Entrainment issues in vacuum column

flash zones
For a vacuum tower to operate effectively, the flash zone and the wash section
must work together to provide the best possible feed quality to the sections above

Mark Pilling, Mario Roza and S M Wong Sulzer Chemtech

O
ne of the recurring questions about as metals and hydrogen-deficient molecules. The
refinery vacuum tower operation is the metals are catalyst poisons for downstream proc-
issue of flash zone entrainment and the esses. The hydrogen-deficient molecules tend to
operation of the wash section. As refiners push form coke and also adversely affect the distil-
to optimise yields from the vacuum tower, the late’s end point and colour.
limits of existing column internals are often The flow configuration of the bottom of a typi-
encountered. Although the operation of the cal vacuum column is shown in Figure 1. Above
vacuum tower needs ultimately to be judged as a the flash zone is a relatively short packed bed
whole, this article focuses on the flash zone and called the wash section. The wash section is
wash sections of the column,
since they are critical for high-
yield operations.
The flash zone serves to transi- (6'/DRAW
tion the high-velocity, two-phase
,IQUIDFEEDTO
feed from the transfer line into WASHBED
the vacuum column in a manner
that separates the liquid and
routes it to the bottom of the
column, while delivering the 3LOPWAXDRAW

vapour uniformly to the upper

sections of the column. The feed
nozzle’s orientation into the
column can be radial or tangen-
tial. The number of nozzles can
vary, depending on column size &EED
and heater configuration. The
typical feed internal for a vacuum
column is a vapour horn or other
device that uses the feed inertia
to redirect the stream to contact
and remove dispersed liquid
particles. The liquids entrained
in the upward-flowing feed
vapour stream need to be
removed because they contain
disproportionately high amounts
of heavy end contaminants, such Figure 1 Main flows in the bottom of a vacuum column

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446 PTQ Q1 2010 1

 as a kind of reflux stream and also
acts to wet the packing to prevent it
from drying out and coking. It also
aids the removal of coalesced liquid
from the packing surface.
Liquid leaving the bottom of the
wash bed is collected in a slop
stream. It consists of coalesced liquid
entrainment from the flash zone, the
heavy condensed com-ponents, and
the heavy portion of the liquid gas oil
feed that made it down through the
packed bed without being vapourised.
Since gas oil is more valuable than
slop, process economics dictate that
the gas oil feed stream to the wash
section be minimised. However, the
stream must be maintained at a suffi-
cient rate so that coking is avoided.
From a column product draw stand-
point, as the entrainment rate to the
wash bed increases, the slop draw
Figure 2 Cyclonic device should increase by the same amount,
but the contribution of the slop from
the liquid feed to the wash section
will remain essentially constant.

Optimising the flash zone and

wash section design
When trying to optimise the feed
and wash sections of the vacuum
column, the goal must be clearly
understood. From an operational
standpoint, the true goal is to
provide the best possible vapour
feed to the distillation section above
the wash section. The term “best
possible” means the lowest possible
amount of entrained liquids as well
as the most uniform vapour distri-
bution. Again, this is measured
above the wash section. However,
Figure 3 Velocity profile above cyclonic device since the intermediate conditions
between the flash zone and the wash
designed to remove heavier components in the section can affect the output of the wash section,
upward-flowing vapour from the flash zone by we need to under-stand that region as well.
coalescing entrained liquid droplets and by Therefore, we need to look at the vapour distri-
condensing the heavier vapourised components. bution throughout these sec-tions as well as the
The packing provides the surface area that corresponding entrainment.
coalesces the entrained liquid droplets in the Looking first at vapour distribu-tion leaving
vapour stream. A small liquid gas oil stream is the wash section: this should be fairly straight-
fed to the top of the wash section, which serves forward. In order for the wash section to function

