(112f) Tower Scanning – Now a Quantitative Tool, Part B

Tower gamma scanning and neutron backscatter techniques are well established in the process industries as qualitative tools to help troubleshoot separation towers, both trayed and packed towers. In this presentation it will be shown that through careful and innovative application of gamma scanning and neutron backscatter techniques, quantitative information about separation towers can be extracted.

Part B:  For packed towers some form of a grid-scan, a series of multiple vertical scans through packing, has been used to detect liquid mal-distribution through packing.  A new technique will be introduced whereby gamma scan data is used to determine relative process densities through packing.  Relative process densities can be converted into liquid holdup fractions, either of which can be used as a quantitative measure of liquid mal-distribution.  This concept will be applied to several case studies to illustrate how quantifying gamma scan data can provide more useful information than by traditional qualitative analysis.