COVENANT UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY
COURSE TITLE: PROCESS SCIENCE II
COURSE CODE: CHM240 UNIT: 3
SESSION: 2019/2020
LECTURER: Dr A. A. Akinsiku

GAS ABSORPTION
Absorption in the unit operation involves removal of one or more components of a gas stream
(solute or absorbate) from the gas mixture by being absorbed onto a non-volatile liquid
(solvent), where solvent is the separating agent. In absorption (also called gas absorption, gas
scrubbing, or gas washing), one or more species from the gas phase is transferred to a liquid
solvent. During the process, one or more soluble components (solutes) are removed from a
gas phase by contact with a liquid phase (solvent) into which the components of interest
dissolve. In general, the absorbed gas is then removed from the solvent, and the solvent liquid
stream is subsequently returned to the system.
The solvent-recovery process is called stripping. Stripping is also employed when volatile
components have to be removed from a liquid mixture. The stripping agent is either a gas,
e.g. or a superheated vapour, e.g. superheated steam). Both absorption and stripping employ
special contactors for bringing gas and liquid phases into intimate contact. In most common
units the solvent enters the top of the absorber/stripper and flows downwards, counter
current to the rising gas stream. The two phases mix and contact one another, either on plates
or packing, and the solute is transferred from the gas phase to the solvent. A schematic
diagram of an absorption-stripping process is shown in Figure 1.

Gas absorption involves no change in the chemical species present in the system. The process
is used to separate gas mixtures, remove impurities, or recover valuable chemicals. Absorbers
are typically used with strippers to permit regeneration (or recovery) and recycling of the
absorbent. Since stripping is not perfect, the absorbent recycled to absorber contains species
present in the vapour entering the absorber. When water is used as the absorbent, it is usually
separated from the solute by distillation rather than stripping.

Stripping is the operation that is in the opposite direction to the absorption, in which one or
more gaseous components in a liquid stream is removed from the gas-liquid solution by being
vapourised into an insoluble gas stream. In the stripping operation, the insoluble gas stream
is the separating agent.

Absorption can be:

1. physical, when the solute is dissolved into the solvent because it has a higher solubility
in the solvent than other gases.
2. chemical, when the solute reacts with the solvent, and the resulting product remains
in the solvent.

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Typically, a reversible reaction between the solute and the solvent is preferred, in order for
the solvent to be regenerated. However, in both absorption and stripping operations, the
columns are simpler than the distillation column; usually, they do not need condensers and
re-boilers as per the distillation.
An example of the uses of absorption and stripping is a gas treatment plant (Figure 1). The
mixture of the gases (i.e. the gas to be treated) from one component e.g. CO2 or H2S in the
gas mixture needs to be removed, is passed through an absorber, in which a liquid-phase
solvent e.g. amine solvent in water is passed through, to absorb that gaseous component.
The removed component is mixed (physically or chemically) with the solvent. The resulting
solvent is heated by a heater and becomes the saturated solvent (so that the resulting
solvent can be stripped). The resulting saturated solvent is, subsequently, passed through a
stripper (or a stripping column), in which the gaseous component in the saturated solvent is
stripped off by a stripping gas (e.g., steam). In Figure 1, the desired product:
• for an absorber is a treated gas stream
• for a stripper is a recycle solvent stream

Figure 1: Typical absorption-stripping process with recycling of solvent: (a) absorber, (b)
Stripper

Absorption and stripping involve, at least, 3 components and 2 phases. Generally, for
simplicity the following are often assumed:
• Carrier gas is insoluble (into a solvent)
• Solvent is non-volatile (thus, the loss of
• solvent due to vaporisation is negligible)
• The system is isothermal (constant temperature)

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 and isobaric (constant pressure)

Since the absorption or stripping system comprises 3 species and 2 phases, the degree of
freedom (F), calculated using the Gibbs phase rule is:

F =C -P +2 = 3-2+2 = 3

Assuming that the system is:

• isothermal, which results in the fact that the system’s temperature is constant
• isobaric, which results in the fact that the system’s pressure is constant

The degree of freedom (F) is reduced to one (1). Normally, an equilibrium data is used as
the remaining degree of freedom (F).

In general, the amount of solute (a gas to be removed from the gas mixture) is relatively low.
For a low concentration of a solute, a Henry’s law is employed to express the equilibrium
between the concentration (e.g., mole fraction or percent) of the solute in the gas phase and
that in the liquid phase as follows:

PB = HBxB (1)
where
PB = partial pressure of the solute B in the gas phase (or in the gas mixture)
xB = concentration (in mole fraction) of the solute B in the liquid phase
HB= Henry’s constant for the solute B

A mole fraction of the solute B in the gas phase (yB) can be described by the following
equation:
𝑦𝐵=
𝑃𝐵 (2)
𝑃𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙
which can be re-arranged to

𝑃𝐵= 𝑦𝐵 𝑃𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 (3)

Combining Eq. 3 with Eq. 1 and re-arranging the resulting equation gives:

𝐻𝐵
𝑦𝐵 = 𝑥𝐵 (4)
𝑃𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙

It is assumed that the system is isobaric (which results in the fact the system’s pressure (𝑃𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 )
is constant], Eq. 4, which is an equilibrium equation for absorption and stripping operations,
is a linear relationship with the slope of:

