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Week 2-Gas Absorption

The document discusses gas absorption, which involves absorbing a soluble gas vapor from a mixture using a liquid solvent. Key points: - In gas absorption, a soluble gas is absorbed from a mixture using a liquid in which it is more soluble. Common applications include removing CO2 and H2S from natural gas/syngas using amine or alkaline salt solutions, and washing ammonia from an ammonia-air mixture using water. - Packed towers are commonly used, consisting of a column packed with material to provide a large contact area between the liquid and gas. Structured packings make up the modern standard, with corrugated sheets providing channels for gas and liquid contact. - Tower design considers

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Ralph Evidente
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129 views20 pages

Week 2-Gas Absorption

The document discusses gas absorption, which involves absorbing a soluble gas vapor from a mixture using a liquid solvent. Key points: - In gas absorption, a soluble gas is absorbed from a mixture using a liquid in which it is more soluble. Common applications include removing CO2 and H2S from natural gas/syngas using amine or alkaline salt solutions, and washing ammonia from an ammonia-air mixture using water. - Packed towers are commonly used, consisting of a column packed with material to provide a large contact area between the liquid and gas. Structured packings make up the modern standard, with corrugated sheets providing channels for gas and liquid contact. - Tower design considers

Uploaded by

Ralph Evidente
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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GAS ABSORPTION

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Gas Absorption

In gas absorption a soluble vapour is absorbed from its mixture with


an inert gas by means of liquid in which the solute gas is more or
less soluble.

Applications:

i)Removal of CO2 and H2S from natural gas or synthesis gas by


absorption in solutions of amines or alkaline salts,

ii)Washing of ammonia from a mixture of ammonia and air by means of


liquid water.

The solute is subsequently recovered from the liquid by distillation.

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP
Bubble cap Tray

Seive Tray

Valve Tray
Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP
Dilute or lean gas leaves the top

Packing provides a large


area of contact between Solute in the rich gas is
the liquid and gas and absorbed by the fresh
encourages intimate liquid entering the tower
contact between the
phases

Solute containing gas,


or rich gas, enters the
(Strong liquor) distributing space
Fig. 18.1: Packed tower
Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP
Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP
Common dumped packings are
illustrated in Fig. 18.2 and their
characteristics are given in Table
18.1.

Various proprietary packings


differ in the size and arrangment
of the corrugations and the
treatment of the packing
surfaces.

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Packing and Packed Tower Design

A packed tower is commonly used in gas absorption which


consists of a cylindrical column/tower.

The liquid distributor is use to wet the surface of packing.

The packing provides a larger contact area between the liquid


and gas and encourages intimate contact between the phases.

The liquid enriched in solute flows down the tower, leaves the
bottom of tower through the liquid outlet.

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Tower packing are divided into 3 different types:-
i) Those dumped into the tower
ii) Structured or ordering packing
iii) Stacked packing

Dumped tower packings are cheaper, made from clay, porcelain or various plastic.

High void spaces and large passages for fluid can be achieved by making the packing
units irregular or hollow with void fraction 60 to 90%.

The modern structured packing made of sheets of perforated corrugated metal


with the adjacent sheets arranged so that liquid spreads over their surfaces while
vapour flows through channels formed by the corrugations.

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


The channeling effect is normally encountered for
stacked packing that causes poor performance of
large packed towers.

Channeling occur when liquid collects into small


rivulets and flows along localized paths through the
packing.

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Design of Plate Absorption Towers
Overall material-balance equations, based on the terminal
streams, are

Total material: (18.4)

Component A: (18.5)

The relationship between x and y at any point in the bottom,


obtained by rearranging Eq. (18.3), is called the operating-line
equation

(18.6)

Fig. 18.9: Material-balance diagram for packed column


Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP
(18.11)

Fig. 18.10: Limiting gas-liquid ratio. Fig. 18.11: Location of interface


compositions

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Calculation of Tower Height

(18.14)

(18.15)

The right-hand side of Eq. (18.15) can be


integrated directly for certain cases, or it can be
determined numerically.

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Number of Transfer Units
The equation for the column height can be written as
follows:
/
(18.16)
The inegral in Eq. (18.16) represents the change in vapor
concentration divided by the average driving force and is
called the number of transfer units (NTU) NOy .
The subscripts show that Noy is based on the overall
driving force for the gas phase.
The other part of Eq. (18.16) has the units of length and is
called height of a transfer unit (HTU) HOy .

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


A simple design method is to determine Noy from the y-x
diagram and multiply it by HOy obtained from the literature or
calculated from mass-transfer correlations:

(18.17)

The number of transfer units is somewhat like the number of


ideal stages, but the values are only if the operating line and
equilibrium line are straight and parallel, as in Fig. 18.13a. For
this case,

(18.18)

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Fig. 18.13: Relationship between number of transfer units (NTU) and number
of theoretical plates (NTP): (a) NTU = NTP; (b) BTU > NTP

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


For straight operating and equilibrium lines, the NTU is
the change in concentration divided by the logarithmic
mean driving force:
(18.19)

Where is the logarithmic mean of yb y*b and ya y*a

Eq. (18.19) is based on gas phase. The corresponding


equation based on the liquid phase is

(18.20)

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Nox Noy unless the operating ad equilibrium lines are
straight and parallel.

For absorption the operating line is usually steeper than


the equilibrium line, which makes Noy > Nox .
However, this difference is offset by the difference between Hoy
and Hox , and the column height can be determined using
either approach.

The overall HTU can be defined as the height of a packed


section required to accomplish a change in concentration
equal to the average driving force in that section.

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


4 basic types of mass-transfer coefficients, there are 4
kinds of transfer units, those based on individual or
overall driving forces for the gas and liquid phases. These
are as follows:
/
Gas film: (18.21)
/
Liquid film: (18.22)
/
Overall gas: (18.23)
/
Overall liquid: (18.24)

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP


Example 18.3
A gas stream containing 3.0% A is passed through a packed column
to remove 99% of the A by absorption in water. The absorber will
operate at 25C and 1 atm, and the gas and liquid rates are to be 20
mol/h.ft2 and 100mol/h.ft2, respectively. Mass-transfer coefficients
and equilibrium data are given below:

y* =3.1x at 25C
kxa = 60 mol/h.ft2 unit mol fraction
kya = 15 mol/h.ft2 unit mol fraction

(a) Find Noy , Hoy and ZT , assuming isothermal operation and


neglecting changes in gas and liquid flow rates. What percent of the
total resistance is in the gas phase?

(b) Calculate ZT using Nox and Hox

Prepared by, Dr. Nora JULLOK / UniMAP

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