MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)

Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
Co-Current Gas Absorption :
Material balance for concurrent absorption-

NOTE-
Starting theory for this derivation is same as we have written for counter current case.
At steady-state: IN = OUT
Thus, L1.x1 + G1.y1 = G.y + L.x
Using the dilute system assumptions (L1 = L2 = L and G1 = G2 = G), we simply the equation and
obtain :
L.x1 + G.y1 = G.y + L.x
Re-arranging:
G.y = - L.x + L.x1 + G.y1

−𝐿 (𝐿𝑥1+𝐺𝑦1)
y= .x +
𝐺 𝐺

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Procedure to determine Minimum Liquid gas ratio for absorbers:

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
Counter-Current Gas Stripping:

Important points to note :

Mass transfer from the liquid-phase to the gas-phase.
Sometimes gas stripping units go by the name of regenerators.
Analysis is similar to counter-current gas absorption.
Important difference : operating line lies below to equilibrium line.

HETP (HEIGHT EQUIVALENT TO A THEORETICAL PLATE)

As we have noted, instead of a tray (plate) column, a packed column can be used for
various unit operations such as continuous or batch distillation, or gas absorption.
With a tray column, the vapours leaving an ideal plate will be richer in the more
volatile component than the vapour entering the plate by one equilibrium "step".

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
When packings are used instead of trays, the same enrichment of the vapor will occur
over a certain height of packings, and this height is termed the height equivalent to a
theoretical plate (HETP).
As all sections of the packings are physically the same, it is assumed that one
equilibrium (theoretical) plate is represented by a given height of packings.
Thus the required height of packings for any desired separation is given by-
(HETP x No. of ideal trays required).
In industrial practice, the HETP concept is used to convert empirically the number of
theoretical trays to packing height.
The Method of Transfer Units had largely replaced this method.

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

PACKING HEIGHT: THE METHOD OF TRANSFER UNITS

This method is more appropriate because the changes in compositions of the liquid
and vapour phases occur differentially in a packed column rather than in stepwise
fashion as in trayed column.
In this method, height of packings required can be evaluated either based on the gas-
phase or the liquid-phase.
The packed height (z) is calculated using the following formula :
Z=NxH
where,
N = number of transfer units (NTU) - Dimensionless
H = height of transfer units (HTU) - Dimension of length

The number of transfer units (NTU) required is a measure of the difficulty of the
separation.
A single transfer unit gives the change of composition of one of the phases equal to
the average driving force producing the change.
The NTU is similar to the number of theoretical trays required for trayed column.
Hence, a larger number of transfer units will be required for a very high purity product.

The height of a transfer unit (HTU) is a measure of the separation effectiveness of the
particular packings for a particular separation process.
As such, it incorporates the mass transfer coefficient that we have seen earlier.

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
The more efficient the mass transfer (i.e. larger mass transfer coefficient), the smaller
the value of HTU.
The values of HTU can be estimated from empirical correlations.
The calculation of packing height follows the same nomenclature as before and this is
shown in the Fig.

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
Derive equation for height of a gas transfer unit (HtG) and height of a gas transfer unit (HtL)
for a continuous packed absorption tower-

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Equipment for absorption-

Absorption tower or packed tower or internals of absorption tower-

The principal requirements of a packing are that it should:

Provide a large surface area: a high interfacial area between the gas and liquid.

Have an open structure: low resistance to gas flow.

Promote uniform liquid distribution on the packing surface.

Promote uniform vapour gas flow across the column cross-section.

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
Many diverse types and shapes of packing have been developed to satisfy these requirements.
They can be divided into two broad classes:

1. Packings with a regular geometry: such as stacked rings, grids and proprietary structured
packings.

2. Random packings: rings, saddles and proprietary shapes, which are dumped into the

column and take up a random arrangement.

A packed tower is simply a tube or pipe, which is filled with some sort of "packing."

The packing typically consists of particles around an inch in diameter.

In commercial packed towers, the usual choices are particles with one of three different shapes.

Liquid Distributor

Distribution of the liquid onto the packed bed or structured packing is provided by
appropriate liquid distributors.

