Dear Namdev,

I did work for 12 years for Stamicarbon selling High Efficiency Trays.

In general one can say that High Efficiency Trays in urea reactors increase the conversion figures and thus lead to lower steam consumption figures and/or higher capacities.

To what extend this will be depends on how far one is operating from equilibrium conditions in the reactor.

As you know the formation of urea from carbamate is slow and an equilibrium reaction.

If ones operates far from equilibrium for example because the plant is operating at relatively high load comapred to the design values, more improvement can be expected.

For each case this has to be checked.

In general one can say that in case you need to replace the trays because they are end of lifetime, a replacement to High Efficiency Trays always makes sense.

Otherwise a pay back calculation has to be made.

When measuring an increase of conversion please pay attention to accuracy of measurements and side conditions. For example a higher N/C ratio also leads to a higher CO2 conversion.

Best regards

Mark Brouwer, UreaKnowHow.com