TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention is intended for separation of inhomogeneous mist-type gas/liquid systems into gaseous and liquid phases and can be used in the oil refining, gas, petrochemical, chemical, food manufacturing, and other industries for separation of gas/liquid mixtures, for example, in separation of absorbent regeneration products in desorber, coming out on top of which is a gaseous component, for example, propane, that was earlier extracted in the absorber from the main flow and is contaminated with finely dispersed absorbent after intensive contact of gas/liquid system on the trays in desorber.

A vertical separator for trapping finely dispersed and airborne liquid particles from a gaseous flow can be used in the oil, gas, chemical, and other industries.

PREVIOUS TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE

In one prior art embodiment of the invention, a shock-inertial device for gas purification from finely dispersed and airborne liquid particles from a gaseous flow comprises a vertical body, inlet, outlet, and drain connections, baffles, a central pipe, and a separation assembly comprising a vertical and a horizontal solid baffles connected to each other and to the body and separating the non-purified gas cavity from the purified gas cavity, a baffle plate for separation of the purified gas flow and its channeling into the upper and lower sections of a centripetal separation assembly with blades; thereat, the purified gas flows are vectored in tangentially opposite directions, as the upper section blades are arranged counterclockwise, and those in the lower section - clockwise (A shock-inertial device for gas purification: pat. 2528675 Russian Federation. No. 2012139723/05; appl. dated 09.17.12; publ. dated 09.20.14). The main drawback of this device is low efficiency of gaseous phase separation from finely dispersed and airborne particles, because it is impossible to generate in the apparatus a centrifugal force great enough to draw out microdroplets from the gaseous flow, and on account of the selected geometry, the apparatus will be less efficient than a cyclone apparatus. The cyclones normally provide a degree of gas purification from aerosol microdroplets at a level of mere 50-70 %, with the normal speed of gaseous flows movement in gas delivery pipelines being equal to 20-30 m/s and at tangential input of gas into the cyclone body, due to which a swirling of the flow being purified is provided in a major part of the cyclone body volume, whereas in this device, firstly, swirling of the flow being purified is only provided by blades in that small part of the cyclone body volume where the blades are located, and, secondly, the change in gaseous flow spin direction during flow transition from the upper into the lower section, as proposed in the invention, means that areas with spin velocity reduced to as little as zero occur in the gaseous flow swirling zone having a small volume. In a second prior art embodiment of the invention, a separator for separation of gas/liquid mixtures, with extraction of dispersed oil and water from hydrocarbon gases, comprises a vertical cylindrical body, inlet connections, connections for separated products output, bores, and a separation assembly proper in the form of an inclined helical baffle installed inside the separator, implemented as a diffusor formed by divergent screw blades and cylindrical wall of the apparatus (A separator: pat. 2046632 Russian Federation. No. 92002591/26; appl. dated 10.27.92; publ. dated 10.27.95). A drawback of this invention stems from its erroneous basic premise that "due to vertical divergence of screw blades, expansion of gas/liquid flow occurs, which results in a more intensive gaseous phase extraction", since with flow expansion, the speed of flow movement decreases, and due to flow continuity of a continuous gaseous phase, local increase of pressure and density occurs in it, thereby reducing the speed of liquid droplets exit from the gaseous flow due to reduced separation force.

In a third prior art embodiment of the invention, a gas separator comprises a body, non- purified gas inlet pipe union, purified gas outlet pipe union, pipe union for pumping out liquid extracted from gas, and separation elements, implemented in the form of a labyrinth of shutters of varying heights, with bottom zones open and with the longer shutters arranged below liquid level in the separator and each one of the shorter shutters placed close to the nearest longer shutter downstream of gas flow; thereat, an inertial mist eliminator in the form of plates arranged at alternate angles to gas flow direction is placed at the shutter labyrinth outlet; the gas separator is additionally equipped with a section isolated from the total volume of the separator by a hydrolock and a vertical metal grid, purified gas outlet pipe union is arranged in the isolated section in the body, and the non-purified gas inlet pipe union is connected to the shutter labyrinth (A gas separator: pat. 2510736 Russian Federation. No. 2012148576/05; appl. dated 11.15.12; publ. dated 04.10.14). This invention has the following drawbacks:

