Books and Published Works
Henry Kister is the author of over 140 published technical articles on distillation as well as three textbooks on distillation titled Distillation Operation, Distillation Design, and Distillation Troubleshooting. Additionally, Henry is the author of the distillation section in Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook. All books can only be purchased from their publishers or authorized agents.
Distillation Operation
Distillation Operation is a hands-on guide to distillation operation, troubleshooting, malfunction prevention, field-tested cures, and practical design guidelines. It presents valuable dos and don’ts, practical insights for trouble-free design, and field-proven techniques for all phases of distillation. It shows what has gone wrong in the past and provides guidelines for preventing similar incidents in the future. The first book of its kind in the distillation industry, making the experience of several generations of column operation available to those who operate, control, troubleshoot, start up, and design distillation and absorption equipment.
Distillation Design
Distillation Design focuses on the best process and equipment design procedures. It provides complete coverage of the principles and practical aspects of designing distillation towers for the chemical, petrochemical, and refining industries. It examines the process and equipment design procedures, discusses their limitations, and provides down-to-earth design guidelines. Distillation Design is essential for achieving trouble-free tower design, optimizing and minimizing capital and operating costs, as well as for troubleshooting and diagnosing design malfunctions.
Distillation Troubleshooting
Based on 1200 case histories of problems, diagnoses, solutions and key lessons published over the last 50 years, Distillation Troubleshooting brings decades of hands-on experience into the hands of engineers involved in the operation, troubleshooting, control and design of distillation and absorption towers. It presents a collection of problems and solutions outlining what went wrong and how it got fixed. The first book of its kind in the distillation industry, the practical lessons that it offers are a must to those engaged in solving today’s problems and avoiding tomorrow’s.
Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook: Distillation Section
Perry’s Handbook is known in the industry as the “Bible for Chemical Engineering”, providing all the technical details on chemical processes, equipment, and their calculation and evaluation methods. It is revised once per decade to reflect the latest technological advances and processes in each field. Kister has been the prime author of Chapter 14, “Equipment for Distillation, Gas Absorption, Phase Dispersion, and Phase Separation” 8th and 9th Edition.
140+ Distillation Articles
Kister’s 140+ articles cover distillation troubleshooting, distillation controls, new design methods, case study experiences, and new innovations. His articles describe new troubleshooting techniques he developed such as quantitative analysis of commercial gamma scans to identify maldistribution on trays, and “Kistergrams”, which transform gamma scans into vapor and liquid flow profiles; updated guidelines for good practices for distillation control; his mapping the previously-unexplored phenomena of vapor cross flow channeling and downcomer unsealing on trays; his extensive survey of what went wrong with towers in the past, which incorporates lessons learnt in the past into troubleshooting endeavors; and his calculation procedures for tray and packing capacity, many of which are recommended in Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook and in other leading texts.