During start-up, the column was flooding and carry-over was evident. The latent heat of evaporation of the liquids carried over caused severe problems with maintaining temperature control throughout the plant. The local mag level gauge on the tower bottom sump was pegged. But since the plant was just starting up it was not deemed reliable by the operators. The bottoms level control valve was in manual since the level transmitter was also deemed not working. RCE engineers after assessing the situation decided to try and drain the tower sump to see if liquids were present. Liquids were present and the sump was drained for approximately 30 minutes until a level appeared in the local gauge. This indicated that the tower was totally filled with liquid and thus was the cause of the carry-over problem. With the level indication working again, it could be controlled and the tower and the plant worked fine after that. Another example of how RCE engineers are helping our clients get the most out of their facilities.
