Prospectus

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DST-33 Impact of Gross Installation Failure on Tray Performance

Developmental Research Idea

Expected Benefit toMembers: Establishing a Gamma scan foot print for a poorly performing tray that has a gross installation oversight such as missing tray manways will enable faster trouble shooting by process design and field engineers. Present Situation and Proposed Research: During tray column revamps, there have been cases where the internal manways were not placed back in position on the tray decks. Subsequent start up and operation would lead to the trays not performing according to design specifications. Trouble shooting those problematic trays, could be a long costly exercise. While trays with missing internal manways are expected to perform poorly, it is worth quantifying that poor performance in terms of capacity, efficiency and pressure drop. In addition, gamma scanning the trays would likely establish a ‘foot print’ of the flow behavior / profile around and through the manway openings. Using this ’foot print’ could potentially reduce the trouble shooting time for identifying the poor performing trays. Proposed Internals and Test System: Studies could be carried out by ‘piggy back’ of a research project by removing the internal manways from a 1-pass sieve or fixed valve trays as the last phase of the project. To measure the tray performance, the following systems are proposed. C6/C7 @ 9 and 23.5 psia (0.62 and 1.62 bara), All tests are to be at Total Reflux conditions in the 4 or 8 ft section of the FRI LP column. Tracerco gamma scanning of the trays should be performed for select data points at the end of the main data collections. Extra safety including nuclear safety precautions will be necessary depending on the type of nuclear source deployed. Estimated Unit Time: Approx. 2 weeks Background and Discussion: A successful revamp of a trayed column as part a unit or plant shutdown is essential for smooth startup and operation. However, for each day a unit is down there is lost revenue and as result revamps must be properly executed in a timely manner. Because of time constraints, there have been cases where the internal manways were not placed back on the tray decks. Subsequent start up and operation would lead to the trays not performing according to design. A prolonged troubleshoot to identify and correct the problem could be costly. The test will enable FRI/Tracerco to establish a Gamma scan foot print for a poorly performing tray where the internal manways are missing will enable faster trouble shooting by engineers in the field.

PROSPECTUS

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