Design and Simulate a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler Using

Aspen Shell & Tube Exchanger

Outline Design Guide

Jim McNaught, Consultant, TUV NEL
Tom Ralston, Product Management, Aspen Technology, Inc.

Contents
Design of a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler .........................................................................................1
Introduction ...................................................................................................................................1
Problem Description .......................................................................................................................2
Steps..............................................................................................................................................2
Start ...........................................................................................................................................3
Problem Definition ......................................................................................................................3
Process Data ...............................................................................................................................3
Physical Properties ......................................................................................................................3
Exchanger Geometry ...................................................................................................................3
Thermosiphon Details..................................................................................................................3
Nozzle Information......................................................................................................................4
Save and Run ..............................................................................................................................4
Review of Results ........................................................................................................................4
Simulating Vertical Thermosiphon Reboilers ........................................................................................4
Problem Description: ......................................................................................................................4
Steps..............................................................................................................................................4
Start-up ......................................................................................................................................4
Thermosiphon Details..................................................................................................................5
Save and Run ..............................................................................................................................5
Review of Results ........................................................................................................................5
Additional Modelling Options ..............................................................................................................5
Part Load Operation........................................................................................................................5
Clean Start Up Operation ................................................................................................................6
Additional Resources ..........................................................................................................................6

Design & Simulate a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler

Design of a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler

Introduction
Thermosiphon reboilers are widely used in refining and chemical processing. Properly designed, they
provide an elegant solution to vaporize lighter fractions from the bottom of a distillation column and
return the two-phase stream at an appropriate separation stage. The use of the thermosiphon effect to
circulate the fluids provides a design with lower capital and maintenance cost than a pumped system
with a kettle or other type of forced flow reboiler.
In designing a thermosiphon reboiler, gravitational head is very important and hence the relative vertical
locations of the liqud level within the column to the inlet of the heat transfer section of the exchanger.
Also of critical importance is the relative height of the return to the column. These heights are often
given relative the ground level but any data can be used to specify the relative heights, as illustrated in
Figure 1 from Help in the Aspen Shell&Tube Exchanger Program.

F i gure 1: The As pe n EDR He l p Me nu

Both horizontal shellside and vertical tubeside reboilers configurations are widely used. For very large
capacities, such as in an atmospheric crude distillation, horizontal shellside units are prevalent. In many
lower capacity applications vertical tubeside units are often preferred as they consume le ss plot space.
It is normal to design the thermosiphon for the required circulation rate, outlet vapor fraction , and
thermal duty. This can be done initially without detailing the inlet pipework bringing column bottoms to
the unit, or without detailing the return pipework. Once the exchanger itself has been sized on a
preliminary basis, the performance can be evaluated with pipework specified in detail. The simulated
circulation rate and outlet vapor fraction can be checked against the design requirement and the
stability of circulation verified.

Design & Simulate a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler

The guide which follows illustrates both initial design and subsequent simulation of operation with full
specification of connecting pipework.
The guide also outlines some typical trouble-shooting around part-load operation and clean start-up
with potential instability. When operated outside stability limits flow and pressure on the cold side of a
thermosiphon reboiler will vary rapidly in a oscillatory manner. The performance of the unit will be
much less than in stable operation. It is important to avoid instability which will have a major impact on
throughput of the distillation column and on product quality.

Problem Description
The task is to design a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler for the following duty:
Column Pressure
Cold stream
Fluid:
Flowrate
Outlet vapour mass fraction (quality)
Fouling resistance
Duty
Hot stream
Fluid
Inlet pressure
Allowable pressure drop
Fouling resistance
Inlet vapour mass fraction
Outlet vapour mass fraction
Cold stream composition (mass fraction)
n-Pentane
Benzene

5.13 bar (abs)

Hydrocarbon mixture
90000 kg/h
0.4
0.0001 m2K/W
3300 kW
Steam
3.5 bar (abs)
0.08 bar
0.00009 m2K/W
1.0
0.0
0.72
0.28

The available height from the liquid surface in the column to the bottom tube plate of the exchanger is
4000 mm.
A tube outside diameter 25.4 mm and thickness 2.11 mm is selected. The tube material is carbon steel.
The tubeside inlet nozzle is axial with a Cone type front cover, and there is a plain tubeside outlet nozzle
at the outlet header.

