Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Introduction
Rapid cooling or quenching of gas customers in the past 30 years.
streams is used in a number of essential We optimize gas-quenching systems
applications in the petrochemical to reduce quench vessel size, reduce
industries. Examples of processes with atomization energy consumption, and
gas quench systems include: reactor minimize the risk of unexpected down-
outlet, incinerator, coal gasifier, power time, which obtains the economic
plant absorber gas inlet. The selection benefits of capital and operational cost
and sizing of spray nozzles are the most savings. Our Applications Engineers
critical decisions in the system design. incorporate engineering fundamentals, Selection and sizing of
BETE Fog Nozzle is qualified without product knowledge, design experience spray nozzles are the most
equal to help you with your spray and your operating constraints to critical decisions for spray
quenching needs. We have assisted in develop a reliable and cost effective
gas quench design
the design of hundreds of systems for our quench system.
Time
System Configuration
Spray quenches can be divided into quench liquid, which results in a wetted
configurations based on geometry vessel wall. Alternatively, a dry-wall
and concept. The system geometry design requires all of the spray drops to be
parameters are provided below. completely evaporated without any liquid
contacting the wall. A unique design is
• Orientation
required for each application due to the
◦ Vertical systems may be up-flow
large number of system geometries,
or down-flow (direction of flow
process conditions, and performance
relative to gravity)
specifications. Our engineering
◦ Horizontal experience acquired over decades is
• Quench zone has a constant or a incorporated into our recommendation
larger diameter than inlet piping for your application.
• Spray co-current or countercurrent
The process design concept is the most
with respect to gas flow
important factor in choosing a wet-wall
The design geometry decisions are or dry-wall system. Wet-wall quench
determined by hardware constraints systems must include hardware to remove
and other process considerations. and manage the large excess of quench
liquid. Small diameter systems favor wet
System geometry varies widely from wall configurations. A dry-wall system
horizontal or vertical configurations, requires an extremely small drop size to
up-flow or down-flow of the process gas, assure all drops evaporate in the short
to in-line or process vessel. The “wet-wall” distance to the wall.
design concept uses a large excess of
wall designs are direct contact coolers The vessel shape and inlet size determine
Inlet
Scrubber
where the cooling is from heat capacity the size and intensity of recirculation
Liquid
of cold liquid; not from the latent heat zones. System design must consider
of liquid evaporation. the recirculation zones in the placement
Packed
Tower
Inlet Inlet
A B
more finely atomized spray. Two-fluid Two-fluid XA, SpiralAir Dry-wall Wide operating range, finest
nozzles are used in applications requiring atomization for short residence
a wide range of operation or when a short times, variety of spray angles.
evaporation time is required. Table 1. Nozzle types used for quenching.
BETE offers spray nozzle lance assemblies provide the broadest range of alloys
for single-fluid or two-fluid nozzles to for the nozzle and lance to meet your
meet process and materials requirements. specific needs. We have fabricated
Many of applications have specialized quench nozzle lances from many
materials of construction needs to avoid different materials, such as stainless
corrosion and erosion caused by the steel alloys, chrome alloys, nickel alloys,
quench liquid or the process gas. Our cobalt alloys, titanium, and duplex Figure 8. Lateral header with
two-fluid nozzles.
design and fabrication capabilities stainless steel alloys.
5
Process control
The process control of quench systems Wet-wall concept
must be considered in the design phase The design of many wet wall quenches
to achieve the optimal result. The quench involves little process control because
liquid flow is often controlled to achieve a constant liquid pressure is used to
a desired quench zone exit temperature. continually maintain the maximum
Instrumentation to monitor single-fluid required flow. This assures the
nozzle pressure drop is frequently used. quench spray system is always at
Two-fluid nozzles require a more peak performance. Highly variable inlet
thoughtful and deliberate approach to gas flows are robustly quenched with this
control the atomizing gas and the liquid simple control approach. The measured
flow. One objective of nozzle control is pressure drop is crosschecked with the
to minimize the amount of atomizing expected spray nozzle pressure drop
gas (compressed air) and therefore, based on the measured flow. This
reduce the energy input to supply the measurement is valuable to identify
atomizing media. Improved control any gross issues with the nozzles or
reduces operational cost and stabilizes flow measuring device. Control systems
the system response to extreme have many conditions that need to be
conditions. evaluated. The spray design must be
able to manage the possible situations
given the combinations of flow paths
and range of flows.
from the spray to sensor as lag-time or Two Fluid Quench Nozzle System Configuration
dead time between controller action and
the sensor response. This dead time varies Figure 10.
depending on throughput and input
pressure drop which in turn causes the
temperature. Numerous potential control
gas control valve to open. These actions
strategies can be implemented based on
result in feedback to the liquid control
overall system requirements. One is a
loop and ultimately overshoot of the
feed forward set point based on inlet
liquid flow. The non-linear feedback can
temperature and mass flow. Multimode
cause oscillatory behavior if the controller
controllers using the combination of feed-
tuning parameters of the gas and liquid
forward and feedback provide additional
flows are not coordinated.
robustness, but add complexity.
Back flow prevention is critical in
Control of two-fluid nozzles is more
internal-mix two-fluid nozzle piping to
complex than single-fluid nozzles;
assure quench liquid does enter the
however, the range of operation is much
compressed air header. Several features
broader. The myth is evaporation time
have been incorporated into the system
is controlled by constant drop size. The
as shown in Figure 13, recommended
reality is that under turndown conditions
measurements of the flow and nozzle
the gas residence time is longer and
pressure drop for both the gas and
consequently the drop size required
liquid streams.
can be larger than in the maximum rate
conditions. The flow control system BETE Applications Engineering expertise
described in Figure 10 can be used for can reduce the initial and long term cost
internal-mix or external-mix nozzle types. of the quenching operation system.
7
Summary
An optimized spray quench design application. Our analysis tools and
requires engineering analysis of the experience with hundreds of applications
operating environment, spray nozzle provide a rapid and robust engineering
performance and process reliability. design of your spray quench system.
The result is a quench system that
BETE Applications Engineers will
operates efficiently and reliably for
partner with you to develop and
your process.
optimize the quench system for your