NPTEL – Chemical – Mass Transfer Operation 1

MODULE 4: ABSORPTION

LECTURE NO. 5

4.8. Continuous contact equipment

The liquid and gas compositions in a packed tower changes continuously
throughout the height. The composition of solute from entry to exit of the packed
tower is represented by operating line and every point indicates some location in
the packed tower. On the other hand, in tray tower, few points (number of trays)
in the operating line represents the conditions in the trays.

Height Equivalent to Theoretical Plate (HETP)

For a specified separation job, in packed tower, the height of packing is to
be determined and in tray tower, numbers of ideal trays are determined. The ratio
between packing height to number of trays required for the same separation is
called height equivalent to theoretical plate (HETP).
𝑕𝑇 𝐻𝑒𝑖𝑔𝑕𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔
𝐻𝐸𝑇𝑃 = =
𝑁𝑇 𝑁𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑑𝑒𝑎𝑙 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑦𝑠

HETP varies with size and type of packing, flow rate of gas and liquid,
concentration of solute, physical and transport properties as well as equilibrium
relationship and uniformity of liquid and gas distribution. The concept of HETP is
presented in Figure 4.10.

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NPTEL – Chemical – Mass Transfer Operation 1

3.5
yn-1 xn-2
3.0
A (xn,yn+1)
2.5
n-1
2.0 B (xn-1,yn) n

yn xn-1 Operating line C (xn,yn)

y
1.5
n-1 Equilibrium line

1.0
n n-2
0.5

yn+1 xn 0.0
0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0
x

Figure 4.10: Model diagram of HETP.

𝐺 / 𝑦𝑛+1 − 𝑦𝑛 = 𝐿/ 𝑥𝑛 − 𝑥𝑛 −1 = 𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 (4.38)

The mass transfer rate for h height can be expressed as
𝑀𝑎𝑠𝑠 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑓𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 = 𝐾𝐺 𝑎𝑃. 𝑕(𝑦 − 𝑦 ∗ )𝑎𝑣 (4.39)
𝐺 / 𝑦𝑛+1 − 𝑦𝑛 = 𝐾𝐺 𝑎𝑃. 𝑕(𝑦 − 𝑦 ∗ )𝑎𝑣
𝐺 / 𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛
𝑕=𝐾 ∗)
(4.40)
𝐺 𝑎 𝑃(𝑦−𝑦 𝑎𝑣

where,
(𝑦 −𝑦 ∗ )𝐴 −(𝑦−𝑦 ∗ )𝐵 𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 − 𝑦 𝑛 −𝑦𝑛 −1
(𝑦 − 𝑦 ∗ )𝑎𝑣 = (𝑦 −𝑦 ∗ )𝐴 = 𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 (4.41)
𝑙𝑛 𝑙𝑛
(𝑦 −𝑦 ∗ )𝐵 𝑦 𝑛 −𝑦 𝑛 −1

as (y-y*)av is taken as log mean gas phase gas phase driving force from A to B
across nth tray.

It is observed from Figure 4.10 that:

(𝑦 𝑛 −𝑦 𝑛 −1 )
(𝑦 𝑛 −𝑦 𝑛 −1 ) (𝑥 𝑛 −𝑥 𝑛 −1 ) 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑒𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑏𝑟𝑖𝑢𝑚 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑚 𝑚 𝐺/
= (𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 ) = = 𝐿/
= (4.42)
(𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦𝑛 ) 𝑠𝑙𝑜𝑝𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑙𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝐿/
(𝑥 𝑛 −𝑥 𝑛 −1 )
𝐺/

𝑚 𝐺/ (𝑦 −𝑦𝑛 −1 ) 𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 − 𝑦 𝑛 −𝑦𝑛 −1
1− = 1 − (𝑦𝑛 = (4.43)
𝐿/ 𝑛 +1 −𝑦𝑛 ) (𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 )

From Equations (4.41- 4.43) we have,

𝑚 𝐺/ 𝑚 𝐺/
𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 1− / 𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦𝑛 −1
𝐿/
(𝑦 − 𝑦 ∗ )𝑎𝑣 = 𝐿/
𝐿
= 𝑚 𝐺/
(4.44)
𝑙𝑛 𝑙𝑛
𝑚 𝐺/ 𝐿/

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NPTEL – Chemical – Mass Transfer Operation 1

From Equation (4.40) we can get the value of h as:

𝑚 𝐺/ 𝑚 𝐺/
𝐺 / 𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 𝐺 / 𝑙𝑛 𝑙𝑛
𝐿/ 𝐿/
𝑕= 𝑚 𝐺/
= 𝑚 𝐺/
= 𝐻𝑡𝑜𝐺 𝑚 𝐺/
(4.45)
𝑦 𝑛 +1 −𝑦 𝑛 −1 𝐾𝐺 𝑎 𝑃 −1 −1
𝐿/ 𝐿/ 𝐿/
𝐾𝐺 𝑎 𝑃 /
𝑚𝐺
𝑙𝑛
𝐿/

Hence, the same separation is achieved for h height in packed tower and
in the nth tray which is =HETP.
𝑚 𝐺/
𝑙𝑛 𝑙𝑛 𝑆
𝐿/
𝐻𝐸𝑇𝑃 = 𝐻𝑡𝑜𝐺 𝑚 𝐺/
= 𝐻𝑡𝑜𝐺 (4.46)
−1 𝑆 −1
𝐿/

where, HtoG is height of overall gas phase transfer unit. 𝑆 is stripping factor
𝑚 𝐺/ 1
= = 𝐴 and m is Henry’s law constant. HETP is used to characterize packing. A
𝐿/

good packing has small HETP.

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