Chapter 31

Mass-Transfer Equipment

In earlier chapters, the theory currently used to explain the mechanism of convective
mass transfer between phases was introduced, and correlations for the interphase
convective mass-transfer coefficients were listed. In this chapter, we will develop
methods for applying the transport equations to the design of commercial mass-transfer
equipment. It is important to realize that design procedures are not restricted to the
design of new equipment, for they may also be applied in analyzing existing equipment
for possible improvement in performance.
The presentation or development of mass transfer from the defining equations to
the final design equations, which is presented in this chapter, is completely analogous
to our earlier treatment of energy transfer. Convective mass-transfer coefficients are
defined in Chapter 28. These definitions and the methods of analysis are similar to
those presented in Chapter 19 for convective heat-transfer coefficients. An overall
driving force and an overall transfer coefficient expressed in terms of the individual
coefficients were developed to explain the transfer mechanisms of both mass- and
energy-transport processes. By integrating the appropriate energy-transfer relation in
Chapter 23, we were able to evaluate the area of a heat exchanger. Accordingly, we
should expect to find similar mass-transfer relations that can be integrated to yield the
total transfer contact area within a mass exchanger.

31.1 TYPES OF MASS-TRANSFER EQUIPMENT

A substantial number of industrial operations in which the compositions of solutions and/
or mixtures are changed involve interphase mass transfer. Typical examples of such
operations could include (1) the transfer of a solute from the gas phase into a liquid phase,
as encountered in absorption, dehumidification, and distillation; (2) the transfer of a solute
from the liquid phase into a gas phase, as encountered in desorption or stripping and
humidification; (3) the transfer of a solute from one liquid phase into a second immiscible
liquid phase (such as the transfer from an aqueous phase to a hydrocarbon phase), as
encountered in liquid–liquid extraction; (4) the transfer of a solute from a solid into a fluid
phase as encountered in drying and leaching; and (5) the transfer of a solute from a fluid onto
the surface of a solid as encountered in adsorption and ion exchange.
Mass-transfer operations are commonly encountered in towers or tanks that are design-
ed to provide intimate contact of the two phases. This equipment may be classified into one
of the four general types according to the method used to produce the interphase contact.
Many varieties and combinations of these types exist or are possible; we will restrict our
discussion to the major classifications.
Bubble towers consist of large open chambers through which the liquid phase flows and
into which the gas is dispersed into the liquid phase in the form of fine bubbles. The small gas

603
604 Chapter 31 Mass-Transfer Equipment

Liquid in

Gas out

Liquid out
Gas in Figure 31.1 Bubble tower.

bubbles provide the desired contact area. Mass transfer takes place both during the bubble
formation and as the bubbles rise up through the liquid. The rising bubbles create mixing
action within the liquid phase, thus reducing the liquid-phase resistance to mass transfer.
Bubble towers are used with systems in which the liquid phase normally controls the rate of
mass transfer; for example, it is used for the absorption of relatively insoluble gases, as in the
air oxidation of water. Figure 31.1 illustrates the contact time and the direction of phase flow
in a bubble tower. As one would expect, the contact time, as well as the contact area, plays an
important role in determining the amount of mass transferred between the two phases. The
basic mass-transfer mechanism involved in bubble towers is also encountered in batch
bubble tanks or ponds where the gas is dispersed at the bottom of the tanks. Such equipment
is commonly encountered in biological oxidation and in wastewater-treatment operations.
Exactly opposite in principle to the bubble tower is the spray tower. In the spray tower,
the gas phase flows up through a large open chamber and the liquid phase is introduced by
spray nozzles or other atomizing devices. The liquid, introduced as fine droplets, falls
countercurrent to the rising gas stream. The spray nozzle is designed to subdivide the liquid
into a large number of small drops; for a given liquid flow rate, smaller drops provide a
greater interphase contact area across which mass is transferred. However, as also
encountered in bubble towers, care in design must be exercised to avoid producing drops
so fine that they become entrained in the exiting, countercurrent stream. Figure 31.2
illustrates the contact time and the direction of phase flow in the spray tower. Resistance to
transfer within the gas phase is reduced by the swirling motion of the falling liquid droplets.

