Mass Transfer Operations Write-up Roll no: J18IMT622

Prajwal Jadhav
SPRAY TOWER
Introduction: This device is used to conduct mass and heat transfer between continuous gas phase and
the liquid phase. The common design consists of an empty cylindrical shell through which gas flows
upwards against a downflowing spay of the absorbing liquid.
Design: Consists of empty cylindrical vessel and nozzles which
spray liquid into vessel. The cylindrical vessels are generally made up
of steel or plastic. The Liquid Can Be Sprayed into A Gas Stream by
Means of a Nozzle Which Disperse the Liquid into A Fine Spray Of
Drops.

Principle: The inlet gas stream usually enters at the bottom of the
tower and moves upward, while the liquid is sprayed downward from
one or more levels. This flow of inlet gas and liquid in opposite
directions is called countercurrent flow.

Applications: This type of technology can be used for example as

a wet scrubber for air pollution control. Countercurrent flow exposes
the outlet gas with the lowest pollutant concentration to the freshest
scrubbing liquid.

ROTATING DISC COLUMN:

Introduction:  Rotating Disc Column (RDC) is a continuous contacting device for the food and beverage
industries. It can be used where well-defined contact times are
necessary for the soluble components to be efficiently transferred
from within solid particles to a liquid medium. This disc
incorporates high degree of turbulence in the column. There are few
factors that incorporates the design of the RDC like: Diameter of
rotor disc, Height of the column, etc.
The flow pattern of the liquid is basically the countercurrent flow.
Design: There are few factors that incorporates the design of the
RDC like: Diameter of rotor disc, Height of the column, etc. RDC
contains a centrally located horizontal rotor disk that creates a high
degree of turbulence inside the column.
Principle: The RDC allows temperature, pressure and residence
time to be controlled precisely to obtain near identical conditions for
all parts of the mixture being processed, ensuring consistency in
processing and ultimately, contributing to a superior end product. The process or the principle on which the RDC
removes the impurities is the Solvent extraction with the help of liquid solvent.
Applications: High-temperature extraction of soluble solids in the instant coffee industry. Continuous reaction
processes in the food industry where precise temperature and times are required. Continuous mixing of
liquid/solid mixtures in the food and beverage industry. The shell oil uses rotating disc contactor for extraction of
lube oil, and many more applications in petroleum industry.

VENTURI TUBE:
Introduction: A Venturi Tube is an instrument designed for measuring velocity of a fluid with principle of
venturi effect. Venturi tubes are short pipe with a constricted inner surface, used to measure fluid flows and as a
pump.
Design: So that a fluid flowing through the centre section at a higher velocity than through an end section
creates a pressure differential that is a measure of the
flow of the fluid. Fluid passing through the tube
speeds up as it enters the throat, and the pressure
drops.
Principle: As it works on principle of venturi
effect it states that Reduction in fluid pressure results
when a fluid flows through Constricted section of
pipe. It has applications in Aeronautics , Automotive
industries etc.
Examples: venturi scrubber is designed to effectively use the energy from a high velocity inlet gas stream
to atomize the liquid being used to scrub the gas stream. This type of technology is a part of the group of  air
pollution controls collectively referred to as wet scrubbers.

Falling film column

Introduction: A falling film is a particular equipment used to achieve mass and heat transfer two fluid
phases. It is essentially formed by a vertical tube-shaped vessel: the
liquid stream flows through the inner wall of the tube and the gas
stream flows in correspondence of the center of the tube. In the most
common case, the column contains one liquid stream and one gas
stream.
Principle: In falling film the liquid product usually enters the
evaporator at the head of the evaporator. The liquid enters the heating
tube and forms a thin film on the tube wall where it flows downwards
at boiling temperature and is partially evaporated.
Working: The liquid forms a thin film that covers the inner surface of
the vessel,[1] instead the gas stream is normally injected from the
bottom of the column, so the two fluids are subjected to a counter-
current exchange of matter and heat, that happens in correspondence of
the gas-liquid interface. Because of its easiness of modelling, falling-
film column is generally used as laboratory equipment, for example to
measure experimentally the values of transport coefficients.
Applications: The Wetted Wall cell is used to measure intrinsic
parameters relating to absorption processes such as reaction kinetics,
mass transfer coefficients and so on. It has mainly been used to study solvents for CO2 capture, such as
MEA, MDEA, MDEA with enzymes, potassium carbonate and ammonia.
The gas comes from N2 and CO2 bottles. The flow and the pressure of the gases sent to the chamber are
controlled by the mass flow controllers. The gas is then saturated with water, and reaches the reaction
chamber that consists of a glass tube that can resist a pressure up to 10 bars.

