“Ecmd™ Trays: A Quarter Century of Excellence”

2014 marks the 25^th year since the development and commercialization of UOP’s Enhanced Capacity Multiple Downcomer (ECMD) tray.  Since its initial application the ECMD tray has proven to be a mainstay in the high capacity distillation tray arena.  Although primarily developed as a revamp option to maximize the capacity of bottlenecked MD or conventionally trayed columns, the advent of world scale plants today has resulted in the ECMD tray being utilized to minimize the size and cost of grassroots columns.  This paper discusses the wide range of applications of the UOP ECMD tray over the last twenty five (25) years, ranging from the first application in a 2750 mm internal diameter Ethylene Plant Deethanizer revamp in 1989 to a 10400 mm internal diameter Propane Dehydrogenation (PDH) Propylene Fractionator in 2014.  With over 300 towers in operation, the ECMD tray continues to be a key contributor in the UOP family of high capacity trays.