New Project Distillation Tower completed pictures June 19, 2016, 2016

Here are some pictures of the completed concrete tower support.

Alan Graziano

I wish I had half the talent that you do building these items!! Looks great as usual so far.

Jeff

Here are some pictures of the progress I have made on the tower. I scribed the platform grating, installed nozzles and manways and installed the top platform.

Alan Graziano

Wow Alan. Just amazing detail and patience.

So real, it gives me the willies. I have a fear of heights!!!!!

Hi Alan,

  Looks great, so nicely done !!

Alex

Here are some pictures of the tower showing the platforms and ladders. I will start installing the piping next.

Alan Graziano

Alan:

As usual excellent work. I always save your pictures to give me impetus to improve my work.

Joe

Here are the final pictures of the completed vacuum tower and additional piping section.

Alan Graziano

Alan:

Sweet!

Joe

Alan:

Any reason why you use clear acrylic over gray or white?

Joe

Joe,

I have two sections of acrylic rectangular solid material I planned to use for ice cubes for another project. Instead of rectangular abs tubing I used them for this project.

Alan Graziano

Stunning! I remember a story about a distillation tower at one of the plants I called on (internal training consultant) at Bayport, TX. I was the first separation tower after propylene oxide was reacted with propylene and oxygen. An intermediate reaction product was Tertiary Butyl Hyper-peroxide (TBHP). If the concentration of this mid-reaction product exceeded a certain concentration percentage (which I no longer recall) it would become explosively unstable. They lost the reaction in the reactor and unreacted intermediate (TBHP) made its way to the distillation column and settled in the bottom. The tower separates the propylene oxide from the by-product, Tertiary Butyl Alcohol. When it reached that magic concentration it blew up. The tower was easily 75 feet (See picture) tall and was launched off its foundation. It was found a 1/4 mile away. It was a devastating accident and I believe may had led to loss of life. From that point on, additional safeguards were installed to ensure they knew immediately if the reaction was not proceeding. At one point in this energetic process, they introduced pure oxygen into the propylene. It was done in a bunker type arrangement with no roof. The oxygen concentration quickly passed through the flammability range and then became very rich. This pre-mix was then sparged in very large horizontal tanks into the remaining propylene. Needless to say, this was one scary plant. It had the biggest and highest flare stacks I ever saw designed to flare the entire reaction if it wasn't going as it was supposed to (instead of blowing distillation towers into orbit). When the plant flared it literally lit up (and sounded like) a Saturn Five liftoff. That plant is still operating under ownership of Lyondell Petrochemical.

Leave it to Google Earth... I actually was able to find that plant in 3d on Google Earth and labeled all the parts that take part in the operation. When I was with the company (from 1980 to 86) it was owned by Atlantic Richfield's ARCO Chemical. It was then bought by Lyondell Petrochemical (originally part of ARCO Chem) and recently merged with Basell. It's hard to judge the tower's height, but I bet Al can figure it out with his experience. Google Earth just blows me away.

And here's that massive flare stack

So much for real world petrochemical stuff. I just get inspired when I see Al's and Joe's work.