It is important to distribute the liquid flow equally across the column area in order to secure an
intensive mass transfer between the phases

Liquid collector

Liquid collector systems improve cross mixing of the liquid and allow mixing of feed streams
with the internal column liquid.

The Collector is used as a separate unit to accumulate Liquid from the packing sections from the
above column

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Ideal and non-ideal system-

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

EQUILIBRIUM SOLUBILITY OF GASES IN LIQUIDS

The rate at which a gaseous constituent of a mixture will dissolve in an absorbent liquid depends
upon the departure from equilibrium which exists, and therefore it is necessary to consider the
equilibrium characteristics of gas-liquid systems.

Two-Component Systems

If a quantity of a single gas and a relatively non-volatile liquid are brought to equilibrium the
resulting concentration of dissolved gas in the liquid is said to be the gas solubility at the
prevailing temperature and pressure.

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

At fixed temperature, the solubility concentration will increase with pressure in the manner, for
example, of curve A, Fig. 8.1, which shows the solubility of ammonia in water at 30°C.

Different gases and liquids yield separate solubility curves, which must ordinarily be determined
experimentally for each system.

If the equilibrium pressure of a gas at a given liquid concentration is high, as in the case of curve
B(Fig. 8.1), the gas is said to be relatively insoluble in the liquid, while if it is low,as for curve C,
the solubility is said to be high.

But these are relative matters only, for it is possible to produce any ultimate gas concentration in
the liquid if sufficient pressure is applied, so long as the liquefied form of the gas is completely
soluble in the liquid.

The solubility of any gas is influenced by the temperature, in a manner described by van’t Hoff’s
law of mobile equilibrium: if the temperature of a system at equilibrium is raised, that change
will occur which will absorb heat.

Usually, but not always, the solution of a gas results in an evolution of heat, and it follows that in
most cases the solubility of a gas decreases with increasing temperature.

As an example, curve A (Fig. 8.1) for ammonia in water at 30°C lies above the corresponding
curve for 10°C.

At the boiling point of the solvent, provided its vapor pressure is less than that of the gas or
vapor solute, the gas solubility will be zero.

On the other hand, the solubility of many of the low-molecular-weight gases such as hydrogen,
oxygen, nitrogen, methane, and others in water increases with increased temperature above about
100°C and therefore at pressures above atmospheric.

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
Multicomponent Systems

If a mixture of gases is brought into contact with a liquid, under certain conditions the equilibrium
solubilities of each gas will be independent of the others, provided, however, that the equilibrium
is described in terms of the partial pressures in the gas mixture.

If all but one of the components of the gas are substantially insoluble, their concentrations in the
liquid will be so small that they cannot influence the solubility of the relatively soluble component.

For example, curve A (Fig. 8.1) will also describe the solubility of ammonia in water when the
ammonia is diluted with air, since air is so insoluble in water, provided that the ordinate of the plot
is considered as the partial pressure of ammonia in the gas mixture.

This is most fortunate, since the amount of experimental work in gathering useful solubility data
is thereby considerably reduced.

If several components of the mixture are appreciably soluble, the generalization will be applicable
only if the solute gases are indifferent to the nature of the liquid, which will be the case only for
ideal solutions.

For example, a mixture of propane and butane gases will dissolve in a non-volatile paraffin oil
independently since the solutions that result are substantially ideal.

On the other hand, the solubility of ammonia in water can be expected to be influenced by the
presence of methylamine, since the resulting solutions of these gases are not ideal.

The solubility of a gas will also be influenced by the presence of a non-volatile solute in the liquid,
such as a salt in water solution, when such solutions are non-ideal,

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
Solved numerical-

QUESTION (Based on height of transfer unit)-

Solution-

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
QUESTION-(based on height of tower)

Solution-

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

QUESTION-(based on L/G)

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption
Solution-

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 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Question- Based on minimum solvent rate for absorption-

Solution-

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar

 MASS TRANSFER OPERATION-I (2150501)
Semester – V (CHEM)
CHAPTER: 5
Chapter Name: Gas Absorption

Prepared By: Mr. Dhiraj Tatar