dr Hemant Kumar 1
TRAY TOWERS
• Tray towers are vertical cylinders in which the liquid and gas
are contacted in stepwise fashion on trays or plates, as
shown schematically for one type (bubble-cap trays)
• The liquid enters at the top and flows downward by gravity.
On the way, it flows across each tray and through a
downspout to the tray below
• The gas passes upward through openings of one sort or
another in the tray, then bubbles through the liquid to form a
froth, disengages from the froth, and passes on to the next
tray above
• The overall effect is a multiple countercurrent contact of gas
and liquid, although each tray is characterized by a cross flow
of the two
Liquid
Consider
complete
tower
Sieve tray
Gas
consider
Liquid single
tray
Sieve tray
Gas
TRAY TOWERS
•Tray – a horizontal plate which supports the vapor-liquid
mixture and serves as an equilibrium stage.
•Downcomer – an opening in the tray which allows the
liquid to flow down the column.
•Weir – a vertical plate or “dam” at the downcomer to
provide a given vapor-liquid mixture depth on the tray.
TRAY TOWERS
• Feed enters the tower on the feed plate (or feed tray)
somewhere between middle of the tower depending on the
feed condition (i.e. FEED is: liquid, vapour, partially liquid,
subcooled liquid or superheated vapour)
• Feed liquid flows down to the next lower tray through a
downspout or downcomer
• Feed first collects in the lower part of the tower. Feed from the
lower part of the tower enters the reboiler.
• In the reboiler feed gets heated and vapour thus produced are
fed to the bottom tray.
• Afterwards the vapour rises from bottom try to the top tray
through the sieves or holes in the trays.
• From the top tray vapour are condensed to a liquid phase by a
condenser.
• From the condenser one part is top product and other is fed
back to the top of the tray.
TRAY TOWERS
• A counter current flow of liquid and vapour set up throughout
the column.
• Vapour vigorously bubbles through the pool of the liquid
forming a turbulent gas liquid dispersion.
• An average depth of liquid is maintained on the tray by the weir
attached to the tray.
• A large gas liquid contact area and a high mass transfer
coefficient is achieved.
Shell
• Shell is usually made of metal or alloy.
• Tower dimeter ranges from 1 meter to sometimes higher up to
10 meters.
TRAY TOWERS
TRAY TOWERS
Each tray of the tower is a stage, since on the tray the fluids are
brought into intimate contact, interphase diffusion occurs, and
the fluids are separated
[1] Number of equilibrium stages (theoretical trays) in a
column or tower is determined from
- material balances and equilibrium considerations
[2] Stage or tray efficiency, and therefore the number of real
trays, is determined by
– (1) the mechanical design used and the
– (2) conditions of operation (feed top and bottom
product conditions, Reflux Ratio, Equilibrium curve)
TRAY TOWERS
[3] The diameter of the tower, on the other hand, depends upon
– the quantities of liquid and gas flowing through the tower
per unit time
After determining the number of equilibrium stages or
theoretical trays, required, next steps on designing of tower are:
• to choose dimensions
• and arrangements
Best design may give higher tray efficiencies, however, conditions
leading to high tray efficiencies will ultimately lead to
operational difficulties.
TRAY TOWERS
For stage or tray efficiencies to be high
1. the time of contact should be long to permit the
diffusion to occur,
2. the interfacial surface between phases must be
made large
3. a relatively high intensity of turbulence is required
to obtain high mass transfer coefficients
TRAY TOWERS
1. Time of contact: In order to provide long contact time, the
liquid pool on each tray should be deep, so that bubbles of
gas will require a relatively long time to rise through the liquid
a. When the gas bubbles only slowly through the openings
on the tray,
i. the bubbles are large, the interfacial surface per unit
of gas volume is small, the liquid is relatively
quiescent, and much of it may even pass over the tray
without having contacted the gas.
b. when the gas velocity is relatively high, it is dispersed very
thoroughly into the liquid, which in turn is agitated into a
froth. This provides large interfacial surface areas
c. For high tray efficiencies, therefore, we require
i. deep pools of liquid and
ii. relatively high gas velocities
TRAY TOWERS
1. high gas velocity : lead to a number of difficulties
I. Mechanical entrainment of droplets: of liquid in the rising
gas stream
[Entrainment: At high gas velocities, when the gas is
disengaged from the froth, small droplets of liquid will be
carried by the gas to the tray above]
II. The tray efficiency: Liquid carried up the tower in this manner
reduces the concentration change brought about by the mass
transfer and consequently the tray efficiency will be reduced.
