Improve vacuum-tower performance

There is much talk today about an expert system that will be able to start up and operate distillation columns painlessly, effortlessly, and in a trouble-free manner. Until that expert system arrives, however, startup and initial operation of distillation columns will continue to present challenging problems, and solving these problems will continue to consume effort, money, and sleepless nights. The objective of this article is to make several experiences, gained in the school of hard knocks, available to troubleshooters. Traditionally, such experiences have provided the most powerful tool for solving today`s problems and avoiding tomorrow`s. When eventually an expert system does take over, these experiences are likely to provide it with a well from which it can draw its expertise.