Steps
The steps described below lead to the design of the reboiler alone. Piping details will be added when a
Thermosiphon Simulation run is set up in Example 2.

Design & Simulate a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler

Start
Start the Aspen Exchanger Design and Rating User Interface and select a new Shell&Tube Exchanger
case. Change the Units of Measure to SI.
Problem Definition
Open the Application Options input form
Specify the hot stream on the shellside, set the Application to Vaporization and set the Vaporiz er
type to Thermosiphon
Process Data
Open the Process Data input form
Enter the cold stream flowrate, column pressure, inlet vapour mass fraction (zero), outlet vapour
mass fraction and fouling. Also enter the hot stream inlet pressure, allowable press ure drop, inlet
and outlet vapour fraction and fouling resistance. You do not need to enter hot stream
temperatures in this example because Shell&Tube will calculate them from the pressure and vapour
mass fractions
Physical Properties
Open the Hot Side Composition input form and specify Water as a single component from the B-JAC
Databank
Open the Hot Side Properties input form and click on the Get Properties button
Open the Cold Side Composition input form and select the Aspen Properties physical prope rty
package
Select the two cold side components from the databank and enter the compositions (mass
fractions).
Move to the Property Methods tab and select Peng-Robinson/LK.
Open the Cold Stream Properties input form and click the Get Properties button. Examine the
calculated properties and check that the temperature range includes the bubble point. You should
have data at two pressures.
Exchanger Geometry
Open the Geometry Summary input form
Specify a vertical TEMA AEL exchanger
Set the Front Cover type to a Cone in the Shell/Heads/Flanges/Tubesheet input form
Enter the tube outside diameter and wall thickness
Thermosiphon Details
Open the Thermosiphon Piping form
Set the height of the column liquid level to 4000 mm and the height of the heat transfer region inlet
to 0.0. Set the height of the return line to the column to 4200 mm. The liquid head that drives
the circulation around the reboiler is determined by the height difference between the liquid level
and the exchanger height and the inlet pipe liquid density
Pipework pressure loss estimates, for both inlet and outlet pipework, are expressed as a percentage
of the inlet pipework static head, i.e. 'Column Liquid Level elevation minus Exchanger Heat Transfer
Region Inlet elevation' at the inlet fluid density which is assumed to be constant.

Design & Simulate a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler

In Design mode the details of the inlet and outlet piping might not be available and it is often useful
to select the option to express the pipework pressure loss as a percentage of the available liquid
head. The defaults of 25% and 10% respectively for the inlet and outlet pipework represent typical
values

Nozzle Information
Open the Nozzles input form
Select the Tube Side Nozzles tab and set the Tube Side Inlet Nozzle Orientation to Axial. You do not
need to enter any other data as Shell&Tube will calculate the nozzle diameters using the allowable
pressure drops.
Save and Run
Save the case with filename Reboiler Design Case.edr
Run the Design Case and save it.
Review of Results
Check that the cold stream pressure drop is mostly utilized. If not, this means that when the
reboiler is operated in natural circulation, the flowrate may be much greater than the design
flowrate. To solve this problem you would probably have to increase the allowable pressure drop
on the shellside.
Check that the area ratio of the selected design is close to 1.0. If it is greater than about 1.2, this
means that the reboiler is significantly over-sized. Again, you may have to increase the shellside
allowable pressure drop.