Therefor, the gas velocity may be limited by the
reduction in tray efficiency due to liquid entrainment
TRAY TOWERS
2. Great liquid depths on the tray and high gas
velocities: both result in high pressure drop for the gas in
flowing through the tray
and (high pressure drop) this in turn leads to a number of
difficulties
1) In the case of absorbers and humidifiers, high pressure drop
results in high fan power to blow or draw the gas through the
tower, and consequently high operating cost
2) In the case of distillation, high pressure at the bottom of the
tower results in high boiling temperatures, which in turn may
lead to heating difficulties and possibly damage to heat-
sensitive compounds
Ultimately, purely mechanical difficulties arise
TRAY TOWERS
1. Flooding
• High pressure drop may lead directly to a condition of flooding
• With a large pressure difference in the space between trays,
the level of liquid leaving a tray at relatively low pressure and
entering one of high pressure must necessarily assume an
elevated position in the downspouts, as shown in Fig.
As the pressure difference is increased
due to the:
● increased rate of flow of either gas
or liquid, the level in the downspout
will rise further to permit the liquid to
enter the lower tray
● Ultimately the Liquid level may reach
that on the tray above
● Further increase in either flow rate
then aggravates the condition rapidly
and the liquid will fiII the entire
space between the trays
● The tower is then flooded
TRAY TOWERS
The tray efficiency falls to a low value, the flow of gas is erratic,
and liquid may be forced out of the exit pipe at the top of the
tower
2. priming: ● For liquid-gas combinations which tend
to foam excessively, high gas
velocities may lead to a condition of
priming, which is also an inoperative
situation
● The foam persists throughout the space
between trays, and a great deal of
liquid is carried by the gas from one
tray to the tray above
● This is an exaggerated condition of
entrainment
● The liquid so carried recirculates
between trays, and the added liquid-
handling load increases the gas
pressure drop sufficiently to lead to
flooding
TRAY TOWERS
summarize opposing tendencies as follows
• Great depths of liquid on the trays lead to high tray
efficiencies through long contact time but also to high
pressure drop per tray
High gas velocities, within limits,
provide good vapor-liquid contact
through excellence of dispersion but
lead to excessive entrainment and
high pressure drop
● Several other undesirable
conditions may occur
● If liquid rates are too low the gas
rising through the openings of the
tray may push the liquid away
(coning) , and contact of the gas
and liquid is poor
TRAY TOWERS
If the gas rate is too low, much of the
liquid may rain down through the
openings of the tray (weeping),
thus failing to obtain the benefit of
complete flow over the trays; and at
very low gas rates, none of the
liquid reaches the downspouts
(dumping)
Tray designs
1. Sieve or Perforated – Simply a tray with vapor
holes. This is the simplest type of try
2. Bubble Cap – A cap placed over the tray’s vapor
holes
3. Valve – A valve placed over the tray’s vapor holes
Tray designs
Sieve or Perforated – Simply a tray with vapor holes
• This is the simplest type of tray wherein, holes
are provided for the entrance liquid and vapour
flow.
• The holes are of relatively smaller dimeter
ranging between ¼” to ½”
• This is why name is sieve tray or (perforated
tray)
Tray designs
• For clean liquids: hole diameter of 3/16 inch (0.476 cm or
nearly 5mm) is used.
• For fouling liquids: ½ inch hole dimeter may have to be
used
• Vacuum servicers: 1/8 inch hole dimeter is used.
• Holes are made by punching rather than drilling
• Holes are arranged either in equilateral triangular or
square pitch (a distance between two adjacent holes)
• Pitch of 2.5 dH to 5 dH is used (3.8 dH is common).
• dH Is hole dimeter.
• Nearly 80% of the tower cross section is Perforated area.
• Only 6 to 10% of the perforated area consists of
perforations or holes.
Tray designs
1. Sieve or Perforated
Tray designs: Sieve or Perforated
Tray designs: Bubble cap tray
• This is the oldest type of tray.
• Bubble cap consists of two major parts:
1. bell shaped cap and
2. a riser (or a chimney).
• The riser is inserted through hole on the tray floor and
bell shaped cap is bolted to it.
• A riser acts as a vapour passage and holds the cap.
• Bubble cap has slots on its wall
• Slots may be rectangular, trapezoidal, triangular or saw
tooth type.
• Slots ends a little above the bottom of the cap.
• The open region provided between the try floor and the
bubble cap bottom is called the skirt clearance.
Tray designs: Bubble cap tray
Tray designs: Bubble cap tray
Tray designs: Bubble cap tray
Tray designs: Bubble cap tray
• Number of slots used in the Bubble cap ranges from 12 to
70.
• For a medium size column (4 to 10 feet) , 4 inch cap are
common.
• The cap pitch is about 1 inch to 2 inch more than the cap
outer dimeter.
Tray designs: Valve tray
• The Valve tray is a relatively new class of try that provides
variable area for the gas or vapour flow this is why it
called Valve tray
• As the gas flow increases, valve disk is automatically
raised.
• Valve try offers a high turndown ratio.
• Since it’s a proprietary tray no further detail designs are
available.
Tray designs
3. Valve Tray
Tray designs
Tray Comparison
The turndown ratio is the ratio of the maximum vapor
flow rate (flooding) to minimum vapor flow rate
(excessive weeping).
THANKS
