DISTILLATION TOWER FEED DEVICE

A feed device for a distillation tower or column with a flash zone, wash zone and stripping zone has an annular, open-bottomed channel located around the periphery of the feed zone of the tower with an inner wall spaced from the inner curved wall of the tower and a top covering the channel to confer a generally inverted-U shape to the cross section of the channel. One or more tangential feed inlets are provided to admit a heated, mixed phase feed to the tower and direct the feed into and along the channel. One or more vapor scoops are provided for each feed inlet with the scoop(s) located on the inner wall of the channel, each at a sufficient distance along the channel from the inlet to permit cyclonic separation of vapor and liquid to take place before the vapor in the feed from the inlet enters the scoop(s) and passes through a vapor exit port into the central core of the tower. The tower is preferably used with a radial louvre baffle at the top of the stripping zone.