Simulating Vertical Thermosiphon Reboilers

Problem Description:
The task is to simulate the performance of the reboiler that was designed in the above example. The
simulation will include details of the pipework to and from the column. The main purpose of the run is
to check that required cold stream flowrate of 90,000 kg/h and the required heat load of 3,300 kW are
achieved when the reboiler is connected to the column and the flow is driven by natural circulation.
In Thermosiphon Simulation mode the user specifies the hot stream conditions and the program
iteratively calculates the reboiler circulation rate and heat load determined by the liquid head, pressure
losses around the system and the local heat transfer rates.
The approach taken is to create a Simulation case from a design run and then convert it to a
Thermosiphon run.

Steps
Start-up
Open the file Reboiler Design Case.edr and run it. Select Run, Update file from Geometry
Shell&Tube from the main menu bar at the top of the screen to convert the Design run to a

Design & Simulate a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler

Checking run. Go to the Application Options input form and change from Checking to Simulation
mode
Save the file as Reboiler Simulation Case.edr

Thermosiphon Details
Open the Thermosiphon Piping input form
In the Design run the inlet and outlet pressure losses were estimated as a percentage of the
available liquid head. In Simulation it is likely that at least preliminary details of the piping
configuration will be available, so set the Pipework Loss Calculation to From PipeWork. It is
important for an accurate Simulation that the pipework details are entered
Go to the Inlet Piping Elements form and click on the first Inlet Circuit Element box, when a drop down list box will appear. Select a pipe element and estimate 4,000 mm total length. Then specify 2
bends in the second column. You can enter the inlet piping elements in any order because the flow
is always in the liquid phase. Note that the program obtains a default pipe diameter from the nozzle
diameter.
Go to the Outlet Piping Elements form and estimate 2000 mm horizontal pipe for the outlet. Since
the channel outlet is a plain nozzle, there is only a single horizontal pipe length between the reboiler
and the column.
Save and Run
Run the data set and save it.
Review of Results
Check the output to see whether the design tubeside flowrate and heat duty have been achieved
Revise and adjust the design as necessary. You might have to insert a resistance, usually a valve,
into the inlet piping to reduce the cold stream flowrate and increase the outlet vapour mass fraction
to the design value of 0.4. Do this by adding a General Element to the Inlet Piping Elements. Insert
an estimate of the number of velocity heads lost in the valve and use trial and error to adjust this
value. If you find that, when you achieve the outlet vapour fraction of 0.4 the tubeside flowrate is
greater than the design value, this is because the design run generated an over-sized exchanger. In
practice one way to reduce the heat load to the design value would be to reduce the steam
pressure. Some further iteration on the inlet circuit resistance may then be required
When you have achieved a Simulation run that matches the design conditions, review any warning
messages carefully and check the stability analysis (under Flow Analysis - Thermosiphons). View the
incremental output in Analysis along Tubes to check the two-phase flow pattern at the outlet of the
tubes (ideally it should be Annular).

Additional Modeling Options

Part Load Operation
The reboiler is to be controlled for part-load operation by flooding the shell by condensate. Investigate
the performance of the reboiler when part of the tube length on the shellside is flooded by condensate.
5

Design & Simulate a Vertical Thermosiphon Reboiler

Note that you cannot enter this directly from input, but you can use Shell&Tube to specify the
condensate outlet temperature. NOTE: Since the hot stream flowrate is defaulted, Shell&Tube will
calculate the steam flowrate corresponding the heat load and the specified inlet and outlet conditions.
You can use the Analysis along Shell output form to see the fraction of the tube length flooded, i.e.
where the shell temperature is below the saturation temperature.

Clean Start Up Operation

Start from the Simulation case and investigate the performance of the reboiler when the unit is started
up for the first time, i.e. it is in the clean condition and there is no valve in the inlet pipework. You will
find that cold stream flowrate and the heat load are much higher than the design condition. Dynamic
instability may be predicted as a result of the increased pressure drop in the outlet piping, in turn
caused by the increased outlet vapour fraction. The performance could be reduced to the stable design
condition by reducing the steam pressure.

Additional Resources
Public Website
www.aspentech.com/products/aspen-edr.aspx

Support Website
www.support.aspentech.com