GB823610A - Improved vapour and liquid contact tower - Google Patents

Abstract

823,610. Contacting vapours with liquids. FOSTER WHEELER Ltd. May 10, 1956 [May 10, 1955], No. 14645/56. Class 55 (2). A vapour-liquid contact tower comprises a number of spaced horizontal contact plates with a liquid downcomer between each plate and openings in each plate to allow vapour to pass up through the plates and the liquid held on them, means being provided for controlling the flow of liquid from the plates in such a way that with a constant rate of liquid flow on to the plates the amount of liquid held on them varies in the same sense as the rate of upward vapour flow. The arrangement shown, Fig. 1, has each contact plate 11 provided with a weir 12, a depending baffle plate 17 which with the wall of the column defines a liquid downcomer 18 and with the plate below an orifice 21 through which liquid is discharged on to the plate below, and a retainer plate 22 which with the weir 12 defines an orifice 27 through which liquid is discharged from a plate into the downcomer 18 and over which liquid may also be discharged into the space 23 leading to the down-. comer 18. Increased upward vapour flow causes a mixture of vapour and liquid to form on each plate in the space above the bubble caps and the orifice 27 and between a baffle plate 17 and a retainer plate 22 thus increasing the volume of liquid held on the plate. In the modification shown in Fig. 3 alternate contact plates have a downcomer 44 and two retainer plates 34 and two downcomers 39 and retainer plates 46, while in Fig. 5 each plate has a series of tubes 60 leading from a point above each tray into the downcomer leading to the tray below.