Distillation Column Ventillation Apparatus

Objective:

Design an improved ventillation apparatus to exhaust IPA fumes from the distillation column located in the east side of the Merrill Engineering Building at the University of Utah. Previous approaches failed to prevent fumes from entering offices in upper floors.

Description:

The said distillation column (DC) is used by undergraduate Chemical Engineering students to separate water an Isopropanol (IPA). The DC extend from the 1st through the 4th floors of the building. The previous ventillation apparatus was merely a hood vent offset to one side of the DC, allowing fumes to escape and fill the 4th floor of the Merrill Engineering Building (MEB). Photo of previous ventillation system:

Design and Manufacturing:

Several concepts were evaluated. After using a probe to determine the thickness of the boundary layer of IPA fumes convecting upward around the DC (it was only 10 cm thick), the following conceptual design was adopted. The image below shows the vent in silver, and the top of the DC in orange:

The design was fully developed in Pro/Engineer™, using the available sheet metal tools. Flat patterns were made from the solid model, enabling the metal shop to easily create the parts reqired to assemble the vent. After welding the two halves separately in the shop, the halves were assembled on the vent in the lab and secured with custom steel brackets bolted to the vent, and the two halves were riveted together. Below is a photo of the finished vent: