Good distributor design for high-velocity feed debottlenecks a crude preflash tower

Betzalel Blum is the Chief Process Technology Manager for the Bazan Group (Oil Refineries Ltd.). During his 35 yr with the Bazan Group, he has been the lead process engineer for some major revamps and debottlenecks of catalytic and distillation units. Mr. Blum has also been involved in fractionator process design, equipment design and optimization, the identification of flow regime patterns, and field troubleshooting. He earned a BSC degree in chemical engineering, along with an MS degree in oil and gas, from Technion—Israel Institute of Technology.

Henry Kister is a Senior Fellow and Director of Fractionation Technology for Fluor Corp. He has more than 35 yr of experience in design, troubleshooting, revamping, field consulting, and the control and startup of fractionation processes and equipment. He is the author of three books, along with the distillation equipment chapter in Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook (8th and 9th editions), the distillation chapter in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, and more than 120 articles. Mr. Kister has taught the IChemE-sponsored “Practical Distillation Technology” course over 530 times in 26 countries. He is a Fellow of both IChemE and AIChE, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. For more than 25 yr, he has also served on Fractionation Research Inc.’s (FRI’s) Technical Advisory and Design Practices committees. Mr. Kister earned his BE and ME degrees from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Raymond Tsang is the Process Engineering Manager at Koch-Glitsch, UK. He has more than 30 yr of experience in the design of fractionation equipment. Mr. Tsang earned a BS degree in chemical engineering from the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in the UK.