Stable thermosiphon reboiler operation: With or without a valve in the inlet piping?

Henry Kister is a Senior Fellow and Director of Fractionation Technology for Fluor Corp. He has more than 35 yr of experience in design, troubleshooting, revamping, field consulting, and the control and startup of fractionation processes and equipment. He is the author of three books, along with the distillation equipment chapter in Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook (8th and 9th editions), the distillation chapter in the Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, and more than 120 articles. Mr. Kister has taught the IChemE-sponsored “Practical Distillation Technology” course over 530 times in 26 countries. He is a Fellow of both IChemE and AIChE, and is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering. For more than 25 yr, he has also served on Fractionation Research Inc.’s (FRI’s) Technical Advisory and Design Practices committees. Mr. Kister earned his BE and ME degrees from the University of New South Wales in Australia.

Edwin van Doorn is a Fluor Corp. Fellow and Director of heat transfer at Fluor Amsterdam, with more than 20 yr of experience in industry. He serves on the Technical Committee HTRI and Expert Area Energy Efficiency Committee. Mr. van Doorn obtained his academic degree in engineering from the University of Eindhoven.