Abstract: A company uses petroleum associated gas as raw materialin its associated gas treatment plant.With the gradual depletion of petroleum resources, the production of associated gas has been declining and the content of C3 and higher fractions has been decreasing as well. This resulted in the reduction of the amount of gas-liquid phase entering the column tray, and the decrease of the ratio of liquid phase to gas phase. The rectifying tower load has deviated far from the design value, which led to the decrease in separation efficiency and product yield of the rectifying tower. In view of this situation and through the hydraulic simulation calculation of the energy consumption and tray data of the unit, the opening rate was recalculated; the adaptive optimization of the rectifying tower was carried out and over 60% of the floating valve on the tray was blocked; a baffle was added to reduce the amount of liquid phase entering the blind zone, ensuring the mass transfer effect between the gas and liquid phases. After the revamp, the mass transfer performance of the tray in the rectifying tower was upgraded greatly, the product quality was improved and the energy consumption per unit product was reduced.

Key words: rectifying tower, tray, hydraulics, energy consumption, revamp