Patent ID: 7981253

Claim:
A vacuum distillation tower comprising: a feed zone, a feed director located in the feed zone for introducing an incoming feed into the feed zone in a rotating flow pattern, a flash zone below the feed zone and above the stripping zone, a lower stripping zone located below the flash zone, a rectification zone above the flash zone, and a non-rotating, radially-louvered liquid de-entrainment baffle located above the top of the stripping zone and below the feed zone and with a central axis corresponding to the vertical axis of the tower, comprising a plurality of radial fins with openings between the fins to permit the upward passage of vapors from the portion of the tower below the baffle located below the flash zone and above the stripping zone each fin being angularly inclined with respect to a plane passing through the longitudinal axis of the tower in such a manner that the upper edge of each fin is displaced relative to the lower edge in the direction of rotational movement of the rotating vector of the incoming feed to impart a rotation to the vapors ascending from the stripper zone in the same rotational sense as the rotation in the flash zone.