A distillation tower design is normally made in two steps; a process design, followed by a mechanical design. The purpose of the process design is to calculate the required stream flows and number of required theoretical stages. Required steam flows could include reflux rate, side draws, and the heat duties (number of pump arounds and the condenser and reboiler). The purpose of the mechanical design is to select the tower internals, column diameter and height.The process and mechanical designs can be completed very quickly utilizing 'cook book' procedures that many Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) firms have established. Often the 'cook book' designs can be optimized for improved profitability, operations and maintenance.The best way to review profitability is the life cycle cost, which is the initial capital cost of the plant along with the first 10 years operating and maintenance cost. The life cycle cost includes a reliability factor, which is very important in designing any process plant equipment. Improved reliability has a very large impact on return on investment (ROI).Several factors should be considered when designing distillation equipment;1. Correct distillation equipment for process conditions 2. Correct equipment selection for expected run length 3. Correct process control strategy to achieve stable operations 4. Fouling/corrosion/polymerization potential 5. Thermal stability, chemical stability and safety 6. Maintenance reliability, accessibility and simplicity of repair 7. Evaluation of the most cost effective solution for minimum life cycle cost This review will include general distillation design guidelines applicable to any process along with specifics for the natural gas processing, refining, petrochemicals, and the oleo chemical's industries. 

Steadily increasing requirements on fractionation demands in the oleochemical industry require advanced separation technology. Today, often a distillation column has not only to process several different feeds, but also be able to produce two different products simultaneously. Divided wall columns have been proposed and used in the chemical industry, but there are, presently, few applications of divided wall columns in the oleochemical sector. The main reason prohibiting their use might be in the limited familiarity, higher requirements on operation, potential corrosion problems and last but not least, limited flexibility.Fractionation columns with added side stripper are a well-proven way to satisfy increased demand of separation duties. The availability of second-generation structured packing increases the efficiency and reduces pressure drops while making it possible to increase capacity and/or product purities. A lower pressure drop has a positive impact on the separation itself. Combining these effects with an increase in capacity will result in a synergy effect on the separation performance.The newly developed BXPlus structured packing is a powerful tool for advanced Glycerin separation, combining good wettability resulting in high efficiency with low-pressure drop. New columns can be designed much more compactly. Revamps will improve both capacity and/or purity. 

Process simulation is a powerful chemical engineering tool that has widespread use in the chemical processing industry. If used correctly, it can help design, optimize and troubleshoot process units, when you follow the guidelines developed from the fundamental basics of chemical engineering. It is important to remember that computer hardware advancements have only improved the speed of the calculation. Despite rapid progress in computational speed and user‐friendly interfaces, understanding the rules and limitations of simulation tools is still a prerequisite to obtain simulated results close to those measured in the field. The engineer must supply the correct input data, interpret errors that occurred and make critical judgment on the results. Mastering these techniques often requires substantial field experience and practice.Accumulating such knowledge in the form of design guidelines helps young engineers to ramp up their learning curves. Working steps like correct selection of actual field efficiencies, choosing appropriate vapor and liquid equilibrium (VLE) methods, feed characterization and analysis of actual hydraulic behavior, have a strong influence on the accuracy of the model's results. Developing guidelines for each of these steps is very important to a practicing engineer. Copyright © 2007 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Distillation Research and Development is moving rapidly with the utilization of computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modeling. Previously, a potential fractionation application would first be developed and fabricated. Then many hours of pilot plant testing would be required to finalize the design. The time line for the development of new distillation equipment has been reduced, leading to advances in fractionation equipment.Current applications of trays, packings, distributors and feed inlets can be optimized utilizing CFD modeling. CFD Modeling has improved the current generation of fractionation equipment. This modeling is also particularly important in maximizing capacity in tower revamps where the diameter of the tower is fixed. This paper will review the current‐generation fractionation equipment and the utilization of the same in the petroleum refining industry. Copyright © 2007 Curtin University of Technology and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Karl Kolmetz has over 25 years of progressive experience in the design, construction, commissioning, and operations management of process units from the U.S. Gulf Coast to Alaska through Asia. He has a strong background in the manufacturing of a wide variety of chemical process technologies and product categories including cryogenic liquids, ethylene, propylene, benzene and toluene extraction, styrene, catalytic reforming, crude atmospheric and vacuum fractionation, polyvinyl chloride, and steam and power plant operations. Mr Kolmetz has substantial experience in the design and troubleshooting of distillation columns, which is one of the key unit operations in hydrocarbon production. His experience includes 4 years of construction, 2 of which were on the Alaskan Pipeline with Fluor Daniel, 16 years of refining experience in the Charter/Phibro (now Valero) Refinery in Houston, Texas, and 1 year of commissioning experience with Raytheon Badger ethyl benzene (EB)/styrene plants in Asia, with a total of 3 years of EB/styrene experience. He also has seven years ethylene experience: 4 years in Louisiana and 3 years in Malaysia with the Westlake/Titan Group. He has two years of specialty distillation design experience as the Asia Pacific Technology Manager for Sulzer Chemtech, a leading distillation company, and the KLM Technology Group. Karl is currently General Manager for GTC Technology, Singapore. His publications include authoring and coauthoring over 40 technical papers on a variety of subjects for product recovery, troubleshooting, training, project management, and process design with safety and environmental concerns. His papers have appeared in the Oil and Gas Journal (5), Hydrocarbon Processing (1), and Chemical Engineering Progress (1). He has presented papers at AIChE Conferences, the Indian Oil & Gas Conference, the Japan Petroleum Institute Refining Conference, Oil and Fats International Congress, UTM Best Practices in Process Plant Management, and the Asean Regional Olefins Conferences, as well as others. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and the American Chemical Society. Karl presently lives in Malaysia. DISTILLATION 2007 EDITIONDistillation is part art and part science, therefore a good distillation designer needs to be part artist and part scientist. The first distillation equipment was designed, installed, and tested in the field before the science of how it fundamentally functions was developed. It required an artist's feel of how the fluid and vapor would travel in the column and through the equipment. Distillation history has been one of trial and error iteration followed by fundamentals development.Distillation encompasses many fields, including art, mathematics, chemistry, physics, and engineering: from chemical engineering there are the inputs of equilibrium and thermodynamics; from civil engineering there are the inputs of hydraulics and flow; from mechanical engineering th...