1 reply to this topic

[jprocess]

Dear All,
I need information regarding to pumparound application in industrial towers including its role,best location,design basis,etc.
Thanks in advance.
Best Regards.

[Zauberberg]

Hello jprocess,

Your question is very general. It is hard to write any valuable answer without knowing the subject particular application.
The main purpose of column pumparound is heat removal. At the same time, it serves as a heat source for preheating process unit feed stream(s) or/and as a heat source for process reboilers. Generally, what you need to consider when designing pumparound loop is following:

- Flowrate and Temperature level of pumparound stream (i.e. pumparound draw-off tray), which you can calculate when evaluating partial (column) and overall (process unit) heat balance.
- Flowrate and Temperature level of available cold process streams (pumparound heat sinks).
- Hydraulic capacity of tower pumparound section.
- Pumparound control.
- Trading between pumparound heat removal capacity and fractionation efficiency in a distillation tower.

More info you will find in N. Lieberman's article "Optimizing pumparound rates". In his book, "Process design for reliable operations", there is a chapter dedicated to column heat balance, tower pumparound zone internals and control logic.