2 PTQ Q1 2010 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446

properly with respect to de-entrain-
ment and coking resistance, the
vapour feed to the wash section
must be very well distributed. Since
a packed bed is typically a good
distributor of vapour, the vapour
flow from the top of a properly
working wash bed, by definition,
must be excellent. Therefore, when
discussing vapour distribution, we
need to focus on the region between
the flash zone and the wash section.
Now looking at entrained liquids:
from a practical standpoint, the
flash zone section behaves as a
rough vapour-liquid separator and
the wash section behaves as a
polishing bed, where droplets can be
removed and fractionation takes
place. Generally, it does not matter
how much liquid is removed in the Figure 4 Baffled vapour horn
feed section or the wash section
independently; it matters how the combined feed study, it can be seen that different feed designs
and wash section perform as a unit. To some can have unexpected results with respect to
extent, the de-entrainment effects of the flash vapour distribution and de-entrainment
zone and the wash section are cumulative. In a capabilities.
simplistic approach, if both sections operate at
90% efficiency, the net efficiency will be approxi- CFD study: de-entrainment vs vapour
mately 99%. For example, if 100kg of distribution
entrainment enters the tower, a 90% efficient When studying the performance of various
flash zone will allow 10kg to leave and go to the vacuum tower feed devices, it becomes apparent
wash section, which will capture 90% of that that vapour-liquid separation capabilities
entrainment, allowing 1kg of entrainment to (entrainment removal) and vapour distribution
leave to the tower above. quality to the wash section do not necessarily go
However, the efficiency of both sections is hand in hand. In other words, a modification
based on droplet particle size. If the flash zone that decreases the entrainment to the wash
or the feed inlet device allow a bigger portion of section does not necessarily help the vapour feed
large-diameter droplets to escape to the wash profile to the wash bed. Often, the opposite can
section, the wash section will be extremely effi- be true. This can be seen with the CFD simula-
cient in removing those droplets. However, if a tions shown in Figures 2 and 3. Figure 2 shows a
larger percentage of very small droplets leaves pure cyclonic device with a strong rotation that
the flash zone, the wash section will be less effec- optimises de-entrainment. Figure 3 shows the
tive in removing that extra entrainment. vapour velocity profile leaving this device at an
Nevertheless, it is desirable to minimise the elevation just below the packed bed. As can be
entrainment from the feed section to the wash seen, the feed to the wash section has some
section. However, when this comes at the distinct high-velocity regions. However, from an
expense of poor vapour feed to the wash section, entrainment standpoint, we know from in-house
improved de-entrainment from the feed section testing that a well-designed feed device can have
usually does not result in a better product from very low entrainment rates of less than 1%.1
the wash section. The following CFD study Figure 4 shows a vapour horn-type feed device
provides a review of an industrial column config- with baffles and a vortex recovery mechanism to
uration with two types of feed devices. From this limit the swirling effect in the bottom of the

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446 PTQ Q1 2010 3

 column. The CFD results show that
this is not as effective as an initial
de-entrainment device as the pure
cyclone is. When operating at typi-
cal industrial conditions, a
well-designed vapour horn feed
device like this can have entrain-
ment levels as low as 2%. This is
still relatively low, but higher than
that of the cyclone. Looking at the
vapour distribution results in
Figure 5, the vapour horn device
clearly provides a more uniform
vapour flow to the wash section
above. It should be noted that the
entrainment rates discussed previ-
ously have been measured in
laboratory conditions with column
Figure 5 Velocity profile above baffled vapour horn device diameters of 1–3m. Entrainment
rates from well-designed industrial
columns are typically in the range
3–5%. So there is some scaling
effect to be seen. However, the
 
trend of entrain-ment vs vapour
 distribution should still hold true,
 regardless of scale.

