Absorption Tower Design –

Lecture #1
by Dr. M. Watson
SEPR3002

Overview:
Design of Absorption Towers
Pressure Drop & Flooding in Packed
Towers
Pressure Drop Calculation
Flooding Pressure Drop
Limiting Flow Rates & Diameter
Approximate Design Factors
Design of Absorption Towers
 In SEPR2002 covered:
◦ Gas-Liquid Equilibria
◦ Principles of absorption on micro (film and
overall mass transfer coefficients) and macro
scale (material balances)
◦ Equipment used in Absorption Towers
◦ Determination of N for trayed and packed
towers, dilute and concentrated systems
◦ Solutions by graphical & analytical methods
◦ Minimum L/G ratios for absorption & stripping.
Design of Absorption Towers
 Basic tower design involves calculation of
tower height & diameter
 Height depends on gas-liquid equilibrium
and mass transfer characteristics
 Diameter depends on fluid dynamics
 For countercurrent flow, towers must be
designed to prevent flooding
 Pressure Drop & Flooding in Packed
Towers
 For a packed tower of given size, with
fixed packing type and size and constant
liquid flow upper limit exists for flow rate
of gas i.e. flooding velocity
 Above this velocity, tower cannot operate
 Critical for design to determine the
conditions under which this occur
Pressure Drop & Flooding in Packed
Towers
X = Loading point,
Y = Flooding point

N.B.
Logarithmic
axes
 Pressure Drop & Flooding in Packed
Towers
 If gas flows up a dry tower, ∆P & gas velocity shown
as curve A

 Consider if liquid flows down tower

 Passage of gas not significantly affected at low liquid

flow rates. Similar to curve A except for given gas
velocity, ∆P is higher

 At a certain gas rate, ∆P increases much more

quickly, ∆P∝ gas velocity2.5 (XY on curve C)
 Pressure Drop & Flooding in Packed
Towers
 Over XY section, liquid flow interfering with gas
flow, hold up of liquid progressively increasing
 Free space in packing being occupied by liquid,
resistance to flow increases rapidly
 At gas flow rates beyond Y, ∆P rises very steeply
and liquid is held up in tower
 Pressure Drop & Flooding in Packed
Towers
 If flow of liquid increased, X and Y occur at lower
gas flows
 Reasonable liquid hold up advantageous to
promote interphase contacting, not practical to
operate under flooding conditions.
 Columns best operated in XY region
 Region often narrow ∴ safe practice is to design
for operation at loading point, X
Pressure Drop Calculation
 Empirical correlations used to predict the
pressure drop in the gas flow
 Stringle correlation chart for random packings
0.5

 Ordinate (capacity parameter) = υ  ρ  F υ G 0.5 0.05

 ρ L − ρG 
G p

0.5
 GL  ρ G 
Absscissa (flow parameter) =   
 GG  ρ L 
where,
GG µ L = liquid viscosity (cP)
υG = = superficial gas velocity (ft/s)
ρG
G L = liquid mass velocity (lb/s.ft 2 )
ρ G , ρ L = gas and liquid density (lb/ft ) 3
GG = gas mass velocity (lb/s.ft 2 )
Fp = packing factor (ft ) -1

62.4 µ L
υ = kinematic viscosity = (cSt )
ρL
Pressure Drop Correlation for
Random Packings (Stringle)
Packing Factors
 Pressure Drop Calculation
 Structured packings (Kister & Gill) correlation
 Flooding Pressure Drop
 Critical for design to predict flooding pressure
drop and hence limiting flow rates at flooding
 ∆Pflood not obtained from charts
 Kister & Gill developed empirical correlation:
∆Pflood = 0.115 Fp0.7 Predicts
all data
where, ∆Pflood in in.H2O/ft height of packing for
flooding
Fp = packing factor in ft-1 within
±15% and
 Can be used for Fp from 9-60 most for
 If Fp>60 ∆Pflood taken as 2.00 in. H2O/ft ±10%
 Limiting Flow Rates & Diameter
Procedure:
1. Choose suitable random or structured packing
2. Suitable GL/GG ratio chosen & total gas flow rate
3. Calculate ∆Pflood
4. Then flow parameter calculated and capacity
parameter read off chart using ∆Pflood
5. From capacity parameter GG obtained which is
maximum value at flooding
6. Using suitable % of GG, new GG, GL , ∆P obtained
7. Using total gas flow & GG, calc. tower diameter
 Approximate Design Factors
 For random packing, ratio of tower diameter to
packing size should be 10:1 or greater. Ensures
good liquid and gas distribution
 For every 3m of packing height, a liquid distributor
should be used to prevent channeling
 Random packed towers used for diameters ≤1m
 Tray towers <0.6m in diameter usually not used
because of cleaning and access problems
Approximate Design Factors
 Loading in packed towers usually starts at ~ 65-
70% of the flooding velocity
 For absorption, tower should be designed using
~ 50-70% of gas flooding velocity
 For atmospheric pressure distillation, values of
70-80% can be used.
 For distillation and structured packing, 80% of
flooding is often used in design.