Liquid in
Liquid in
Gas in
Gas out

Z
Z

Gas in
Gas in
Liquid out Liquid out
Figure 31.2 Spray tower. Figure 31.3 Countercurrent packed tower.
 31.2 Gas–Liquid Mass-Transfer Operations In Well-Mixed Tanks 605

Spray towers are used for the mass transfer of highly soluble gases where the gas-phase
resistance normally controls the rate of mass transfer.
Packed towers are the third general type of mass-transfer equipment, which involves a
continuous countercurrent contact of two immiscible phases. These towers are vertical
columns that have been filled with packing as illustrated in Figure 31.3. A variety of packing
materials is used, ranging from specially designed ceramic and plastic packing,as illustrated
in Figure 31.4, to crushed rock. The chief purpose of the packing is to provide a large contact
area between the two immiscible phases. The liquid is distributed over the packing and flows
down the packing surface as thin films or subdivided streams. The gas generally flows
upward, countercurrent to the falling liquid. Both phases are well agitated. Thus, this type of
equipment may be used for gas–liquid systems in which either of the phase resistances
controls or in which both resistances are important.

Figure 31.4 Common industrial

Raschig ring Berl saddle Lessing ring Pall ring tower packing.

Special types of packed towers are used to cool water so that it can be recirculated as a
heat-transfer medium. These structures are made of wood-slat decks, having louver
construction so that air can flow across each deck. The water is sprayed above the top
deck and then trickles down through the various decks to a bottom collection basin. Cooling
towers may be classified as natural draft when sufficient natural wind is available to carry
away the humid air or as forced or induced draft when a fan is used. In the forced-draft
towers, air is pulled into louvers at the bottom of the structure and then flows up through the
decks countercurrent to the water flow.
Bubble-plate and sieve-plate towers are commonly used in industry. They represent the
combined transfer mechanisms observed in the spray and the bubble towers. At each plate,
bubbles of gas are formed at the bottom of a liquid pool by forcing the gas through small
holes drilled in the plate or under slotted caps immersed in the liquid. Interphase mass
transfer occurs during the bubble formation, and as the bubbles rise up through the agitated
liquid pool. Additional masstransfer takes place above the liquid pool because of spray
carryover produced by the active mixing of the liquid and gas on the plate. Such plates are
arranged one above the other in a cylindrical shell as schematically illustrated in Figure 31.5.
The liquid flows downward, crossing first the upper plate and then the plate below. The vapor
rises through each plate. As Figure 31.5 illustrates, the contact of the two phases is stepwise.
Such towers cannot be designed by equations that are obtained by integrating over a
continuous area of interphase contact. Instead, they are designed by stagewise calculations
that are developed and used in design courses of stagewise operations. We shall not consider
the design of plate towers in this book; our discussions will be limited to continuous-contact
equipment.

31.2 GAS–LIQUID MASS-TRANSFER OPERATIONS IN WELL-MIXED TANKS

Aeration is a common gas–liquid contacting operation where compressed air is intro-
duced to the bottom of a tank of liquid water through small-orifice dispersers, such as
606 Chapter 31 Mass-Transfer Equipment

Gas out

Liquid in

Gas
Sieve plate

Gas in

Liquid out
Bubble plate
Figure 31.5 Plate towers.

perforated pipes, porous sparger tubes, or porous plates. These dispersers produce small
bubbles of gas that rise through the liquid. Often, rotating impellers break up the bubble
swarms and disperse the bubbles throughout the liquid volume. Gas–liquid mass-transfer
processes induced by aeration include absorption and stripping. In gas absorption, a
solute in the aeration gas is transferred from the gas to the liquid. Often, the solute is the
oxygen gas in air, which is sparingly soluble in water. The absorption of oxygen into
water underlies many processes important to biochemical engineering. In liquid strip-
ping, the volatile dissolved solute is transferred from the liquid to the aeration gas.
Stripping underlies many wastewater-treatment processes important to environmental
engineering.
The gas–liquid contacting pattern in aeration processes is gas dispersed, meaning that
the gas is dispersed within a continuous liquid phase. Consequently, the material balances
for solute mass transfer are based on the liquid phase. Recall from Section 29.2 that the
interphase mass-transfer flux for solute A across the gas- and liquid-phase films, based on the
overall liquid phase driving force, is
NA ¼ KL (c A  cA ) (29-11)
and the transfer rate for solute A is

V(c A  cA ) ¼ KL a : V(c A  cA )
Ai
WA ¼ KL (30-27)
V
with
pA
c A ¼
H
where PA is the partial pressure of solute A in the bulk gas phase. Recall from Section 30.5
that the interphase mass-transfer area per unit volume is hard to measure, and so capacity
coefficients, e.g., KLa, are used.
Well-mixed gas–liquid contacting processes can be either continuous or batch with
respect to the liquid phase. A continuous process is shown in Figure 31.6. For a batch
 31.2 Gas–Liquid Mass-Transfer Operations In Well-Mixed Tanks 607

Impeller
drive
Liquid
in o , cAo

Gas in Gas out

Qg , pA

Liquid, V

Liquid
out , cA

Gas sparger Figure 31.6 Aerated stirred tank.

