High pressure strippers for use in urea plants

A shell-and-tube stripper for stripping a urea/carbamate mixture,

• the stripper comprising a top end in fluid connection with a bottom end through a plurality of tubes disposed within a shell;
• the top end comprising an inlet for a urea/carbamate mixture and an outlet for a gas mixture comprising a stripping gas and one or more stripped compounds;
• the bottom end comprising an outlet for a urea/carbamate stream concentrated in urea;
• the shell-and-tube stripper further comprising a heating fluid inlet and a heating fluid outlet in fluid connection with a shell-side space disposed between the plurality of tubes and the shell;
• the shell-and-tube stripper having a longitudinal direction and lateral cross sections, the longitudinal direction being parallel to the tubes and the lateral cross sections being perpendicular to the longitudinal direction;
• wherein the shell-and-tube stripper comprises a heating fluid distributor adjacent to the heating fluid inlet for homogenizing a flow of heating fluid in the stripper, the heating fluid distributor comprising an edge wall and a heating fluid distribution plate which is disposed parallel to the lateral cross sections;
• the edge wall comprising two or more openings and/or a plurality of perforations, and the edge wall defining a belt-shaped space between the shell and the edge wall;
• the heating fluid inlet being arranged for providing heating fluid to the belt-shaped space;
• the belt-shaped space being arranged for providing heating fluid to an inner heating fluid distribution space;
• the heating fluid distribution plate being arranged for providing heating fluid from the inner heating fluid distribution space to the shell-side space between the heating fluid distributor and the bottom end;
• the heating fluid distribution plate comprising a plurality of perforations, the plurality of perforations comprising a plurality of tube holes and a plurality of heating fluid holes, wherein a size and/or a density of the heating fluid holes changes in a radial direction of the heating fluid distribution plate.