SIMULATION OF PACKED TRAY COLUMN

Abstract

The present investigation pertains to a theoretical study of the effects of installing thin layer mesh packing on the performance of sieve trays under distillation conditions. Since the installation of mesh packing can be easily carried out at a low cost, this could provide the best method to revamp existing sieve tray columns. This type of arrangement is termed as packed tray. The methanol water system is chosen for the study so that the results could be applied to aqueous as well as organic systems. The present study includes the objective of theoretical study of simulation of packed tray column under distillation condition and then developing a computer program that can be used to predict, design and to determine the influence of such packing on the hydraulic and mass transfer performance of sieve trays; This study also deals with the development of a steady state, equilibrium model for a multicomponent system. It also includes the solution technique for solution of model. Using the basic principle of conservation of mass, energy, and phase equilibrium a mathematical model of a distillation column under steady state condition has been developed. These balance equations includes component material balance, enthalpy balance, phase equilibrium, and summation equation. These balance equations are linear in nature and can be easily transformed into a tridiagonal system. The resulting system of linear algebraic equations is solved by using the Thomas algorithm to get the component composition on each tray.