A purpose designed Chimney Tray must be installed to function as a collector device either for feeding to a liquid distributor (particularly flashing feeds) or for a liquid draw off. A leaky chimney tray will result in liquid by-passing the distributor causing maldistribution in the packed bed. To avoid this, all chimney trays which are used to collect liquid to feed a liquid distributor should have all joints seal welded after installation.
When installed
below the bottom packed bed, Chimney Trays perform a useful function as
a vapour distributor. This is especially important where high vapour rates
are encountered due to the low pressure drop across most packed beds.