Gas-Liquid Agitated Vessel

Introduction: The schematic of an Gas – Liquid agitated vessels in which the gas is dispersed as bubble in the
continuous liquid phase.
Design: Such vessel is provided with i) an agitator with a suitable impeller ii) Inlet and outlet nozzles iii)
Baffles iv) A drain and a vent v) A manhole for the purpose of cleaning & maintenance. A mechanical seal, is
used to prevent the leakage of the gas at the top where the shaft enters the vessel. The shaft is held by bearings at
the gear box and at the shaft seal. A gear box is used to maintain the required speed of the shaft. An agitated
vessel for gas absorption contains a internals such as the gas sparge, baffles, and an agitator shaft with impellers.
Principle: The gas is sparged below the impeller midway between the centre and the periphery of the
impeller. It is dispersed in the form of small bubbles by the shear stress created by impeller rotation. This
greatly increases the gas-liquid interfacial area of contact and also the mass transfer coefficients.
Examples: fermentation of vegetation oils in presence of suspended nickel catalyst. Absorption of carbon
dioxide in lime slurry to make precipitated calcium carbonate. Chlorination, ozonolysis, hydrochlorination
ammonolysis.

Bubble Column
Introduction: The bubble column is equipment used for carrying out gas-
liquid reactions. A bubble column consists of a tall tower fed with the gas at
the bottom through a gas sparger.
Design: It has a simple construction and does not contain any moving parts
but sometimes may have immersed cooling tubes or coils for removing the
heat of absorption and reaction. The liquid may be fed batch wise or
continuously. Both co-current which is up flow of the liquid and counter
current which is downflow of the liquid operations of a continuous bubble
column are possible.
Applications: Bubble columns are used as aerobic fermenters and also for
aerobic treatment. Bubble columns have applications in organic3 oxidation
reactions, gas-liquid or gas-liquid-solid reactions.

Tray Column
Introduction: Tray columns are chemical equipment used to carry out unit operations where it is
necessary to transfer mass between a liquid phase and a gas phase . A tray has two major functions:-
It allows the gas to flow through the holes or passages; the gas vigorously
bubbles through the liquid to form a ‘gas-liquid dispersion’. The tray
holds the dispersion on it.The trays separate the column into a number of
compartments each of which consists of a single stage. Mass transfer
between the phases occur on a tray. Therefore, the trays as a whole
constitute the heart of the column. Some common applications of plate
columns are distillation, gas-liquid absorption and liquid-liquid
extraction. In general, plate columns are suitable for both continuous
and batch operations.
Principle: Distillation is the process of separating the components
from a fluid mixture(at equilibrium) by using selective boiling and
condensation.
Preferential separation of more volatile component(s) from the less
volatile ones in a feed solution by partial vaporization of feed followed
by condensation. Volatile component(s) after boiling converts into vapor
and flow upwards while less volatile component(s) will be in liquid state
and flow downwards(downcomer). Gas is collected at top and it
undergoes condensation through a condenser and refluxed back in the
column while liquid collected at the bottom is heated through reboiler and the vapors are sent in the column.
Liquid and Gas come in contact on the trays and mass transfer takes place between them.
Internal Liquid & Fluid Flow Conditions in a Tray Column: Operating a distillation column
involves maintaining an equilibrium between the rising vapor and falling liquid. The Flow conditions affect
the quality of overhead & bottom products. Adverse Vapor flow conditions can cause :
1) Foaming
2) Entrainment
3) Weeping
4) Flooding

Foaming: Foaming refers to the expansion of liquid due to passage of vapor or gas. It provides high
interfacial liquid-vapor contact. Excessive foaming often leads to liquid buildup on trays . In some cases,
foaming may be so bad that the foam mixes with liquid on the tray above. It depends primarily on physical
properties of the liquid mixtures, also, sometimes due to tray designs and condition.

