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Intro of - Gas Absorption Modified

Packed towers are commonly used for gas absorption in industrial processes. They consist of a vertical pipe filled with random or structured packing materials. Gas enters from the bottom while liquid enters from the top, flowing countercurrently. This intimate contact facilitates gas absorption. Mass transfer determines tower height, while fluid mechanics determines cross-sectional area. Random packing is cheaper but structured packing improves efficiency by around 30% by promoting more even countercurrent flows between gas and liquid with less bypassing.

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Izzah Farouq
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105 views

Intro of - Gas Absorption Modified

Packed towers are commonly used for gas absorption in industrial processes. They consist of a vertical pipe filled with random or structured packing materials. Gas enters from the bottom while liquid enters from the top, flowing countercurrently. This intimate contact facilitates gas absorption. Mass transfer determines tower height, while fluid mechanics determines cross-sectional area. Random packing is cheaper but structured packing improves efficiency by around 30% by promoting more even countercurrent flows between gas and liquid with less bypassing.

Uploaded by

Izzah Farouq
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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INTRODUCTION

Gas absorption at an industrial scale is most commonly practiced in packed towers like that shown in
Figure 1. A packed tower is essentially a piece of pipe set on its end and filled with inert material or
‘‘tower packing.’’ Liquid poured into the top of the tower trickles down through the packing; gas
pumped into the bottom of the tower flows countercurrently upward. The intimate contact between
gas and liquid achieved in this way effects the gas absorption. Analyzing a packed tower involves
both mass transfer and fluid mechanics. The mass transfer, determines the height of the packed tower.
In other words, it determines how tall the tower needs to be. This mass transfer is described as molar
flows, partly because of the chemical reactions that often occur. The fluid mechanics, determines the
cross-sectional area of the packed tower. The fluid mechanics is described as mass flows, a
consequence of the physics that control the process. It controls how fat the tower needs to be.

Figure 1. A packed tower used for gas absorption. A gas mixture enters the bottom of the tower and flows out the top. Part of
this mixture is absorbed by liquid flowing countercurrently, from top to bottom.

The fluid mechanics in the packed tower is dominated by the inert material in the packed tower. This
material can be small pieces dumped randomly or larger structures carefully stacked inside the tower.
Random packing is cheaper and common; structured packing is more expensive but more efficient.
The efficiency is typically improved by around 30%, a significant gain when producing commodity
chemicals at low margins.

Typical random packings, shown in Figure 2, replace the crushed material used in early chemical
processing. The earliest packing, the Raschig ring, was modeled on the necks of broken wine bottles
available along the lower Rhine River. Tower packings try to permit both high fluid flow and high
interfacial area between the gas and the liquid. These goals are in conflict: High fluid flow implies a
few large channels through the tower, and high interfacial area requires many small channels. Thus
tower packings are compromises, developed with 80 years of empiricism. The Raschig rings and the
Berl saddles are described as first-generation packings, the Intalox saddles and Pall rings are second
generation, and the Nutter rings are third generation. All aim at the same goal: fast flow with big area.

Typical structured packings consist of larger assemblies, which often look like louvers and are shown
in Figure 3. These larger structures are stacked inside the column rather than dumped into it. In some
cases, a single large assembly will be lowered into the column as a unit. Structured packing seems to
give an interfacial area between gas and liquid which is about the same as that through random
packing. However, it gives much more even flows so that both gas and liquid move past each
other countercurrently with less bypassing.1

1
E.L. Cussler, (2007). Diffusion Mass Transfer In Fluid Systems, 3rd Edition. Gregg Crane, page 307-309.

1
Figure 2. Six types of random packing. These packings aim to resolve the conflicting goals
of fast flow and large interfacial areas.

Figure 3. Typical structured packing. More expensive packings like this offer excellent
mass transfer and greater capacity.

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