EH220: BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING (HONS) CHEMICAL

CHE 545 MASS TRANSFER

GROUP 1
(EH2203C)

GROUP MEMBER MUHAMMAD ARIFF HAIQAL BIN MUHAMAD TARMIZI

MUHAMMAD IRFAN KHUMAINI BIN KAMARUHISAM
LUQMAN HAKIM BIN JOHARUDDIN

ASSIGNMENT

SUBMISSION DATE 30 January 2022

 1. Table of Contents
ABSTRACT...............................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
MATERIAL AND METHOD...................................................................................................3
RESULT AND DISCUSSION..................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................3
 2.1ABSTRACT

Based on the task given, a packed- bed absorber is designed to be separate and recover a
specific amount of ethanol from the gaseous stream which in this case is to separate from
CO2. Two packings are being considered to fulfill the requirement of the packed- bed
absorber which are 25-mm metal VSP® rings and 50-mm ceramic Pall® rings. From those
two packings, only the more suitable one will be selected which are based on the mass
transfer rate results, pressure drop and column dimensions. Various design parameters were
to be determined such as tower height (z), column diameter (D), surface area of the packing
(), overall mass transfer coefficient (), gas pressure drop (), number of gas- phase transfer unit
(), and height of gas- phase transfer unit (). The most fitted packing for absorption process is
25-mm metal VSP® rings, since it offered a preferable value of Km (0.325 kmol/m3 .s), and
ah (169.57 m-1 ), as well as the lowest values of both Z (0.6 m) and HtOG (0.145 m. in other
words, it will provide much higher mass transfer rate with lower column dimensions.

3.1INTRODUCTION

4.1MATERIAL AND METHOD

5.1Problem statement
A gaseous mixture containing CO2 and ethanol, with a molar composition of 92 % CO2 and
8 % of alcohol, is evolved from a fermentation process. The ethanol must be recovered by
means of a counter-current absorption process using water as the solvent (Figure 1). The gas
mixture will enter the tower at a rate of 4000 m3 /h, at 25 ºC (298 K) and 1.1 atm, while the
solvent (water) will be supplied at a flow rate of 6500 kg/h and at 298 K. The required
recovery of ethanol will be 97.0 %, while the maximum pressure drop permitted for the gas
stream should not exceed 250 Pa/m of packed height. It’s desired to design a suited packed-
bed absorber working at 70% of flooding and operating under isothermal conditions.
Based on the description, 2 types of packings are to be assess:
1. 50-mm metal Top Pak® rings
2. 25-mm metal VSP® rings.

(1) (2)
Figure 1; Two types of packing
Source: (A. Pérez Sánchez, 2016)
Table 1: Characteristics of different packings used
Packing Types Bed Area % voids Packing factor, m-1
density (m2/m3) Normal, Fp Dry, Fpd
(kg/m3)
Top Pak® rings 170 75 98 46 -
VSP® rings 352 206 98 105 -
Source: (McGraw Hill, 2008)

Table 2: Hyraulic and mass transfer parameters for two selected packings
Packing Hydraulic parameters Mass transfer
Types parameters
a ε Ch Cp Fp CL Cv
50-mm 75.0 0.98 0.881 0.604 46 1.326 0.389
metal
Top
Pak®
rings

25-mm 205.0 0.97 1.369 0.782 105 1.376 0.405

metal
VSP®
rings.

Source: (A. Pérez Sánchez, 2016)

1.1 Pressure drops

In selection of the packing, pressure drop must be considered to avoid flooding and to operate
within preloading region where the maximum gas pressure drop limit is 250 Pa/m of packed
height. To fulfil this requirement, the gas dry pressure drop (ΔP0/Z) and overall pressure drop
(ΔP/Z) are to be calculated by using approved equation for the absorption to be well operated.
In addition, liquid holdup influence is also be taken into consideration since it may cause
flooding when the packed bed is being soaked due to the escalation of the pressure drop
values. Therefore, several parameters are needed to be calculated which are; the wall factor
(KW) [eq. (12)]; the gas-phase Reynolds number (ReG) [eq. (13)]; the dry-packing resistance
coefficient (ψ0) [eq. (14)]; liquid mass velocity (GL) [eq. (15)]; the liquid velocity (vL) [eq.
(16)]; the liquid-phase Reynolds number (ReL) [eq.(17)]; liquid-phase Froude number (FrL)
[eq.(18)]; the ratio ah/a [eq. (19)]; the effective specific surface area of packing (ah) [eq.
(20)]; and, finally, the liquid holdup (hL) [eq. (21)].
1−ε
d p=6 ∙( ) (1)
a
 1
KW =
( )
2 1 dp
1+ ∙ ∙ (2)
3 1−ε D

v G ∙ d p ∙ ρG ∙ K W
ℜG = (3)
(1−ε )∙ μ G

ψ 0=C p ∙
( 64 1.8
+ 0.08
ℜG ℜ G ) (4)

G L=
( 4∙
mL(1 )
3600 ) (5)
2
π∙ D

v L =GL / ρL (6)

vL ∙ ρ L
ℜL = (7)
a∙ μ L

v 2L ∙ a
Fr L = (8)
g

ah 0.1 0.5
=C h ∙ Fr L ∙ ℜL for ReL < 5 (9)
a

ah 0.1 0.25
=0.85 ∙ Ch ∙ Fr L ∙ ℜL for ReL ≥ 5 (10)
a

ah
a h= ∙a (11)
a

[ ][ ]
1 2
Fr L 3 a h 3
h L = 12∙ ∙ (12)
ℜL a

By finding all the parameters above, the gas dry pressure drops per meter of packing height
(ΔP0/Z) was calculated based on the following correlation below:
2
Δ P0 a ρG ∙ v G 1
=ψ 0 ∙ 3 ∙ ∙ (13)
Z ε 2 KW
While for the overall gas pressure drop per meter of packing height (ΔP/Z) can be
determined:

Δ P Δ P0
[( ) 200 )]
( ℜ
1.5
ε L
= ∙ exp
Z Z ε−h L (14)

2.1 Diffusion coefficient

Gas-phase diffusion coefficient:
The theory on diffusion process in binary gas mixture at low to medium pressure has been
long discussed and studied. It also has become well progressed and since in this situation the
absorption operation taking place in low pressure, which is at 1.1 atm, the gas phase diffusion
coefficient can be determine using Lennerd and Jones correlation
(Transport_Processes_and_Unit_Operations, n.d.)
3.1 Packing heights

6.1RESULT AND DISCUSSION

7.1CONCLUSION
Task 2
Abstract
Task 2 requires identifying types of dryers being used for dried products available in the
store. Several drying machines offered in chemical industry were being used extensively for
industrial process. Unique design of dryers provides different functions to achieve the final
dried product. In this task, we determined dried products that available in the store along with
the appropriate types of dryers to attain the desired products. There are several points must be
considered in order to determine the types of dryers. The dryers’ design mechanism must be
applicable in producing the desired criteria of dried products.//
Introduction

Types of dryers in chemical industry

a. Tray dryers