Reboilers

To Norman Lieberman – My alky DIB tower reboiler stalls-out. It just stops working. Meaning, it stops adding heat to the DIB. What is my problem?

--Rob, pane operator, Texas

Rob – The bottom tray of your tower is leaking. If you have a line connecting the bottom product line and the reboiler inlet line, raise the bottoms level to max and open the gate valve to this line. During your next turn-around, replace the bottom tray with a welded total trap-out chimney tray. The other, not so good way to restore thermosyphon liquid circulation, is to back liquid to the reboiler vapor return nozzle.

---Norm