Design Of Reboilers

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Boiling
• Type of phase transition
• Rapid vaporization of a liquid
• Boiling point, the temperature at which the vapor pressure of
the liquid is equal to the system pressure
• Boiling occurs in three characteristic stages
– Nucleate

– Transition

– Film

• These stages generally take place from low to high surface

temperatures, respectively

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Pool Boiling Curve

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Pool Boiling Curve

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Flow Boiling
This type of boiling occurs in thermosiphons
• Many principles of pool apply here as well

• hydrodynamic effects (piping) are much more

pronounced
• Two distinct groups of flow regimes
– liquid at wall (wet) as in bubble, slug, churn and annular

– vapor at wall (dry) as in mist and film

• Designer should try to operate in a wet regime

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Nucleate and Convective Boiling
Most preferred boiling in reboilers
• Both usually occur together
• Contributions by the two are additive
• Nucleate boiling predominates in narrow-boiling mixtures
and at high pressures
• Convective boiling predominates in wide-boiling mixtures
and at low pressures
• Nucleate boiling can be enhanced by modifying boiling
surface

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Reboiler Basics
• Reboilers are used throughout petrochemical and refineries
• They generate vapors which drive fractional distillation
separation
• Proper reboiler operation is vital to effective distillation
• Most critical element of reboiler design is selecting proper
type of reboiler for a specific service
• Multiple parallel reboilers in one distillation column for large
heat duties but piping is critical

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Reboiler Basics
• Most reboilers are of the shell and tube heat exchanger type.
Furnaces may also be used as reboilers in some cases
• Normally steam is used as the heat source in such reboilers.
However hot oil or any other process stream may be used
• Types of reboilers
– Kettle and internal (Pool boiling)

– Thermosiphon (Natural circulation)

– Forced circulation (generally no boiling)

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Kettle Reboilers

Applications:
• Waste heat reboilers

• Refrigeration systems

• Steam generators

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Kettle Reboilers

Advantages
• Additional stage for distillation
• Vapor disengagement space
• Can achieve high heat fluxes
• Pool boiling, hence insensitive to hydrodynamics
• Easy to size
• Good performance in deep vacuum and near critical
• Virtually no tube vibration
• Requires lowest liquid driving head
• No two-phase piping, hence higher reliability

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Kettle Reboilers

Disadvantages
• Relatively costly. AKT even more
• MTD determination difficult and uncertain, hence conservative
approach often adopted. The higher the temperature range,
the greater the penalty
• Fouling tendency high as little turbulence. Should not be used
for dirty services
• Prone to vapor blanketing with high heat fluxes
• Liquid entrainment with high mass fluxes

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Internal Reboilers

Advantages
• Batch distillation

• Very low heat duties

• Clean services

• Low installation cost

Disadvantages
• Large column diameters

• Online cleaning not

feasible
• Less controllability
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Vertical Thermosiphon Reboilers

• Invariably boiling inside

tubes, single tube pass,
fixed tubesheet
• As fixed tubesheet, heating
medium has to be clean
• Reboiler-to-column piping
critical
Flow Regimes
• Two-phase flow leaving a VTR
usually slug or churn or
annular, occasionally bubble
when exit vapor fraction is low
• Mist flow: very high weight
fraction, inefficient for heat
transfer. Limit vapor weight
fraction to 0.5
• Transition to mist flow is
termed as “Dryout” or
“Burnout”, this may lead to
fouling, metal overheating and
tubesheet joint failure
Vertical Thermosiphon Reboilers

Advantages
• Least cost (Fixed tubesheet)
• Fouling less pronounced due to high circulation and shear
stress
• Easier to clean on tubeside
• Highest MTD – pure countercurrent
• Low residence time of boiling material in heated zone
• Compact, requires little plot space and simple piping
configuration

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Vertical Thermosiphon Reboilers
Disadvantages
• Sensitive to changes in operating conditions

• Difficult to operate in deep vacuum & near-critical conditions

• Prone to instability at low-pressure & high heat fluxes

• Requires careful analysis & design for exit piping

• If too small, choke flow and instability

• If too large, phase separation, accumulation of heavy

components, aggravated fouling

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Horizontal Thermosiphon Reboilers
• Usually ‘G’ or ‘H’ to minimize pr.
drop, sometimes ‘E’ or ‘J’ for
vaporizing wide-boiling mixtures
• Longitudinal baffle prevents
short-circuiting, minimizes
phase separation and promotes
mixing of light and heavy
components
• Maximum Vaporization 20-30%
• 50% Vaporization : lower HTC,
excessive fouling and reduction
in MTD
Horizontal Thermosiphon Reboilers

Advantages
• High circulation rates, high boiling HTC
• MTD higher than kettle – profile well defined
• Lower fouling potential compared to kettles. Can be used for
dirty boiling streams
• Lower liquid driving head requirements than VTR’s
• Less sensitive than VTR’s
• Excellent performance at low temperature differences
• Ideal for wide boiling range mixtures

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Horizontal Thermosiphon Reboilers

Disadvantages
• Larger units require multiple nozzle and expensive manifold
piping. Usually floating-head
• Fouling on shellside, more difficult to clean
• Two-phase flow in exit piping requires careful analysis and
design
• Vapor blanketing and localized dryout possible at high fluxes

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Forced-circulation Reboilers
• Highly viscous systems (>25 cP)

• Highly fouling or solid-containing

systems
• Fired heater systems

• Vacuum systems (< 4 psia)

• Generally liquid is sensibly heated

and flashed across a valve just
before entry to the column
Forced-circulation Reboilers

Advantages
• Initial cost lower
• Especially effective if the viscous liquid is dirty
• high circulation minimizes fouling
• Piping is less critical
• Good controllability

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Forced-circulation Reboilers

Disadvantages
• Additional pumping cost is quite high, hence forced flow
reboilers are used as a last resort
• Possibility of leakage at pump
• NPSH related issues

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Reboiler Selection

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