Determination of Mass Transfer

Coefficient of CO2 Capture with

MEA in a structured packed column
PROJECT ABSTRACT

Group members:

Abdulmalik Abdurrahman

Rajesh Gajjar

An Zhao

CHE 610, Dept. of Chemical & Material Engineering, University of Alberta

 PROJECT ABSTRACT

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies, capturing carbon (CO 2) from anthropogenic
sources and storing it in natural formation like oil wells, promise to play an important role in the
fight against global warming. The CO2 in off-gases from carbon producing sources, like power
plants, is captured using amine (e.g. Monoethanolamine (MEA)) in an absorption column. This is
achieved by counter-currently contacting the CO2 containing gas stream with the amine in the
absorption column. This study focuses on the mass transfer of CO 2 from an off-gas stream into
the amine in an absorption column filled with structured packing. The study attempts to provide
an alternative to determine the mass transfer coefficient data to design packed columns using
COMSOL Multiphysics © rather than running expensive experiments as is currently done.
The ideal “two-phase counter current flow in a porous medium” COMSOL model was simplified
to a 2-D axisymmetric model that is governed by convection, diffusion and chemical reactions.
The domain modeled is based on the two-film theory and represents a differential element of the
structured packing (Pictured). Firstly, the momentum balance was solved using the COMSOL
FLOW interface, then the concentration gradient was developed by coupling the FLUID FLOW
and TRANSPORT OF DILUTED SPECIES in COMSOL.

Convective
Column packing flux
configured as rod
Liquid Liquid Gas
Gas
flowing film flowing
film
downward upward
Equilibrium
described by
Henry’s law Convective
flux

Due to the difficulty of getting monoethanol amine and the off-gas streams as materials in
COMSOL, water and air were used as to have similar properties. Assumptions of isothermal,
isobaric and liquid creeping flow were made. Boundary conditions were formulated from
literature for experimental operating conditions. Mass transfer coefficient was calculated from
the concentration profile in an absorber column using the following equation:

y Aout 1
K G =ln( )∙ G1 ∙
y Ain ae ∙ P ∙ z

Where y A , G 1 , Z are the gas mole fractions at the boundaries, the inert gas flow rate and the
height of the domain being examined, respectively.
The mass transfer coefficient using three different types of structured packing (SULZER,
GEMPAK and MELLPAK) were calculated from experimental data and compared to mass
transfer coefficient calculated from the COMSOL model. The COMSOL model gave an error of 7%,
20% and 38% for the SULZER, GEMPAK and MELLPAK packings respectively. To improve the
estimations, it is advised to better incorporate the geometry of the packing and also include a
temperature analysis as the system is not uniform throughout the column as is implicitly
 PROJECT ABSTRACT

assumed in the model. Also more effort should be put into finding better correlations for the
parameters used.