Tower Scanning as a Quantitative Tool

Tower scanning is well established in the process industries as a qualitative tool to help troubleshoot separation towers. In this presentation it will be shown that through careful and innovative application of gamma scanning and neutron backscatter techniques, quantitative information about tray performance can be extracted. This will be illustrated by comparing data taken under very controlled conditions on a hydrocarbon tower equipped with windows, with the data obtained from scans of the tray downcomer and active area. Three sets of trays designed to flood under jet flood, downcomer backup or choke flood mechanisms were tested and studied. The experimental observations, tray model predictions, and scan data for each of these sets of trays will be compared. Based on this information it can be concluded that tower scanning can be used to generate quantitative information about tray performance.