ARBAMINCH UNIVERSITY

COLLEGE OF NATURAL SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY

Advanced Chemical Engineering

IChem 4181
Unit-3
Unit operations
3.2 Absorption and Stripping
Prepared By Dr.Ballekallu

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 Absorption and Stripping
 It is a mass transfer operation in which one or more gas
solutes is removed by dissolution in a liquid.
 The inert gas in the gas mixture is called “carrier gas”.
 In the absorption process of ammonia from air -ammonia
mixture by water, air is carrier gas, ammonia is “solute”
and water is absorbent.
 Absorption (or scrubbing) is the removal of a component
(the solute or absorbate) from a gas stream via uptake by a
nonvolatile liquid (the solvent or absorbent).
 An intimate contact between solute gas and absorbent
liquid is achieved in a suitable absorption equipment,
namely, tray tower,packed column, spray tower, venture
scrubber,etc.
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  Desorption (or stripping) is the removal of a component
from a liquid stream via vaporization and uptake by an
insoluble gas stream.
 Thus, absorption and stripping are opposite unit
operations, and are often used together as a cycle.
 Both absorption and stripping can be operated as
equilibrium stage processes using trayed columns or,
more commonly, using packed columns.
Absorption operation is of two types; physical and
chemical.

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 Absorption Systems – Physical
 Examples:(absorbents are water or higher hydrocarbon oils)
o CO2 and water Acetylene and acetic acid
o CO and water NH3 and acetone
o H2S and water Ethane and carbon disulfide
o NH3 and water N2 and methyl acetate
o NO2 and water NO and ethanol
 Physical absorption relies on the solubility, temperature and pressure

of a particular gas in a liquid.

 This solubility is often quite low; consequently, a relatively large
amount of liquid solvent is needed to obtain the required separation.
 This liquid solvent containing the solute is typically regenerated by
heating or stripping to drive the solute back out.
 Because of the low solubility and large solvent amounts required in
4 physical absorption, chemical absorption is also used…
 • With chemical reaction:
• Operations in which one or more components of a gas phase
are absorbed into a liquid phase are common throughout the
chemical process industries and frequently serve to achieve
desired reactions among components in the two phases (Lee &
Tsui, 1 999).
• Such operations are called reactive absorption because of the
combination of reaction and absorptive mass transport.
• As an example, in the absorption of carbon dioxide by caustic
soda, the carbon dioxide reacts directly with the caustic soda.
An advantage of absorption plus reaction is the increase in the
mass-transfer coefficient.
This may be due to a greater effective interfacial area.
The process hydrodynamics can also be directly involved via
correlations for the holdup, pressure drop, and mass transfer
5 coefficients, etc.
 Absorption Systems – Chemical
 Chemical absorption relies on reaction of a particular gas
with a reagent in a liquid.
 Examples:
o CO / H S and aqueous ethanolamines
2 2
o CO / H S and aqueous hydroxides
2 2
o CO and aqueous Cu ammonium salt
o SO and aqueous dimethyl aniline
2
o HCN and aqueous NaOH
o HCl / HF and aqueos NaOH
 This absorption can often be quite high; consequently, a
smaller amount of liquid solvent/reagent is needed to obtain
the required separation.
 However, the reagent may be relatively expensive, and it is
often desirable to regenerate when possible.
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 Gas absorption is usually carried out
in vertical counter current columns.
The solvent is fed at the top of the
absorber ,whereas the gas mixture
enters from the bottom.
The absorbed substance is washed
out by the solvent and leaves the
absorber at the bottom as a liquid
solution.
 The solvent is often recovered in a
subsequent stripping or desorption
operation. This second step is
essentially the reverse of absorption
and involves counter current
contacting of the liquid loaded with
solute using and inert gas or water
Vapor.
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 Counter current
Generally , the gas which to be absorbed in the liquid
which is sparged to the bottom of the column with the help
of carrier gas.
The carrier gas which has insoluble in the liquid solvent.
 The liquid solvent is entered at the top side Counter
currently.
At the some height, the packing material is set for mass
transfer operation where absorption occurs.
The packing either be Regular or Random based on
industrial requirement.
 Ability of absorption mainly depends on choice of solvent
however it will be good preferred for gases .