process, the liquid flow is turned off, but the gas flow remains on. In this case, the unsteady-
state material balance on solute A in the liquid phase is

0  0 þ N A : Ai þ RA : V ¼
d(cA V)
dt
which is subject to the initial condition t ¼ 0, cA ¼ cAa. If the liquid volume Vis constant, then

KL a : Vðc A  cA Þ þ RA : V ¼ V
dcA
dt
Furthermore, if (1) the partial pressure of solute A is constant so that CA is constant and (2) there
is no homogeneous reaction of dissolved solute A in the liquid phase so that RA ¼ 0, then
ZcA Zt
dcA
¼ KL a dt
c A  cA
cA0 0

which upon integration yields

 
cA  cAa
ln ¼ KL a : t
c A  ciA
or
cA ¼ c A  (c A  cAo )ekL a
:t (31-1)
In equation (31-1), the concentration of A in the liquid (cA) exponentially approaches c A
as time t goes to infinity.
For a continuous process with one liquid inflow stream and one liquid outflow stream,
the steady-state material balance is
cAo V_ o þ NA Ai  cA V_ þ RA : V ¼ 0
608 Chapter 31 Mass-Transfer Equipment

where cAo is now the inlet concentration of solute A. For a dilute process, the inlet liquid
volumetric flow rate v0 approaches outlet volumetric flow rate v. Consequently
V_ o ðcAo  cA Þ þ KL a : Vðc A  cA Þ þ RA : V ¼ 0 (31-2)
If RA ¼ 0, then the predicted outlet concentration is
V_ o
cAo þ KL a : c A
cA ¼ V (31-3)
V_ o
þ KL a
V
An application of well-mixed gas–liquid contacting operations to the design of an aerobic
fermenter is provided in example 1.

EXAMPLE 1 The design of aeration systems for aerobic-fermentation processes is based on gas–liquid mass
transfer. Microorganisms grow in a liquid suspension and feed on dissolved nutrients such as glucose
and mineral salts. Aerobic microorganisms in liquid suspension also require dissolved oxygen for
growth. If oxygen is not supplied at a rate sufficient to support cell growth, the cells will die.

In the present process, Aerobacter aerogenes is being cultivated within a continuous flow
fermenter of 3 m3 liquid volume (V) and tank diameter (dT ) of 1.5 m. Fresh nutrient medium
containing a trace amount of dissolved O2 at concentration 0.01 mole O2/m3 enters the fermenter at a
flow rate of 1.8 m3/h. At steady-state conditions, the aerobic fermenter operates at a cell
concentration (cX) of 5 kg dry mass m3 of liquid culture. The cell concentration is determined
by the specific growth rate of the organism and the nutrient composition of the liquid medium, details
of which will not be presented here. The liquid cell suspension consumes oxygen proportional to the
cell concentration according to the rate equation
RA ¼ qo : cX
where qo is the specific oxygen consumption rate of the cells, equal to 20 mole O2/kg cells : h, which
is assumed to be constant. Determine the KLa value necessary to ensure that the dissolved oxygen
concentration in the liquid culture (cA) is at least 0.05 mol/m3. Also, determine the power input
into a 3 m3 fermenter if the gas flow rate into the fermenter is 1 m3 of air per minute at the process
conditions of 298 K and 1 atm. Assume that the bubbles are noncoalescing. At 298 K, Henry’s law
constant for dissolution of O2 in the liquid nutrient medium is 0.826 atm: m3/mol.
The required KLa is backed out from a material balance on dissolved oxygen (species A) within
the well-mixed liquid phase of the fermenter. Recall equation (31-2)
V_ o (cAo  cA ) þ KL a : V(c A  cA ) þ RA : V ¼ 0
Inserting RA ¼ qo cX and solving for the required KLa yields
V_ o
q o : cX  ðcAo  cA Þ
KL a ¼ V (31-4)

cA  cA
The saturation concentration of dissolved oxygen is determined by Henry’s law
pA 0:21 atm mol O2
c A ¼ ¼ ¼ 0:254
H :
atm m 3 m3
0:826
mol
The partial pressure of oxygen (pA) is presumed constant, as the rate of O2 transferred to the sparingly
soluble liquid is very small in comparison to the molar flow rate of O2 in the aeration gas. Finally
 
kg cells 1:8 m3 =h
mol O2
:  
mol O2
: 1h
kg cells : h
20 5 (0:01 0:05)
m3 3:0 m3 m3 3600 s
KL a ¼ ¼ 0:136 s1
mol O2
(0:254  0:05)
m3
 31.2 Gas–Liquid Mass-Transfer Operations In Well-Mixed Tanks 609

