At a Gulf Coast refinery, the reboiler thermosyphon circulation could not be reestablished after a turnaround. The tower was reopened and a lessthan-alive contract employee was found stuck in the reboiler draw-off nozzle. At the Good Hope Refinery (when I was the technical manager), we once left a complete scaffold (poles, boards, everything) in the bottom of a debutanizer tower. Rags, hard hats, plywood, and especially plastic bags left in packed columns should be removed from inside draw sumps and downcomers. I know it’s rough on the knees, but crawl across every tray and look into each downcomer. One lost flashlight in a small downcomer may flood every tray in the tower. A rag caught on a vortex breaker in a jet fuel draw box has caused a complete refinery shutdown.
Check the tray clips, tray panels, and downcomer bolting bars. At least the nuts and bolts should be finger-tight. If you find a single loose nut, insist that every nut on that tray be retightened. I will check the tray clips and 10 percent of the downcomer bolting bar nuts for finger-tight.