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Diffusion Through A Stagnant Gas Film
Diffusion Through A Stagnant Gas Film
Table of Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................................................... 2
DIFFUSION THROUGH A STAGNANT GAS FILM............................................................................................. 3
SHELL MASS BALANCES; BOUNDARY CONDITIONS: ..................................................................................... 3
Boundary Condition: ..................................................................................................................................... 8
Average Concentration ............................................................................................................................... 11
Applications: ............................................................................................................................................... 15
References: ................................................................................................................................................. 16
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We dedicate our effort to our teacher (Engr. Kamran Sibtain), who guided us and helped us in the
preparation of this report. Because we think that without his guidance it was almost impossible to
create this. Secondly we dedicate this effort to our parents as they pray for our success and we did not
able to do that without their prayers.
(1)
The conservation statement may, of course, be expressed in terms of moles. The chemical species A
may enter or leave the system by diffusion (i.e., by molecular motion) and also by virtue of the
overall motion of the fluid (i.e., by convection), both of these being included in NA. In addition,
species A may be produced or consumed by homogeneous chemical reactions.
After a balance is made on a shell of finite thickness by means of Eq.1, we then let the thickness
become infinitesimally small. As a result of this process a differential equation for the mass (or
molar) flux is generated. If, into this equation, we substitute the expression for the mass (or molar)
flux in terms of the concentration gradient, we get a differential equation for the concentration.
When this differential equation has been integrated, constants of integration appear, and these have to
be determined by the use of boundary conditions. The boundary conditions are very similar to those
used in heat conduction:
The concentration at a surface can be specified; for example, xA = xA0.
The mass flux at a surface can be specified; for example, NAz = NA0. If the ratio NBz/NAz is
known, this is equivalent to giving the concentration gradient.
If diffusion is occurring in a solid, it may happen that at the solid surface substance A is lost
to a surrounding stream according to the relation:
in which NAO is the molar flux at the surface, CAO is the surface concentration, cAb is the
concentration in the bulk fluid stream, and the proportionality constant kc is a "mass
transfer coefficient."Equation.1 is analogous to "Newton's law of cooling".
The rate of chemical reaction at the surface can be specified. For example, if substance A
disappears at a surface by a first-order chemical reaction, then NAO = k1̋̋̋ cA0. That is, the rate of
disappearance at a surface is proportional to the surface concentration, the proportionality
constant k1̋ being a first-order chemical rate coefficient.
Let us now analyze the diffusion system shown in Fig.1 in which liquid A is evaporating into gas B.
We imagine there is some device that maintains the liquid level at z =z1. Right at the liquid-gas
interface, the gas-phase concentration of A, expressed as mole
NA│Z+∆Z
∆Z XA+XB=1 XB XA Z
NA│Z
Z1
------------ liquid A XA
------------
Fig.1: Steady-state diffusion of A through stagnant B with the liquid vapor interface maintained at a
fixed position. The graph shows how the concentration profiles deviate from straight lines because of the
convective contribution to the mass flux.
fraction, is xAl. This is taken to be the gas-phase concentration of A corresponding to equilibrium1 with
the liquid at the interface. That is, xAl is the vapor pressure of A divided by the total pressure, pAvap/p,
provided that A and B form an ideal gas mixture and that the solubility of gas B in liquid A is negligible.
A stream of gas mixture A-B of concentration XA2 flows slowly past the top of the tube, to maintain the
mole fraction of A at XA2 for z= z2. The entire system is kept at constant temperature and pressure. Gases
A and B are assumed to be ideal.
We know that there will be a net flow of gas upward from the gas-liquid interface, and that the gas
velocity at the cylinder wall will be smaller than that in the center of the tube. To simplify the problem,
we neglect this effect and assume that there is no dependence of the z-component of the velocity on the
radial coordinate.
When this evaporating system attains a steady state, there is a net motion of A away from the interface
and the species B is stationary. Hence the molar flux of A is given by Eq. given below with NBz = 0.
Solving for NAz, we get:
(2)
A steady-state mass balance (in molar units) over an increment Az of the column states that the amount of
accumulation]=0
Where,
Taking limit as ∆Z 0
For an ideal gas mixture the equation of state is p = cRT, so that at constant temperature and pressure
c must be a constant. Furthermore, for gases is very nearly independent of the composition.
Therefore, cDAB be moved to the left of the derivative operator to get:
This is a second-order differential equation for the concentration profile expressed as mole fraction
of A. Integration with respect to z gives:
.. (5)
Boundary Condition:
i. At Z=Z1 ; X A=XA1
ii. At Z=Z2 ; XA=XA2
ln{ (1 ––– XA1)/ (1 ––– XA)}=ln{(1 ––– XA2)/( 1 ––– XA1)} Z / (Z1 – Z 2)
(XB/XB1) = (XB2/XB1) { (Z1 – Z )/ (Z1 – Z 2 )} (7)
The equation (6) and (7) represent the concentration profile for diffusion through a stagnant
medium.
The profiles for gas B are obtained by using xB = 1-xA. The concentration profiles are shown in Fig.1.
It can be seen there that the slope dxA/dz is not constant although NA0 is; this could have been
anticipated from Eq.1.
Average Concentration
Once the concentration profiles are known, we can get average values and mass fluxes at surfaces.
For example, the average concentration of B in the region between z1, and z2, is obtained as follows:
in which ξ = (z - z1)/(z2 – z1) is a dimensionless length variable. This average may be rewritten as
That is, the average value of xB is the logarithmic mean, (xB)lm of the terminal concentrations.
𝒁𝟐 𝑿𝑩 𝒁𝟐
XB avg/XB1 =∫𝒁𝟏 ( ) 𝒅𝒁/∫𝒁𝟏 𝒅𝒁
𝑿𝑩𝟏
Z2 Z2
XB 𝐚𝐯𝐠 XB2
= ∫ ( ) {(Z - Z1)/(Z2–Z1)}dZ/ ∫ dZ
XB1 XB1
Z1 Z1
As
Z = Z1
ξ=0
As
Z= Z2
ξ=1
Now
XB 𝐚𝐯𝐠 1 XB2 Z2
= ∫0 ( ) 𝝃 dξ/ ∫Z1 d ξ
XB1 XB1
XB2
XB 𝐚𝐯𝐠 ( )𝛏
XB1 1
= XB2 |0
XB1 (𝒍𝒏 )
XB1
(𝑿𝑩𝟐–𝑿𝑩𝟏)
XB avg = XB2 (8)
(𝒍𝒏X )
B1
OR
The rate of mass transfer at the liquid-gas interface-that is, the rate of evaporation- may be obtained from
Eq.1 as follows:
(10)
This expression gives the evaporation rate in terms of the characteristic driving force xA1 – xA2.
Applications:
Diffusivity or diffusion co-efficient of a gas can be measured by diffusion through stagnant gas
film. The apparatus used for this is called “Arnold Diffusion Cell”.
Now we consider the case of diffusion through a gas-liquid interface
Ammonia, NH,, is being selectively removed from an air-NH, mixture by absorption into water.
In this steady-state process, ammonia is transferred by molecular diffusion through a stagnant gas
layer 5 mm thick and then through stagnant water layer 0.1 mm thick. The concentration of
ammonia at the outer boundary of the gas layer is 3.42 mol% and the concentration at the lower
boundary of the water layer is essentially zero.
References:
Wikipedia.org
Transport Phenomena by R. Byron Bird, Warren E. Stewart, Edwin N. Lightfoot
PRINCIPLES AND MODERN APPLICATIONS OF MASS TRANSFER OPERATIONS by Jaime Benitez