Liquid distributor

Claim 1

A liquid distributor for use in a liquid/gas contact tower having liquid feed splitter means for receiving a source of liquid feed and dividing the liquid feed into a plurality of liquid streams and a plurality of troughs including apertures in opposite sidewalls thereof disposed beneath and extending transversely outward from the splitter means, across a chamber of predetermined cross sectional area to support means adjoining an inner wall of the contact tower, for receiving the liquid streams and further dividing the liquid feed into a greater number of streams, wherein the improvement comprises: a pan disposed beneath each of the troughs for collecting, the liquid streams flowing from the trough and further dividing the liquid flowing into the pan and each pan having a central ridge, a pair of inclined bottom walls diverging outwardly and downwardly from the central ridge to opposite lower sides, a pair of short sidewalls extending upwardly from a junction with the inclined bottom walls at the opposite lower sides, and a plurality of drain openings located solely in each of the short sidewalls of the pan of greater number than the apertures in each sidewall of the trough and each of the drain openings having a configuration defined by and situated within diverging sides extending upwardly from a bottom point of convergence located at least at the junction of the short sidewall with the inclined bottom wall and out of alignment with the apertures in an adjacent sidewall of the trough and there being at least three drain openings in the short sidewalls of the pans for each square foot of cross sectional area of the chamber; converging walls, on each of the troughs, extending downwardly from the opposite sides to and converging at a lower central portion situated above and substantially opposite the central ridge of the pan beneath the trough, and wherein each of the apertures in the opposite sidewalls of the trough have a configuration defined by and located within diverging sides extending upwardly from a bottom point adjacent the lower central portion to a top side extending between the diverging sides; and means at opposite ends of the troughs and the pans for closing off and preventing the liquid from draining therefrom; whereby a relatively low rate of liquid feed supplied to the distributor is divided by the apertures in the troughs, and thereafter further divided and uniformly distributed over the cross sectional area of the chamber by flowing down the inclined bottom wall and out of the bottoms of the drain openings at the junction without substantially increasing the level of the liquid in the pan.