We said before that it was wrong to return the effluent from a oncethrough reboiler with a vertical baffle to the cold side of the tower’s bottom. Doing so would actually make the once-through thermosyphon reboiler work more like a circulating reboiler. But if this is bad, then the once-through reboiler must be better than the circulating reboiler. But why?
• The once-through reboiler functions as the bottom theoretical separation stage of the tower. The circulating reboiler does not, because a portion of its effluent back mixes to its feed inlet. This back mixing ruins the separation that can otherwise be achieved in reboilers.
• Regardless of the type of reboiler used, the tower-bottom product temperature has to be the same, so as to make product specifications. This is shown in Fig. 7.5. However, the reboiler outlet temperature must always be higher in the circulating reboiler than in the once-through reboiler. This means that it is more difficult to transfer heat in the former than in the latter.
• Because the liquid from the bottom tray of a tower with a circulating thermosyphon reboiler is of a composition similar to that of the bottoms product, we can say that the circulating thermosyphon reboiler does not act as a theoretical separation stage. However, the liquid from the bottom tray of a tower with a once-through thermosyphon reboiler can be quite a bit lighter in composition (and hence cooler) than the bottoms product composition, and thus we say that the once-through thermosyphon reboiler does act as a theoretical separation stage. The cooler the liquid flow from the bottom tray of a tower, the less the vapor flow through that tray. This is because the hot vapor flowing up through a tray heats up the downflowing liquid. This means that there is a greater vapor flow through the bottom tray of a tower with a circulating thermosyphon reboiler than there would be through the bottom tray of a tower with a once-through thermosyphon reboiler. Everything else being equal, then, the tower served by the circulating reboiler is going to flood before the tower served by the once-through reboiler.