𝐻𝐵
𝑃𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙

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 Table 1: Some processes involving physical or chemical absorption

Industry Compound to be removed Solvent

Carbon industry CO2 Water, basic liquids (K2CO3),
acetone (CH₃)₂CO
H2SO4 production SO3 H2SO4 (98%)
HNO3 production NOx Water (Absorption + chemical
reaction)
HCl production HCl Water
Explosive NOx Water

Water is a cheap solvent conventionally used to remove ammonia from gas streams
containing 1-5% NH3. The process is highly exothermic (7500-8500 kcal kg-1mol-1 of NH3
absorbed in water) and the energy effect accompanying the absorption process has to be
taken into account in the design calculations. Additional examples of industrial absorption
processes with physical or chemically reactive solvents are, water removal from natural gas
streams using glycols as solvents; absorption of HCl present at low concentrations in the gas
stream using a water-wash tower, absorption of CO2 with ethanolamines, and sweetening of
natural gas. Physical solvents are easier to regenerate, but their use can result in higher
impurity levels in the product stream.

Phase Equilibrium
The state of a system is established when its temperature, T, pressure, P, and phase
composition xi, are fixed. However, when equilibrium is reached, these variables are not all
independent of one another, and fixing a limited number of these variables, automatically
establishes the others. The Gibbs phase rule relates the degrees of freedom F for a non-
reactive system to the number of coexisting phases P and the number of components C:

P +F = C + 2 (1)

For a gas system containing n components, and taking as intensive properties P, T, and
concentration, F equals n +1 and the specification of P, T and n −1 concentration variable
ultimately defines the state of the system. If a solvent S is used to absorb gas A from a binary
mixture, and P, T and yA are specified, all the other variables are determined, and phase
equilibrium diagrams such as those in Figure 2 can be constructed.

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Figure 2: Gas-liquid phase equilibrium diagrams at constant P and T

For dilute concentrations of the gas that dissolves in a liquid, the equilibrium relationship is
given by Henry’s law, which relates the gas-phase partial pressure of an arbitrary species A in
a liquid S:
pA = HxA (2)
or
pA = H ‘cA (3)

Where H is Henry’s constant expressed in kilopascals per mole-fraction of solute in the

liquid and H′ are the Henry’s constant expressed in kilopascals per ilomole per cubic meter.
For many gas-liquid systems, Henry’s law is valid when the partial pressure of the solute

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is less than 100 kPa (1 atm), but for higher values of H, this parameter depends on the
partial pressure of the solute gas. Under such conditions the linear form of Henry’s-law
a relation is not appropriate for use in engineering calculations.

Pure-component vapour pressures can be used to predict solubilities for systems in the
range of partial pressures where Raoult’s law is valid:

PA = p0AxA

where
p0A is the vapour pressure of the pure solute, and pA is the partial pressure in the gas phase.
Extreme care should be exercised when attempting to use pure-component vapour pressures
to predict gas-absorption behaviour. Both liquid-phase and vapour-phase non-idealities may
result in significant deviations from the behaviour predicted by Raoult’s law and Henry’s law.

When data are available for a given system under similar conditions of temperature, pressure
and composition, the equilibrium distribution coefficients (K = y/x ) provide a much more
reliable basis for representing gas-liquid equilibria in engineering calculations. It should be
noted that Henry´s law is a particular case, valid for diluted systems, of these coefficients.

Selection of solvent for absorption and stripping

Some criteria for the selection of an absorbent are as follows:
(A) Gas Solubility: High solubility of a gas in the solvent is preferred, utilizing low quantity of
solvent. Absorbent should not dissolve carrier gas. Similar chemical nature of solute and
absorbent (solvent) gives a good solubility. If chemical reaction takes place between solute
and solvent, rate of absorption is extremely high. But the reaction should be reversible to
recover solvent during desorption.
(B) Volatility: Low volatility or low vapor pressure of the solvent enhances the adsorption
operation as solvent loss with carrier gas is very small. Sometimes, a second less volatile
solvent is used to recover the first solvent.
(C) Viscosity: For better absorption, a solvent of low viscosity is required. In mechanically
agitated absorber, greater amount of power is required for high viscous solvent and flooding
is also caused at lower liquid and gas flow rates.
(D) Corrosiveness: Non-corrosive or less corrosive solvent reduces equipment construction
cost as well as maintenance cost.
(E) Cost: The solvent should be cheap so that losses will be insignificant and should be easily
available.
(F) Toxicity and Hazard: The solvent should be non-toxic, non-flammable, non-hazardous and
should be chemically stable.

Steam is generally used in desorption or stripping medium as stripped solute can be recovered
very easily by condensing steam leaving desorption tower.

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Bibliography
1. J. Coca, S. Ordóñez and E. Díaz 2015 chemical engineering and chemical process
technology – vol. ii – Mass Transfer Operations: Absorption and Extraction
2. Wankat. 2007, Separation Process Engineering.
3. J. D. Seader and E. J. Henley, Separation Process Principles, Wiley, 2006, pg. 194
4. Joint initiative of IITs and IISc – Funded by MHRD