4EMPERATURE²#

 Vacuum tower example

TBP  The example below shows the
 performance of an industrial

SPGR column with a less-than-optimum

wash section design. With this case,
 it can be seen that even these older,
less efficient designs can provide
 
           excellent de-entrainment removal.
6OLUME

Wash section
• Diameter: 10m
 
• Type: double bed

 • Beds: top 1.4m M125Y, bottom

1.0m MG64Y
  • Feed inlet: two tangential 1.5m
##2WT


parallel nozzles, simple galleries
WPPM



with top and side panel without
  baffles, extending about 120
V

CCR 
degrees of circumference
 Ni • Spray nozzle distributor for the

          
 bottom wash bed, Sulzer VEP grav-
6OLUME ity flow liquid distributor for the
top wash bed
• Slop wax externally recycled to
Figure 6 Long residue characterisation the top of the stripping section.

4 PTQ Q1 2010 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446

Long residue assay
In the following data, the long residue /6($
characteristics have been
summarised.
Based on these data, the cut point 7ATER
of the HVGO is 580°C and for LVGO
it is 450°C. For this cut point, the
HVGO would have the following
expected contaminant contents:
,6'/
CCR = 1.45 wt%
Nickel = 0.51 wppm
Vanadium = 0.81 wppm

These values are obtained by adding

the contaminant contents of the 4O(6'/
different assay cuts between the
(6'/
LVGO and HVGO cut points. These &: 6!0
data are compared with the results
from the different simulations below.
,2
Simulation &: $E WASH

The analysis was made starting with a %NTRAINMENT

complete flow sheet simulation with &: ,)1
FROM&:
furnaces, transfer lines, all exchang-
ers, pumps and the vacuum system. $E ENTRAIN
36!0 3LOP
The feed has a full characterisation of WAX
the blend. In order to be able to esti-
mate the influence of entrainment, it
was subsequently extended to simu- 3TEAM
late entrainment from the flash zone,
de-entrainment in the wash section
and entrainment to the HVGO
32
draw-off.
The feed zone is simulated as a
flash to the pressure at the feed stage Figure 7 PFD used to simulate entrainment from the flash zone as well
without considering any influence of as de-entrainment by the wash section
the vapour (including water vapour)
coming from the stripping section and assum- ering any cooling effect of passing though the
ing that a part of the liquid feed is entrained wash section. In this manner, the influence of
(stream “Entrainment from FZ”). The vapour the superheating of the feed compared to the
(“FZ-VAP”), as well as the separated liquid flash zone temperature is taken into considera-
(“De-entrain”), are fed to a stage representing tion with respect to the inherent limitations of
the bottom of the wash section below the slop an equilibrium model used for such mass and
wax draw. The entrained liquid from the flash heat transfer applications.
zone is split into two parts: one part is assumed A schematic process flow diagram (PFD) of
to be de-entrained in the wash section (“De- the unit operations used is shown in Figure 7.
wash”); and one part is assumed to pass One theoretical stage is taken for each of the
through the wash section and will end mainly wash zones. On the product side draws, the
in the HVGO (“To HVGO”). It must be noted HVGO and LVGO flow rates are specified. The
that the liquid entrained to the HVGO is directly slop wax pumparound in the bottom wash bed
fed to the HVGO draw-off stage without consid- is fixed.

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446 PTQ Q1 2010 5

 Feed and flash zone-related streams with contaminant concentration

Stream name LR SWAX FZ-LIQ FZ-VAP SVAP SR HVGO LVGO

Stream description Long residue Liq. from FZ Vap. from FZ Vap. frm strip. sec. Short residue
Stream phase Mixed Liquid Liquid Vapour Vapour Liquid Liquid Liquid
Total stream
Temperature, C 426 390 406 406 399 393 333 215
Pressure, Mbar 359 34 36 36 36 44 30 25
kg/hr 581 085 31 097 273 488 307 597 58 247 252 600 217 560 110 000
Vapour phase
Rate, kg/hr 115 469 n/a n/a 307 597 58247 n/a n/a n/a
Density, kg/m3 2.09 n/a n/a 0.26 0.08 n/a n/a n/a
Vapour molecular weight 333 n/a n/a 412 132 n/a n/a n/a
Liquid phase
Rate, kg/hr 465 616 31 097 273 488 n/a n/a 252 600 217 560 110 000
Actual density, kg/m3 764 775 830 n/a n/a 850 769 791
Vanadium content, ppm 116 23 243 2.05 6.00 265 0.97 0.01
Nickel content, ppm 33 8.35 70 0.82 2.38 76 0.53 0.01
Conradson carbon residue, PCT 9.85 5.55 20 1.03 2.66 21 1.29 0.03
ASTM D2887 at 760 mm hg (wt), C
IBP 320 462 502 236 413 558 400 314
5% 406 499 538 362 446 576 431 322
10% 438 529 573 391 474 598 449 345
30% 493 570 626 439 517 643 483 384
50% 544 596 673 476 547 686 511 412
70% 609 619 728 512 574 738 538 435
90% 705 649 820 558 607 831 571 458
95% 905 682 922 602 637 920 594 471
EBP 946 715 951 640 672 949 621 492

Feed: 580 000 kg/hr, V 115 wppm, Ni 35 wppm, CCR 10 wt%. Evaporation: 53%, no entrainment. 6.0 t/hr stripping steam, 3 stripping stages

Table 1

Influence of entrainment from the flash zone with perfect original design have been applied.
de-entrainment from the wash zone What we see is that both the
vapours from the flash zone (FZ),
HVGO yield, kg/hr 217 559 as well as the vapour coming from
Entrainment from FZ 0% 2% 5% 8% 10% the stripping section, contain a
Entrainment, kg/hr - 5470 13 674 21 879 27 349
V, ppm 0.97 0.98 0.99 1.00 1.01
significant amount of contaminants.
Ni, ppm 0.53 0.53 0.53 0.54 0.54 The stripping vapour has an even
CCR, wt% 1.29 1.29 1.29 1.29 1.29 higher concentration of V, Ni and
Slops, kg/hr 31 098 36 357 44 261 52 175 57 457 CCR than the feed vapour.
Feed: 580 000 kg/hr, V 115 wppm, Ni 35 wppm, CCR 10 wt%. Evaporation: 53%, Just to get an idea of the absolute
no entrainment amounts we are speaking about, in
the vapour phase of the feed, which
Table 2 is 307.4 t/hr, we have: 0.63 kg/hr
V; 0.25 kg/hr Ni; 3187 kg/hr CCR.
Results On top of that, we have stripping section vapour
Volatility of contaminants (58.2 t/hr) that contains: 0.35 kg/hr V; 0.14 kg/
The simulation is very helpful to provide an idea hr Ni; 1547 kg/hr CCR. In the HVGO, we have a
of the volatility of the three contaminants, vana- feed of 217.6 t/hr, which contains: 0.21 kg/hr V;
dium (V), nickel (Ni) and Conradson carbon 0.11 kg/hr Ni; 2800 kg/hr CCR. So we are speak-
residue (CCR), which have been studied for this ing of very small numbers in large streams.
column.
In Table 1, the contaminants in the vapour Entrainment
and liquid streams going to the wash section For this study, the percentage of entrainment
have been summarised together with some from the flash zone was first varied while keep-
additional stream data. The same column ing the de-entrainment factor of the wash zone
configuration and stripping steam rate as in the at 100%. This means that all entrained liquid

