Find new and used industrial columns for sale with The Commercial Trader. Whether you’re separating a mixture by distillation, scrubbing a gas stream by absorption, stripping volatiles from a liquid, or carrying out liquid-liquid extraction, we connect you directly with trusted UK and European sellers offering columns across every major separation duty.
Browse new and used industrial columns across every format. Use our filters to narrow by manufacturer, condition, diameter, height, internals type and materials of construction.
Each listing comes from verified sellers with detailed specifications, PED/UKCA certification and service history available where applicable. Need help specifying a column for your separation? Get in touch via our contact page for guidance, or browse the related categories below.
Industrial Machinery Categories
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An industrial column (also called a tower) is a tall vertical process vessel used for separating mixtures by exploiting differences in volatility, solubility or distribution between phases. Columns are central to chemical, petrochemical, pharmaceutical and food processing, carrying out distillation, absorption, stripping, extraction and related mass-transfer operations. The separation happens across internals, either trays (plates) or packing, that create the vapour-liquid or liquid-liquid contact needed for mass transfer. Industrial columns are typically specified by diameter, height, number of theoretical stages, internals type, design pressure, design temperature and materials of construction.
Quality industrial columns routinely operate for 30-50+ years. The pressure-containing shell typically lasts the working life of the asset, with periodic PSSR inspection confirming integrity. Column internals (trays, packing, distributors) may need replacement or upgrade every 10-25 years as throughput changes or fouling occurs, but the column shell itself lasts for decades.
Columns are fundamental to virtually every process that needs to separate or purify a mixture, underpinning product quality and process economics.
Industrial columns are strong candidates for second-hand purchase given the long working life of the pressure-containing shell.
Distillation columns separate liquid mixtures by boiling point difference, the most widely used separation in chemical and petrochemical processing. Continuous and batch designs serve different operations. Common in solvent recovery, petrochemical fractionation, spirit distillation and chemical purification. Both tray and packed designs feature.
Absorption (scrubbing) columns remove components from a gas stream by contact with an absorbing liquid. Common in gas scrubbing, emissions control, acid gas removal and product recovery. Packed columns dominate for absorption duties.
Stripping columns remove volatile components from a liquid stream by contact with a stripping gas or steam. Common in wastewater treatment (VOC removal), solvent recovery, deaeration and product purification.
Liquid-liquid extraction columns separate components between two immiscible liquid phases. Rotating disc contactors (RDC), pulsed columns and packed extraction columns serve pharmaceutical, petrochemical and specialty chemical extractions.
Columns are configured with either structured/random packing (Sulzer, Koch-Glitsch, Raschig) for low pressure drop and high efficiency, or trays (sieve, valve, bubble cap) for high capacity and fouling service. Internals selection significantly affects column performance.
As a buyer-to-seller marketplace, we feature industrial columns from sellers across the UK and beyond. Use our location and distance filters to find equipment near your facility, supporting site visits and reducing transport costs on tall column installations.
As we operate as a buyer-to-seller marketplace, any returns policy must be agreed directly with the seller before purchase. We’d recommend pre-purchase inspection of any used column, including review of pressure certification, PSSR inspection records, internals condition and any thickness measurement reports.
This category forms one part of our wider industrial machinery marketplace. Browse the full range of New and Used Industrial Machinery, or jump into a specific sub-category below:
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