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 Choice Of Solvent for Absorption
If the principal purpose of the absorption operation is to
produce a specific solution, as in the manufacture of
hydrochloric acid, for example, the solvent is specified by the
nature of the product, i.e. water is to be the solvent. If the
principal purpose is to remove some components (e.g.
impurities) from the gas, some choice is frequently possible.
(C+Cl2+H2O=2Hcl+CO)
The factors to be considered are:
Gas solubility
Volatility
 Corrosiveness
Viscosity
 Cost

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 GAS SOLUBILITY : VISCOSITY :
The gas solubility should be high, thus Low viscosity is preferred for
increasing the rate of absorption and reasons of rapid absorption
decreasing the quantity of solvent rates, improved flooding
characteristics in packed
required. column, low pressure drops on
Solvent with a chemical nature similar pumping, and good heat
to the solute to be absorbed will transfer characteristics.
provide good solubility. • The solvent should be non-
VOLATALITY : toxic, non-flammable and
chemically stable.
The solvent should have a low vapor COST :
pressure to reduce loss of solvent in The materials of construction
the gas leaving an absorption column. required for the equipment
CORROSIVENESS : should not be unusual or
expensive.
Non-corrosive or less corrosive
solvent. The material should not
allow for corrosion. Inside the
components or equipment.
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 Equipments
The typical gas-liquid contacting operations include
distillation, absorption, stripping, leaching and
humidification. Distillation and absorption are two most
widely used mass transfer processes in chemical
industries .
Absorption and stripping (as well as distillation)
operations are usually carried out in vertical, cylindrical
columns or towers in which devices such as plates or
packing elements are placed.
 The gas and liquid normally flow counter-currently,
and the devices provide the contacting interfacial
surface through which mass transfer takes place (co-
14 current flow is also possible ).
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 Types and Components of Absorbers

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  Tray-Tower Absorbers Bubble-cap tray.

Sieve Trays

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 Structured packing materials

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  Factors for selection of packing material

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 Absorption and Stripping Assumptions
We assume that:
 The carrier gas is insoluble (or it has a very low solubility),
e.g, N2 or Air in water.
 The solvent is nonvolatile (or it has a low vapor pressure),
e.g., water in air at low temperatures.
 The system is isothermal. e.g., the effects of heat of
solution or reaction are low or there is a cooling or heating
system in the column.
 The system is isobaric.
 The concentration of the solute is low, say <10% – this is
the limit for the use of Henry’s Law, which we will discuss
later.

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 Absorption – Variable Specification

Total L0, x0 G, Y1 L 0, X 0
Total V, y1

1 1

→
N N

Total VN+1, GN+1, YN+1 LN, XN

Total LN, xN
yN+1

Total Vapor (V) and Total Liquid (L) Flows Carrier Gas (G) and Solvent (L) Flow
Rates and Mole Fractions Rates and Mole Ratios

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 Liquid Solvent to Carrier Gas Ratio
Defining the L and G flow rates as

L = molar flow rate of nonvolatile solvent (solute-free absorbent)

G = molar flow rate of insoluble carrier gas (solute free gas)

the assumptions of a nonvolatile solvent and insoluble carrier gas

yields
L N  L j  L 0  L  constant
G N 1  G j  G 1  G  constant
We can define the ratio of liquid to gas as

L

moles nonvolatile solvent/hr  constant
G moles insoluble carrier gas/hr
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 Mole Ratios
We can then define the gas and liquid molar ratios as

moles of solute in gas

Y
moles of solute free carier gas

X
moles of solute in liquid
moles of solute free absorbent

The molar ratios are related to the mole fractions for solute i
by

yi xi
Yi  Xi 
1 - yi 1- xi

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 Absorber Operating Line

L  L 
Yj1  X j   Y1  X 0 
G  G 

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 Henry’s Law – Mole Ratio Relationship
We can rewrite Henry’s Law for solute i,(for low concentrations)
yi and xi are mole fractions
H
yi  i x i
PTot

in mole ratios, using the mole fraction relationships,

yi xi
Yi  Xi 
1 - yi 1- xi
to yield Henry’s Law in terms of the molar ratios, Yi and Xi, or
Yi H Xi
 i
1  Yi PTot 1  X i

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 Equilibrium Curve – Mole Ratios(Henrys law)
Solving for Yi yields

Xi
Yi  1
 Hi 
   X i
 PTot 
We can use this gas molar ratio relationship with the liquid
molar ratio
xi
Xi 
1- xi

to generate molar ratio equilibrium curves of Y i vs Xi for solute

i from xi mole fraction values.

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McCabe-Thiele Plot – Absorber

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McCabe-Thiele Plot – Stripper

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Problem: A gas stream containing 90 mol% N2 and 10%
CO2 is passed through an absorber, in which pure and
cool water at 5oC is used as a solvent. The operation is
assumed to be isothermal at 5oC and isobaric at 10 atm.
The liquid flow rate is 1.5 times the minimum liquid flow
rate (L/G)Min.
Determine the number of equilibrium stages required to
absorb 92 mol% of CO2 Given Henry’s constant of CO2 in
water at 5oC of 876 atm/mole fraction.

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Basis: 100 mol/h of the gas mixture
The schematic diagram for this absorption

Substituting given numerical values into

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However, both x and y values have
to be converted to X and Y as
exemplified on the next
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Should draw by using X,Y data

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