Method for controlling heat input to the reboiler section of a distillation column

Claim 1

A reboiler section, adapted to be disposed within a distillation column, which comprises, in combination: a. a chordal baffle vertically disposed in said reboiler section, terminating at its upper extremity a finite distance below the lowermost tray, or deck of said column and at its lower end a finite distance above the bottom of said column, thereby forming a partially partitioned reboiler section having two chambers in open communication with each other at the bottom of said column; b. a fluid outlet port in the bottom of said distillation column and a fluid inlet port in open communication with a first of said two chambers; c. flow-measuring means, responsive to upwardly flowing vapors leaving said reboiler section, within said first chamber and disposed at the upper extremity thereof; d. signal-sensing means, in open communication with said flow-measuring means, for transmitting a signal representative of the rate of vapor flow through said flow-measuring means, without the confines of said reboiler section; and, e. an imperforate baffle, horizontally disposed between said lowermost tray and said flow-measuring means, said imperforate baffle extending entirely across said first chamber into the second of said two chambers and terminating a distance less than the internal diameter of said distillation column.