Guidelines for Ethylene Quench Towers KLM （乙烯急冷塔荷航的指导方针）.pdf

Guidelines for Ethylene Quench Towers Karl Kolmetz GTC Technology LP Houston kkolmetz@ Timothy M. Zygula omg21@ Chee Mun Tham GTC Process Technology Pte Ltd Singapore 1 Dr. Wai Kiong Ng Jun H Chan GTC Process Technology Pte Ltd Singapore Jeff N Gray KLM Technology Group Australia jeffngray@ Prepared for 2007 AIChE Spring Meeting Houston TX USA 1 Presently at Institute of Chemical and Engineering Sciences (ICES), Singapore, ng_wai_kiong@.sg Abstract Ethylene quench oil and quench water towers may have the highest failure rates in fractional distillation due to the rigorous service that these tower perform. Almost all of the challenge areas of distillation are concentrated into one column system; high temperature, solids, fouling potential, oxygenates, polymerization potential, heat removal by pump arounds, and a mixture of hydrogen, steam, and C1 to C20s. Given this combination, the guidelines for designing this column have to be flexible yet sturdy to handle each of the challenges. One of the most reliable designs has been the one developed in 1998 (1). These designs have run continually for eight years, with previous designs in these reva