6 PTQ Q1 2010 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446

will end up in the slop wax Influence of de-entrainment from the wash zone with constant entrainment
draw. The results are given from the flash zone
in Table 2. Analysis shows
that if the wash zone can
cope with the entrained Entrainment from FZ 5.0%
Entrainment from FZ, kg/hr 13 674
liquid, it does not really HVGO, kg/hr 218 240 217 830 217 700 217 570 217 559
matter how much entrain- De-entrainment wash zone 95.0% 98.0% 99.0% 99.9% 100.0%
ment there is from the flash To HVGO, kg/hr 681 271 139 13.5 -
V, wppm 1.49 1.19 1.09 1.00 1.00
zone. The only negative
Ni, wppm 0.68 0.59 0.56 0.54 0.53
aspect to high entrainment CCR, wt% 1.33 1.31 1.30 1.29 1.29
from the flash zone is that Slops, kg/hr 43 451 43 939 44 093 44 249 44 261
more liquid has to be
drawn from the slop wax Table 3
collector. This also means
that if the slop wax is pumped to the top of the liquid at the bottom of the wash section. What
stripping section (where it belongs), some addi- should also be mentioned is that for the cases
tional pump power will be required. quoted in literature with a higher than expected
It has been stated that higher entrainment dry-out, spray nozzles are used for the
leads to faster than normal coking.2 The main wash oil. The measured dry-out factor is based
reason given is that the superheated entrainment on metered flow of the wash oil fed to the
vapourises the wash oil and leads to a higher distributor, assuming zero entrainment back
than expected dry-out. The main contributor to to the HVGO. This is most probably not correct.
this higher than expected dry-out, however, is The effective wash oil rate was probably much
the superheated feed vapour because there is a lower than metered.3,4 Further study could
much greater amount of vapour than entrained perhaps verify this hypothesis.

Feed and flash zone-related streams with contaminant concentration, reduced stripping section stages

Stream name LR SWAX FZ-LIQ FZ-VAP SVAP SR HVGO LVGO

Stream description Long residue Liq. from FZ Vap. from FZ Vap. frm Strip. Sec. Short residue
Stream phase Mixed Liquid Liquid Vapour Vapour Liquid Liquid Liquid
Total stream
Temperature, C 426 391 406 406 399 394 332 214
Pressure, Mbar 359 34 36 36 36 44 30 25
kg/hr 581 085 26 368 273 488 307 597 53 519 252 600 217 560 110 000
Vapour phase
Rate, kg/hr 115 469 n/a n/a 307 597 53 519 n/a n/a n/a
Density, kg/m3 2.09 n/a n/a 0.2 0.08 n/a n/a n/a
Vapour molecular weight 333 n/a n/a 412 124 n/a n/a n/a
Liquid phase
Rate, kg/hr 465 616 26 368 273 487 n/a n/a 252 600 217 560 110 000
Actual density, kg/m3 764 776 830 n/a n/a 849 769 791
Vanadium content, ppm 116 26 243 2.0 6.4 265 1.1 0.01
Nickel content, ppm 33 9.28 70 0.82 2.51 76 0.57 0.01
Conradson carbon residue, PCT 9.85 5.87 19.7 1.04 2.69 21.5 1.31 0.03
ASTM D2887 at 760 MM hg (wt), C
IBP 320 465 502 236 412 551 400 314
5% 406 502 538 362 445 574 431 322
10% 438 531 573 391 473 598 449 345
30% 493 573 626 439 516 642 483 384
50% 544 600 673 476 547 686 511 412
70% 609 624 728 512 574 738 539 435
90% 705 654 820 558 608 831 572 458
95% 905 687 922 602 639 920 597 471
EBP 946 719 951 640 674 949 624 493

Feed: 580 000 kg/hr, V 115 wppm, Ni 35 wppm, CCR 10 wt%, Evaporation: 53%, no entrainment, no entrainment, 6.0 t/hr stripping steam, 2 stripping stages

