Making money in distillation or extraction includes looking at more than just towers and their internals. Engineers must also consider the auxiliary equipment. Often, projects proceed without seeking savings for the auxiliary equipment. Higher operating costs and higher capital costs are incurred. Instead, we should examine processes in their entirety to identify opportunities for capital and operating savings.
One opportunity is the use of Split Flow(tm) technology in pumping services associated with towers. Use of the Split Flow feature reduces the number of pumps required. This simplifies piping and electrical; saves space; reduces the number of pump seals; and may simplify control systems. Split Flow can be applied to overhead systems, pumparounds, pumpdowns and pumped reboiler systems. One of its features is the ability to produce streams at two different pressures from one pump. Usually, the high-flow, low-head stream returns to the distillation column. The high-head product goes downstream.
This paper discusses options using Split Flow technology to
reduce capital and operating cost in overhead systems and describes
how API Standard centrifugal pump designs are modified to incorporate
the Split Flow option.
8 pages.
Electronic version available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format file
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