Appeal No. 1997-2105
Application No. 08/426,160
apparatus and to a fractionating process wherein the
improvement comprises a separation tray and downpipe for
separating hotter vapors from cooler liquid within a
fractionation vessel. The fractionation tray is located above
a bottoms liquid hold-up pool and below a vapor feed
contacting zone, and the downpipe is connected to the
separation tray and extends downwardly therefrom and into the
bottoms liquid hold-up pool so as to establish vapor sealing
means for preventing the hotter vapors from directly
contacting the cooler liquid. This appealed subject matter is
adequately illustrated by independent claim 21 which reads as
follows:
21. In a fractionator having a fractionation vessel,
including a reactor effluent vapors inlet, a vapor feed
contacting zone, a baffled contacting section above said vapor
feed contacting zone, a top section above said baffled
contacting section, a heavy bottoms liquid hold-up section
below said vapor feed contacting zone, a bottoms outlet, and a
bottoms recycle system having a heat exchanger in which a
recycled, cooled bottoms is fed back to said fractionation
vessel to said heavy bottoms liquid hold-up pool section and
above said vapor feed contacting zone, the improvement which
comprises:
a separation tray and downpipe for separating hotter
vapors from cooler liquid within said fractionation vessel,
said separation tray being located above said bottoms liquid
hold-up pool and below said vapor feed contacting zone, said
downpipe being connected to said separation tray and extending
downwardly from said separation tray and into said bottoms
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