Process Equipment and Plant Design
The difficulty of liquid distribution in packed towers is accentuated, when the ratio of tower diameter to packing diameter is
Valve trays have the highest turn down ratio (i.e. the ratio of the highest to the lowest vapour flow rates) and thus provides the maximum flexible operating range
Bubble cap trays though most expensive are the best in situations, where low vapour rates is to be handled and a positive liquid seal is essential at all flow rates
Murphree efficiency of all the three trays are nearly equal, however the peak efficiency is generally higher for seive and valve trays than the bubble cap
Maintenance cost for valve and seive trays are comparatively more than bubble cap tray due to their relatively complicated construction features