Absorption columns are intended to provide a high interfacial contact area to the gas

stream and liquid stream so that the mass transfer of a particular component from the
gas to the liquid (solvent) can be enhanced. So the ultimate aim is that a component of
gas is to be dissolved in liquid solvent. It requires a distribution of that component
between the gas phase and the liquid phase.

Why low temperatures?

1. According to the Henry’s law, the solubility of a gas or volatile substance in a

liquid solvent generally decreases with increase in temperature (after passing
through a minima). As the aim is to disssolve more substance into the liquid,
the desirable condition is the condition at which the solubility of gas is high. so
the temperature should be low.
2. Raoult’s law says the vapor pressure of a solvent is also temperature
dependent. Higher the temperature, more will be the vapor pressure. This
means more molecules will leave the liquid phase and the liquid will go the
vapor phase. At high temperatures, this will cause the loss of solvent which is
very valuable and costly and as this loss is undesirable, the temperature should
be low.
Why high Pressure?

1. According to Henry’s law, higher the partial pressure, more will be the amount
of gas dissolved in liquid. Also this means higher is the solubility. The partial
pressure is directly proportional to the total pressure (Dalton’s law). This means
higher is the total pressure; more is the partial pressure. This means high Total
Pressure ensures high dissolution of gas and increased mass transfer rates.
2. High total pressure prevents the solvent to evaporate. so it also reduces the
solvent losses.
So, both high pressure and low temperature are for the same 2 reasons.

1. to increase the amount of component dissolved in liquid

2. to prevent the volatilization of the solvent.

Pressure drop in packed column is due to following reasons:

1. Due to resistance in fluid (generally gas) flow due to down coming liquid.
2. Due to resistance because of column packing and column internals.
3. Due to some solid particles getting accumulated in packing causing resistance
in fluid flow (also causing channeling).
Regular packing in packed towers offer the advantages of low pressure drop of the gas
and greater possible fluid flow rates, usually at the expense of costlier installation than
random packing. Moreover, stacked packings cause a multitude of splits of co-currently
flowing fluids into left- and right-hand streams, breaking each stream down into
increasingly smaller streams. These designs have been shown to be useful for counter-
current gas-liquid contact, with good mass transfer characteristics at low pressure drop.