Diagnose Your Distillation Column with Downcomer Gamma Scans

Gamma scanning is one of the most powerful diagnostic techniques available for distillation and absorption towers. Although most gamma scans are shot through the active areas of the tower, in many cases, invaluable insight to the nature of a problem or bottleneck can be gained by also scanning the downcomers. This article discusses the use of downcomer gamma scans and introduces case studies where such scans have been used to diagnose a problem in a tower. The article also identifies strategies to avoid pitfalls, interpret downcomer scans, and promote correct diagnostics.