· low efficiency of liquid phase droplets inertial separation from gaseous flow, since at low speed of gaseous flow and droplets dispersed in it the inertia factor becomes of little significance, whereas low speed of gaseous flow in the inertial separation zone in the labyrinth is small since gaseous flow with liquid droplets moves through the delivery pipeline at a speed of 20-30 m/s, and after entering the separator structure, which is wider than the pipeline, in the labyrinth zone, the flow speed will decrease to the next lower order;

• testifying to low quality of separation is also the presence of a grid in the section of purified gas discharge, where "the smallest liquid particles remain", while in the section of gas discharge, "mist of the smallest liquid particles settles down on the section bottom", which will inevitably mean exit of "mist", i. e. finely dispersed liquid phase, together with the "purified" gas flow from the separator; • high specific amount of metal in the gas separator structure, since the aggregate gas separator separating elements occupies a small part of apparatus volume.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

In making of the invention, the task was set to develop a universal design of a vertical separator for separation of inhomogeneous systems, such as a mist-type gas/liquid system.

The set task can be solved on account that in a vertical separator intended for separation of inhomogeneous mist-type gas/liquid systems into gaseous and liquid phases, comprising a vertical cylindrical body, inhomogeneous system inlet pipe union, gaseous phase outlet pipe union, liquid phase outlet pipe union, and separation elements representing blocks of a regular multi-layer packing assembled from corrugated permeable plates forming in the body a vertical wall, which consists of at least two sections conjugated with the vertical cylindrical body of the vessel, and also conjugated with the vertical cylindrical body through horizontal segmental baffles, the adjacent corrugated permeable plates contact each other via corrugation crests, and arranged in the bottom part of the vertical cylindrical body of the vessel and connected by overflow pipes to the horizontal segmental baffles is a collection section for liquid extracted from gas. For separation of an inhomogeneous mist-type gas/liquid system, the separator employs blocks of a regular multi-layer packing assembled from corrugated permeable plates, in which a large surface of separation of an inhomogeneous system is formed (inhomogeneous system purification mirror) providing high efficiency of the separator. During separation, an inhomogeneous mist-type system easily passes through the vertical wall composed of blocks of a regular multi-layer packing assembled from corrugated permeable plates, then the inhomogeneous mist-type gas/liquid system passes through the packing layer in horizontal direction along sinusoidal trajectory due to misalignment of holes in the permeable corrugated plates, thereby, a centrifugal force occurs in the flow, which throws liquid droplets off onto the surface of the permeable corrugated plates, over which the droplets flow down to the lower part of the block. The segmental baffles form a hydrolock between the sections. Thereat, sections of the wall may have standard cross-section in the form of a stripe, cross, double stripe, or other configuration, which provides for optimization of separator dimensions by apparatus height or by wall flow area.

It is expedient to have corrugations of the permeable corrugated plates tilted to the horizontal plane at an angle of 40-60 degrees, which will ensure a steady film-like flow of the obtained liquid phase over their surface, with simultaneous 1.15-1.4 times increase of the distance and time of film residing on a permeable corrugated plate and, accordingly, in a block of permeable corrugated plates than in case of vertical arrangement of permeable corrugated plates. It is also practical to ensure that the permeable corrugated plates are manufactured from an expanded plate 0.1-0.5 mm thick, with formation of diamond-shaped mesh openings with strand size 3-8 mm and strand thickness 0.5-2.0 mm, which increases processabillity of permeable corrugated plates in manufacture, reduces specific amount of metal per separator structure, while the diamond shape of the openings in the permeable corrugated plates facilitates intensive discontinuity of the flowing-off film in the vertex points of acute angles of the diamond-shaped openings and additional increase of its surface as compared with regular perforation in the form of round holes.

It is also expedient to have the permeable corrugated plates fixed between each other in a block by means of spot welding or stitched together by spokes with blanked ends, which will ensure the ease of block assembly, on one hand, and block structural strength, on the other hand.

LIST OF DRAWINGS

A sectional view of the design of a vertical separator for separation of inhomogeneous gas/liquid systems of mist type is given in Fig. 1 and features the following elements:

1 - vertical cylindrical body;

2 - inhomogeneous system inlet pipe union;

3 - gaseous phase outlet pipe union;

4 - liquid phase outlet pipe union;

5 - vertical wall;

6 - horizontal segmental baffle;

7 - overflow pipes.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

A non-purified inhomogeneous mist-type gas/liquid system, in which liquid droplets of different size are dispersed in the continuous gaseous phase, is supplied through inhomogeneous system inlet pipe union 2 into separator vertical cylindrical body 1 , then it moves from the bottom upwards, passing through vertical wall 5 represented by three sections of separating elements assembled from blocks consisting of corrugated permeable plates; the blocks are conjugated with the vessel vertical cylindrical body 1 and horizontal segmental baffles 6. In each separation section, separation of an inhomogeneous mist-type gas/liquid system into gaseous and liquid phases occurs. Further on, the flow passes through a packing layer in the horizontal direction along sinusoidal trajectory due to misalignment of holes in the permeable corrugated plates in such a way that a centrifugal force occurs in the flow, which throws liquid droplets off onto the surface of the permeable corrugated plates, over which the droplets flow down. Liquid phase extracted from an inhomogeneous mist-type gas/liquid system flows off over the surface of the corrugated permeable plates onto the block base and accumulates on horizontal segmental baffles 6 connected to overflow pipes 7, through which the liquid phase comes further into the liquid collection section located in the bottom part of vertical cylindrical body 1 of the separator. As the inhomogeneous system cross-flows from lower section into an adjacent upper section, the diameter of extracted liquid phase droplets decreases. Purified gas is discharged from the apparatus through gaseous phase outlet pipe union 3. Liquid extracted from gas is pumped out from the apparatus liquid phase outlet pipe union 4.

Shown in Fig. 2 are configuration options of wall sections, representing blocks of a regular multi-layer packing assembled from corrugated permeable plates; thereat, sections of the wall may have standard cross-section in the form of a stripe (a), double stripe (b), cross (c), or other configuration.

A change in wall section standard cross-section configuration provides for optimization of separator dimensions by apparatus height or by wall flow area. Thus, for example, when changing over from wall cross-section configuration of single stripe type (a), which shapes separator structure in the simplest way, to wall cross-section configuration of double stripe type

(b) , a number of separator design options appears:

1) With separator height and diameter and mist purification quality remaining unchanged, it is possible to double separator capacity, since wall flow area is twice increased;

2) With separator diameter and capacity and mist purification quality remaining unchanged, it is possible to reduce separator height, as separation zone height will be two times smaller;

3) With separator height, diameter, and capacity remaining unchanged, it is possible to improve mist purification quality, as in this case the time of mist dwelling in the separator is doubled, and the apparatus will trap 1.4 times finer droplets of liquid phase than in the single- stripe option;

4) A possibility to obtain a series of intermediate solutions enabling to somewhat (1.1- 1.2 times) reduce the size of entrapped droplets and improve mist purification quality, with simultaneous improvement of apparatus capacity and reduction of separation zone height.

With all other factors being equal, use of wall section configuration in the form of a cross

(c) , as compared with the double stripe configuration (b), enables to additionally improve purification quality due to mist flow swirling and creation of local zones of centrifugal force action, which intensifies inhomogeneous system separation.

Thus, the claimed invention provides for solution of the task set: development of a universal design of a vertical separator for separation of inhomogeneous systems, such as a mist- type gas/liquid system, with flexible options for its implementation.