2 replies to this topic

[bsshin]

Hello!

 

I'm a recent college graduate and have been out of school for about a year now. I have been coming onto this website for a while and everyone seems incredibly knowledgeable and respectful. That being said, I've finally decided to post on here and get some help/feedback on an issue we may be having. 

 

We will be having a methanol vent header through the plant. There will be a low point in which we have to decide how we handle the condensed methanol...Initially, my idea was to get a liquid drainer that essentially acts as a floating ball trap to drain the condensate into our wet methanol tank that is under vacuum in normal operating conditions. Under normal operating conditions we should be fine. However, should the vacuum pump ever stop, I'm afraid that the differential pressure will not be enough for the condensate to make it ~80 feet with only an elevation of ~1.5 ft into the wet methanol tank. Does anyone know of any products that would be sufficient in this application? A pump trap is ideal, but no vendor will recommend it due to liability reasons. 

 

We've thought of possibly doing 3 AV's. One for the condensate, one for the draining, and one for a nitrogen purge line. This would all be tied to a level switch, but it seems too expensive for something that should be relatively simple. 

 

Any help/suggestions would be much appreciated. 

 

Cheers,

Brian 

Edited by bsshin, 27 June 2017 - 12:07 PM.

[Mahdi1980]

Hi,

Prepare a sketch of your system and let us know it graphically.

[bsshin]

2501 is under vacuum.

 

The issue is if the vacuum ever stops. We're expecting maybe a condensing flow of 224 lb/hr. Comes to be 0.566 gpm....so pressure drop through the 80 feet of pipe shouldn't be an issue. The LD is the liquid drainer. The nitrogen would be there just in case the head on its own wasn't high enough and caused the liquid to back up in the pipe hence the level transmitter. 

 

A pump trap in this case would be ideal, but vendors will not recommend their pump traps for methanol use due to its flammability. Does anyone have an alternative piece of equipment that would be similar in function they could recommend? 

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Edited by bsshin, 28 June 2017 - 09:57 AM.