Distillation Column Operation, Control & Troubleshooting

Introduction

The success of every company depends of each employee's understanding of the business's key components. Employee training and development will unlock companies' profitability and reliability. When people, processes, and technology work together as a team developing practical solutions, companies can maximize profitability and assets in a sustainable manner. Distillation is the most common separation technique and is energy-intensive. Distillation can consume more than 50% of a process plant’s operating energy cost. A way to improve an existing plant’s operating cost or to reduce a new distillation system’s operating cost is to improve the efficiency and operations by correct equipment selection, process optimization, and control. It is strategically important that your operations team understands the fundamentals of process unit operations concepts. This is the difference between being in the best quartile of operational ability and being in the last quartile. There is a vast difference in the operational ability to operate companies and most benchmarking studies have confirmed this gap in operational abilities. Whether you have a team of new or seasoned employees, an introduction or review of these concepts is very beneficial in closing the gap if you are not in the best quartile or maintaining a leadership position. Most studies show that a continuous reinforcement of best practices in operational principles is the most effective way to obtain the desired results. Training and learning should be an ongoing continuous life-long goal.

Objectives

This course will guide the participants to develop key concepts and techniques to design, operate, and troubleshoot a distillation system. These key concepts can be utilized to make design and operating decisions. Training and development is an investment in future success - give yourself and your employees the keys to success. Product recoveries, purities, and energy utilization can be improved in most distillation systems. This cannot be achieved without first and understanding of distillation principles and design. These principles need to be understood in advance of designing, operating, and troubleshooting a distillation column for the operator, designer, or problem-solving to be effective.

By the end of the training, participants will be able to:

• The operation, control, and troubleshooting of a distillation column and its associated equipment
• An overview of distillation, practical solutions as well as the theory
• An understating of essential distillation concepts
• Valuable practical insights for trouble-free design and field-proven techniques for commissioning, start-up and shutdown of distillation operation
• The fundamental knowledge of distillation control
• To tailor your approach to specific design, analysis and troubleshooting problems

Training Methodology

The training methodology is interactive with group exercises and is suitable for all employees involved in process, maintenance and operations management. The pace and level of the training workshop is customized to the understanding of the delegates. Ongoing back-up and support is available after the training on request to the supplier, and the training course is also available for in-house presentation as well as for “Competency Transfer”.

Who Should Attend?

This course is intended those who are making day to day decisions regarding operation, design, maintenance, and economics of process industry plants such as Line Operations personnel, Operation Supervisors, Line Maintenance personnel, Maintenance Supervisors, Senior Plant Supervisors, Operations Engineers, Process Support Engineers, Design Engineers and Cost Engineers as well as Technical Engineers, Operating Engineers, Process Support Personnel, Chemist, and Managers. 

People who are making day to day decisions regarding operation, design, maintenance, and economics of process industry plants.   

• An engineer or chemist who must troubleshoot and solve distillation problems in a plant, an engineering office or laboratory.
• Technical Engineers, Operating Engineers, Process Support Personnel, Chemist, and Managers
• Engineering graduates/technologists who will be using simulation software in their daily work.  
• Technical Process engineers doing process design and optimization projects and studies that need who need advanced skills for more complex modeling tasks.   
• Plant Operation Support Engineers checking plant performance under different operating conditions, and who are involved in design of new facilities or revamps of existing facilities. 
• R&D engineers and researchers using process simulators for process synthesis, upgrade or modifications. 
• Ideal for veterans and those with only a few years of experience who want to review or broaden their understanding of process safety.
• Other professionals who desire a better understanding of the subject matter.

Course Outline

1. General Introduction

• General Column Design
• The components of a distillation system, more than just a tower – it is a system of different components
• History of distillation
• Different types of distillation columns
• Differences among batch, flash, and multistage distillation process
• Relative advantages of tray and packed columns

1. Column Design and Operation

• Tray Column Design and Operation
• The major design differences between tray types
• The operational limits for trays – operating window
• Packed Column Design and Operation
• The different types of packing and their characteristics
• The best type of packing for a given system
• Operating columns in fouling service
• Operating columns in vacuum service
• Guidelines for improved Columns operation and maintenance

1. Process Control

• Distillation Column Control
• Functions of Process Control
• Characteristics of a Continuous Process
• Select appropriate composition and column pressure control schemes
• Process settings during column operation
• Typical controlled and manipulated process variables
• Level
• Pressure
• Composition
• Temperature
• Flow

1. Commissioning

• Tower Pre Commissioning Guidelines
• Tower Start up Guidelines
• Common starts up problems and understand how to correct them
• Tower Shut down Guidelines

1. Troubleshooting

• Introduction
• Evaluate operation of a packed column
• Evaluate operation of a tray column
• Use tools to diagnosis problems
• Installation
• Common column installation mistakes
• List tasks to insure a proper installation