Liquid distributing apparatus and method for a liquid-vapor contact column

Claim 1

A plate-type liquid distributor for use in a liquid-vapor contact tower wherein it is desired to uniformly distribute liquid across a horizontal cross-section of the tower while allowing vapor to rise through spaced vapor ducts situated in vapor openings in the pan of the apparatus, which apparatus comprises: a plate which is horizontal when installed in the tower, said plate having a plurality of spaced openings passing through it to provide for upward passage of vapors rising in a tower; an upstanding flange sealably attached to the periphery of the horizontal plate and extending above the plate; a vertical duct member located in each opening of the horizontal plate, said duct members being open at top and bottom to allow upward passage of vapors through the apparatus, said vertical duct members being sealably attached to the horizontal plate member with the duct member's sides extending a distance far enough above said horizontal plate to define a liquid reservoir space above the plate between the outsides of the duct walls and the inside of the upstanding flange; said duct walls having a plurality of openings in them located at the same distance above the plate to allow a liquid to accumulate in said reservoir and to pass out of the reservoir in streamlets through the openings in said duct walls while allowing most sediment contained in the liquid to settle to the bottom of said reservoir to greatly reduce the risk of plugging the openings with sediment and consequently upsetting the liquid distribution pattern designed for the distributor apparatus, said openings being spaced apart at a substantially uniform distance, the tops of said openings being located below the tops of the duct walls as well as below the top of the upstanding flange so that a liquid pool is capable of being maintained in said reservoir space with the pool's upper surface being capable of being situated above the tops of said openings, said openings being small enough in size so as to cause a liquid slowly flowing through them under normal operating conditions in a tower to form a pool in said reservoir space with the pool's upper surface being situated above the tops of said openings in order that any flotating debris in the liquid will remain above said openings so as to further reduce the risk of plugging the small openings and upsetting the flow distribution pattern; said duct members' vertical sides also extending below the horizontal plate member so that liquid flowing down the side walls can have no opportunity to transfer from the side wall to the bottom of the plate member and fall from it in an indiscriminate maldistributed manner; a multiplicity of substantially parallel, substantially vertically oriented drip rods attached to the inside of the ducts, that is the vapor side of the duct walls, in such a fashion so that substantially all of the openings have a pair of drip rods associated with it, one drip rod being adjacent to an opening on one side of that opening and the other drip rod being adjacent that opening on the opposite side of that opening so as to form an "equidistant channel" between the two drip rods of the drip rod pair below the opening; and said drip rods extending below the bottom of the duct walls so that liquid emerging from the opening between will gravity flow downwardly in the "equidistant channel", past the bottom of said horizontal plate, and on downwardly and off the bottom ends of the drip rods into the tower section below the drip rods in the same distribution pattern as is the distribution pattern of the bottom ends of the drip rods.