Table 4

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446 PTQ Q1 2010 7

 and an increased contaminant rate.
Spray nozzle design for top and bottom wash section If the slop wax rate is not carefully
monitored and analysed to distin-
Section l, F-factor, Nozzles Type Expected entrainment, guish between over-flash and
m3/m2/hr Pa1/2 %
Top 2.09 3.76 32 MP437 120° 64 de-entrained liquid, this quality
Bottom 0.40 3.36 36 MP187 120° 93 reduction due to lower stripping
section efficiency can easily be
Table 5 mistaken for entrainment from the
FZ to the HVGO.
Since the previous case assumed 100% effi-
ciency in the wash section, the next step is to Single wash section
review the influence of the wash section’s effi- The reason this tower was selected for review
ciency of de-entrainment. In Table 3, the was because it used a double wash bed design.
percentage of de-entrained liquid is varied for a Double wash section designs are rarely, if ever,
fixed entrainment of 5% from the FZ. used today. One of the reasons, described below,
It is interesting to see that the influence of is the risk of entraining slop wax to the HVGO.
entrainment on HVGO is smaller for “compo- In order to estimate the effect of switching to a
nents” with significant volatility (CCR) than for single-bed wash section, two simulations were
the vanadium that has the lowest volatility of the made; one simulation just eliminated the bottom
three contaminants. In fact, on the CCR side, the wash section pumparound, while the other simu-
difference between perfect de-entrainment and lation added an additional stage (filling the space
only 95% de-entrainment is probably within created by eliminating the spray nozzle
measuring accuracy. For vanadium, the differ- distributor).
ence will be measurable. The results with the two-stage, single-wash
In general, it appears that if we can obtain section (without entrainment) are identical to
99% de-entrainment efficiency in the wash bed, the results with the small slop PA specified by
we can, taking into account the accuracy of the the process design. With three stages, HVGO
measurements, probably be sure that we are quality improves slightly for the same yield. In
within the required HVGO specification as calcu- other words, the vanadium content went from
lated with a rigorous simulation. Sulzer’s 0.97 wppm to 0.86 wppm, and CCR from 1.29
in-house testing has shown that, depending upon wt% to 1.27 wt%. With one additional stage, the
the average droplet size entering the packed bed, HVGO yield can be increased by 0.25%. The CCR
at least 98–99% efficiency is realistic and is the determining contaminant for the possible
attainable. yield increase. Vanadium is less sensitive and is,
at 0.91 wppm, below the original content at this
Varying the number of stripping stages yield.
Another variable that can be reviewed is the
number of stripping stages in the bottom of the Distributor check
column. In the original simulation, there are Since this column is highly loaded, it is interest-
three stripping stages, including the stage were ing to verify the choice of distributor in the two
the liquid is fed. No tray efficiency data are used wash sections. With the help of the entrainment
to substantiate this. In general, it might be too estimation program developed by Sulzer, based
optimistic to assume it will attain three stages. on literature data, spray nozzle distributors were
In Table 4, the results of the same simulation, as designed for both sections. In the real column,
summarised in Table 1, are given, with two only the bottom section has a spray nozzle. The
rather than three stages. results of this calculation are summarised in
As expected, with the reduced stage number, Table 5.
the strip-out vapour (SVAP) is reduced. What is Assuming the Sulzer program gives a good
a bit surprising is that it also shows a higher estimate (at least within 20–30%), it is clear that
contaminant concentration than in the simula- a spray nozzle distributor is not a very good
tion with three stages. This results in reduced choice for this vapour load. Our in-house testing
quality (ie, an increased end point of the HVGO) has actually showne data that indicate that these

8 PTQ Q1 2010 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446

entrainment estimates may actually be conserva- HVGO quality. In fact, even this particular
tive.3,4 Based on this, it is possible that the column, with severe entrainment of slop wax
bottom wash section entrainment might actually between the split wash beds, still made the
have a more severe effect on the HVGO quality HVGO specification in actual operation. Our
than the entrainment from the feed in this studies indicate that, as long as the wash bed is
column. performing properly, contaminant levels in the
The choice of a gravity flow distributor for the HVGO draw will be well within the desired spec-
top bed is of high importance, as it assures that ifications. The feed and flash zone internals need
the correct amount of wash oil enters the bed. to provide both low entrainment levels and high-
With a spray nozzle distributor, this would not quality distribution to the wash section, but, in
be possible. In fact, the calculation shows that if the end, the wash section is the final protection
more liquid is pumped through the spray nozzle for the HVGO product draw.
distributor, less liquid actually goes to the bed The analyses in this study show that, more or
because of the increased pressure drop and asso- less independently of the amount of entrain-
ciated decrease in drop size. At 120% of design, ment, it is of great importance to estimate the
74% will be entrained as per the correlations. capability of the wash section to de-entrain the
Therefore, from a design standpoint, a Sulzer liquid carried over. In the past, Sulzer has
VEP distributor is the best choice for the top already done some investigations on the de-
distributor, which is the most critical for HVGO entrainment efficiency. From these data and
quality. other sources, the company has developed a
calculation method to predict the performance of
Conclusions various feed devices and the combined perform-
In order for a vacuum tower to operate effec- ance of the vacuum tower flash zone and wash
tively, the flash zone and the wash section must sections to ensure proper operation of each
work together to provide the best possible feed vacuum tower.
quality to the sections above. To properly design
a vacuum column, engineers need to be able to References
predict how much entrainment and associated 1 Wehrli M, Schaeffer P, Marti U, Muggli F, Kooijman H, Mixed-
contaminants will travel from the flash zone to phase feeds in mass transfer columns and liquid separation,
IChemE Distillation & Absorption, London, Sept 2006.
the slop wax and HVGO draws. These numbers
2 Golden S W, Shah V B, Kovach III J W, Improved flow sheet
are based directly on the entrainment removal
topology for petroleum refinery crude vacuum distillation
efficiency of the flash zone and the wash section.
simulation, Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference, Calgary,
Sulzer’s in-house design tools predict entrain- Alberta, Oct 1994.
ment from most well-designed flash zone 3 Pilling M, Bannwart M, Use of gravity flow distributor increases
internals to be 3–5%. An inlet device producing capacity in refinery vacuum tower wash sections, AIChE Spring
“zero” entrain­ment, even if it did exist, would Meeting, Houston, Texas, March 2001.
almost certainly adversely affect the vapour 4 Pilling M, Bannwart M, Campbell C, Operating characteristics of
distribution to the wash bed above. Since it is corrugated grid packing, AIChE AM, Reno, Nevada, Nov 2001.
imperative that the wash section removes
entrainment at extremely high efficiencies Mark Pilling is the Manager of Technology for Sulzer
(>98%) and resists coking, the vapour distribu- Chemtech USA, where he oversees mass transfer equipment
tion quality to the wash section must be development and specialises in applications for various
excellent. Vapour distribution should not be process technologies. He holds various patents on distillation
sacrificed for the sake of ultra-low entrainment tray technology and is an active member of Fractionation
Research, Inc, where he serves as Vice-Chair of the Technical
levels in the flash zone.
Committee. He is also a technical representative for structured
A simulation of a commercial vacuum column
packing imaging projects at the Separations Research Program
with varying entrainment levels shows that near at the University of Texas. He has been a director for the AIChE
zero levels are not required in order for the Separations Division since 2004. He holds a BS degree in
column to meet HVGO specifications. Even with chemical engineering from the University of Oklahoma.
a moderate entrainment level, a properly Email: [email protected]
designed wash section will provide excellent de- Mario Roza is Director of Technology and Business Development
entrainment levels and, subsequently, excellent for the business unit Mass Transfer Technology at Sulzer

www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446 PTQ Q1 2010 9

 Chemtech, Winterthur Switzerland, responsible for R&D, design
tools and operations support, as well as application development Links
for mass transfer components. He holds a Masters degree in
More articles from: Sulzer Chemtech USA Inc
chemical engineering from the Technical University of Delft, the
Netherlands. More articles from the following category:
S M Wong is a Mechanical Specialist in the refining applications Crude Vacuum Units
and process technology group at Sulzer Chemtech USA. He has Mass Transfer & Separation
expertise in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to assess vapour
Revamps, Shutdowns and Turnarounds
distribution quality for refinery columns to identify potential
technical process improvements as well as cost improvements of
materials and manufacturing by optimising equipment design. He
graduated from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.

10 PTQ Q1 2010 www.digitalrefining.com/article/1000446