Rhine Ruhr - Products - Column Internals

Well engineered Packed Columns (incorporating state of the art Packed Column Internals) play a critical role in ensuring that the benefits of state of the art Column Packing and Packed Bed Design are consistently applied to ensure optimum plant design and performance.

Rhine Ruhr has developed standards for the selection, specification, design and manufacture of a comprehensive range of fully compatible Packed Column Internals that will ensure maximum packed bed performance. These standards are continuously improved to incorporate enhancements and unique design features based on the experience gained from testing, installation and plant performance data.

A Packed Column consists of one or more beds of either randomly dumped or structured column packing. The column packing may be selected from Rhine Ruhr’s wide variety of type and size to achieve the required duty.

Rhine Ruhr’s Packed Beds are designed and engineered to function effectively with devices engineered to exact tolerances to control column feeds and draws.

In addition, Rhine Ruhr Packed Beds require compatible support and retainer grids to ensure packed bed integrity.

These and other essential items such as Collector Trays etc., broadly classified as Column Internals, are therefore as important to the proper functioning of the column as the actual Column Packing.

Every Packed Bed is supported within the column with a compatible Support Plate or Grid. This is mechanically strong enough to support the dead weight of the packed bed together with expected liquid hold up.

Rhine Ruhr’s Packing Support plates are also be sufficiently open not to restrict the flow of vapour and liquid. The complete range of Packing Support Plates manufactured by Rhine Ruhr includes:

• PBS120 Gas Injection Plate for random packed beds under 1000mm diameter.

• PBS260 Gas Injection Multibeam for random packed beds over 1000mm diameter.

• FSG50 Flat Grid for Structured Packing beds under 1500mm.

• FSG100 Flat Grid for Structured Packing beds over 1500mm.

Packing Support Plates are available in a wide range of metallic and thermoplastic materials and are typically located on an annular ring welded to the column wall.

Effective liquid distribution is a critical factor in consistently achieving maximum mass transfer efficiency from a packed bed. The high surface area of the packing is therefore wetted to effectively promote vapour/liquid contact. Furthermore, variation in liquid rate across the bed effectively increases the target number of theoretical stages due to the resulting variation in L/G ratio.

To ensure distribution efficiency, all High Efficiency Liquid Distributors manufactured by Rhine Ruhr are flow tested prior to despatch.

The Rhine Ruhr type HED2G High Efficiency Liquid Distributor provides the optimum balance between packed bed efficiency and practical mechanical design. Typical examples are:

• CTD2O Chimney Tray Style

• PLD300 Pipe Lateral Distributors

• SHD500 Spray Header Distributors

• WTD75 Weir Trough Style Distributors

• PD2O Orifice Pan Distributors

HED2G Design Features

HED2G Design Features:

• Minimum 100 drip points per square meter.

• Drip Points on a regular pitch.

• Drip point density maintained around periphery

• Pan/Trough design with zero leakage

• Simple but accurate level adjustment.

• CNC Punched metering orifices.

• Drip Guides to minimize liquid entrainment.

• High open area (approx. 60%)

• Low fouling design (orifices above trough floor)

• Efficient turndown to 50% of design liquid rate.

• The complete range of Rhine Ruhr liquid distributors also includes general purpose designs for non-critical services such as Gas Scrubbers and Heat Transfer Beds.

Miscellaneous Internals

Rhine Ruhr custom designs and manufactures a full range of special purpose removable internals for both packed and trayed columns such as:

Chimney Trays for a range of duties:

• Liquid Collector for Distributor Feed

• Liquid Collector for Tray Feed.

Liquid Draw Tray (Partial or Total)

• Vapour Distribution

• Vapour Disengagement from Flash Feed

Internal Pipework for a range of duties:

• Sparging liquid feed to a Distributor

• Vapour Distributor

• Downpipes from Chimney Trays

• 2-Phase Feed Inlets to provide effective vapour and liquid disengagement.