Flooding: Flooding is a condition which occurs at high vapor rates. the main phenomena occurring here is
that the vapor generated carries the liquid forward to the next tray and further recycles it back to the bottom
tray. this leads to accumulation of liquid on trays as the whole column may be filled with liquid. as shown in
the schematic here this kind of flooding is caused due to inadequate downcomer clearance. moving on to the
types of flooding, flooding can occur due to various scenarios like:
(1) Increase in the spray height
(2) occupancy of all space due to froth formation in trays
(3) Inadequate downcomer clearance
Based on these three scenarios the 3 types of flooding are classified, which are spray entrainment flooding,
Froth entrainment flooding and Downcomer flooding, two major effects of flooding are Reduction in tray
efficiency, liquid overflow
Entrainment: Entrainment refers to the liquid carried by vapor up to the tray above and is caused by high
vapor flow rates. A lower volatile material is carried to a plate holding liquid of higher volatility. This
adversely affects the mass transfer driving force at the upper tray and reduces the 'tray efficiency'.
Contaminates high purity distillate. Excessive entrainment can lead to flooding. Entrainment is expressed as
kg(droplets entrained)/s, kg per kg vapor, or kg per kg liquid flow, or kmol per kmol liquid flowing.
Weeping: In this case when the vapor rates are low and vapor pressure drop across the tray is not
sufficient to hold liquid, thus liquid eventually starts to drip from tray to lower tray through opening of tray
deck
Applications: Liquid enters the top tray through nozzle and moves across the tray with flowing into the
lower tray through a 'downcomer’. Simultaneously, gas flows upwards and bubbles through the liquid on a
tray, forming a ' gas-dispersion' in which bubble breaks continuously. Thus Mass transfer from the gas to
liquid phase occurs depending upon direction of driving force. Gas then leaves the froth and enters the next
upper tray, liquid flow across a tray entering to downcomer. Each tray act as a stage in which the liquid
flowing down from the upper tray and gas flowing up from the lower tray comes in contact with each other.

Packed Column
Introduction: A packed column is a vertical, cylindrical
vessel containing one or more sections of a packing. Used
to perform separation processes, such as absorption,
stripping, and distillation.
Design: Ceramic: Superior wettability, Corrosion
resistance at elevated temperature ,bad strength.
Metal: Superior strength and good Wettability.
Plastic: Inexpensive, Good strength but may have poor wettability at low liquid rate.
Structured Packing: Packing elements generally made up of wire mesh or perforated metal sheet giving
a high surface area and greater void fraction with low value of HETP and low pressure drop. Basic
construction in form of metal, plastics and stoneware are present. Highly used in absorption where higher
efficiency and low-pressure drop are required but have higher cost as compared to random packings
compensated by higher efficiency. Highly used in,
a. Separations of Isotopes 
b. High Vacuum Distillation
c. Column Revamps majorly to increase capacity and reduce reflux ratio.     
Random Packing: Small pieces of random packings in column and ensuring high surface to volume
ratio with minimizing pressure drop made up of metal, plastic and ceramic.
Efficacy of random packing largely depends upon efficiency, pressure drop and capacity wherein for
random packing being small, efficiency is increased at the cost of lower capacity.
Major advantage of random packing is that it gives improved contact area, mass transfer and comparatively
higher efficiency. Highly used for,
a. Liquid-Liquid Extraction
b. Carbon Dioxide Scrubbing
c. Distillation
Grid Packing: It combines high surface area of traditional structured packing and rugged construction of
the common grid configuration. It can provide high heat transfer efficiency, high mechanical strength and
antifouling characteristics in severe services that are prone to plugging, coking, erosion and containing
solids.
Applications: Packed Bed Absorption Column to recover ethanol contained in gaseous stream.