In the limiting case of cA ¼ 0 and cAo ¼ 0, the minimum KLa for O2 transfer is defined as
 
mol O2
: kg cells 1h
qo : cX kg cells : h
5
m3 3600 s
(KL a)min ¼ ¼ ¼ 0:109 s1
c A mol O2
0:254
m3
From the above equation, it is evident that the biological oxygen consumption most strongly
determines the required KLa.
The power input to the aerated tank is backed out from the correlation
 
Pg 0:7
(kL a)O2 ¼ 2  103 (ugs )0:2 (30-29)
V
where KLa has units of s1, Pg/V has units of W/m3, and ugs has units of m/s. The superficial velocity
of the gas through the empty tank is
 
(4) 1 :
m3 1min
4Qg min 60 s m
ugs ¼ 2 ¼ 2
¼ 0:0094
pdT p(1:5 m) s
If the gas is sparingly soluble in the liquid, the interphase mass-transfer process is liquid-phase
controlling so that KL a ffi kL a. Therefore
 0:7
Pg
0:136 ¼ 2  103 (0:0094)0:2
V
or
Pg W
¼ 1572 3
V m
The total required power input (Pg) for the 3 m3 aerated fermenter is 4716 W.

Eckenfelder1 developed a general correlation for the transfer of oxygen from air
bubbles rising in a column of still water
1þn 0:78
A u g Qg h
KL ¼ (31-5)
V V
where ug is a correlating constant dependent on the type of disperser, Qg is the gas flow rate in
standard cubic feet per minute, n is a correlating constant that is dependent on the size of the
small orificesin the disperser, and h is the depth below the liquid surface at which the air is
introduced to the aeration tank. Typical data for a sparger-aeration unit, correlated according to
equation (31-5), are presented in Figure 31.7.

2000
A
KL V
V = qgQ1.33
g
h0.78
V ft 3/h

1000

15
A
V

500
KL

10.5
8 Depth-ft
250
10.5

4 6 8 10 15 20 30 Figure 31.7 Oxygen transfer factor of a single

Qg-SCFM sparger unit in an aeration tank.

1
W. W. Eckenfelder, Jr., J. Sanit. Engr. Div., Amer. Soc. Civ. Engr., 85, SA4, 89 (1959).
610 Chapter 31 Mass-Transfer Equipment

EXAMPLE 2 A 20,000-ft3(566 m3) aeration pond is aerated with 15 spargers, each using compressed air at a rate of
15 standard cubic feet per minute (7:08  103 m3 /s). The spargers will be located 15 ft (4.57 m)
belowthe surface of the pond. Find the time required to raise the dissolved oxygen from 2 to 5 mg/L if
the water temperature is 293 K.

From Figure 3.16, the transfer factor, KL ðA/V ÞV, for a single sparger is 1200 ft3 /h ð9:44 
103 m3 /sÞ and for the system
 
A (9:44  103 m3 /s)(15 spargers)
KL ¼ ¼ 2:50  104 s1 :
V 566 m3

The average hydrostatic pressure of the rising air bubble is equal to the arithmetic mean of the
pressure at the top and the bottom of the pond.

Pbottom ¼ 1 atm þ (15 ft H2 O)(0:0295 atm/ft H2 O)

¼ 1:44 atm (1:459  105 Pa)
1 atm þ 1:44 atm
Pmean ¼ ¼ 1:22 atm(1:236  105 Pa)
2

As the mole fraction of oxygen in air is 0.21, the partial pressure of oxygen within the bubble
will equal yo2 P ¼ (0:21)(1:236  105 Pa) ¼ 2:60  104 Pa. The equilibrium concentration of a
slightly soluble gas is related to its partial pressure by Henry’s law. At 293 K, this law stipulates for
oxygen

pO2 ¼ (4:06  109 Pa/mole fraction) : xO2

Accordingly

2:60  104 Pa
xO2 ¼ ¼ 6:40  106
4:06  109 Pa/mol fraction

For 1 L of solution, which is essentially pure water, the equilibrium concentration in milligrams
per liter can be calculated

(1000 cm3 of water)(1 g/cm3 water)

moles of water ¼
18 g water/mol
¼ 55:6 mol:

In the liter of water, the moles of oxygen equal

xO2 : (moles of solution) ¼ (6:4  106 )(55:6 mol) ¼ 3:56  104 mol
The grams of oxygen per liter equal

(3:56  104 mol)(32g/mol) ¼ 1:139  102 g/L ¼ 11:39 mg/L:

Using equation (31-1), we can solve for the required time

0 1
  1   
cA  cAo B  C 11:39  2 1
t ¼ ln @ A A ¼ ln
cA  cAt KL 11:39  5 2:50  104 /s
V
t ¼ 1540 s: