Table of Contents

Wetted wall column: ..................................................................................................................................... 2

Example .................................................................................................................................................... 2
Diagram: ....................................................................................................................................................... 2
Working principle: ........................................................................................................................................ 3
Working: ....................................................................................................................................................... 3

Table of figures:

Figure 1(wetted wall column setup).............................................................................................................. 2

Figure 2(Simplified diagram of wetted wall column) ................................................................................... 3
Wetted wall column:
It is a vertical column that operates with the inner walls wetted by the liquid being processed.it is
used in theoretical studies of mass transfer rates and in analytical distillations.it is particular
chemical equipment used to achieve mass and heat transfer between two fluid phases (in general
one gas phase and one liquid phase).

Example
Spinning-band column.

 Wetted wall column is also called falling film column.

 It is essentially formed by a vertical tube-shaped vessel.
 The liquid stream flows through the inner wall of the tube and the gas stream flows in
correspondence of the center of the tube.
 The height of wetted wall column required for mass transfer operations is excessive and
consequently this is not widely used, where large quantities of liquid or gas have to be
handled, it would be necessary to arrange many vertical pipes in parallel and this leads to
difficulties in the distribution of liquid into the inner surface of the tubes. The gas
pressure drop for this is confined to skin friction effects, with few or no expansion or
contraction losses

Diagram:

Figure 1(wetted wall column setup)

 Figure 2(Simplified diagram of wetted wall column)

Working principle:
The column contains one liquid stream and one gas stream. The liquid forms a thin film that covers the
inner surface of the vessel; instead the gas stream is normally injected from the bottom of the column, so
the two fluids are subjected to a counter-current exchange of matter and heat, which happens in
correspondence of the gas-liquid interface. Sometimes, the same equipment is used to achieve the co-
current mass and heat transfer between to immiscible liquids.

Working:
The process involves a vertical tube with a diameter to allow gas to flow through, the gas can
flow either way, either way upward or downward the tubes also includes a volatile liquid which
flows down in a thin film. The interfacial area is measured and kept contestant, this is the area
between the gas phase and thin film of liquid. The evaporation rate of liquid into the gas stream
is very useful because it is the one used to calculate the mass transfer coefficient for the gas
phase. The rate of mass transfer is heavily controlled by the conditions that are present at the
interface between the liquid film and the gas stream. It has been noted that most times the liquid
film is laminar but the flow of the gas stream could also be laminar or turbulent, this shows us
that the mass transfer coefficient is heavily depended on the type of flow for the gas phase.
Blower is provided with two valves at suction so that when the studies are focused on vapors of
chemical substance which are stored in a storage vessel and the vapors from the vessel are
sucked by the blower and passed into the column or if the vapors are required to be mixed with
air than an option at the discharge line of the blower which is facilitated with nozzle helps in
mixing the vapor with air. A heater is provided at the discharge line to supply heat to the vapor
or air to maintain the temperature of the system and the whole pipeline is insulated
to prevent loss, by using the rotameter, the flow rate of the vapor can be controlled.