Mass transfer

operations
Absorption:
• Gas absorption refers to an operation in which a gas
mixture is contacted with a liquid to preferentially
dissolve one or more soluble components of the gas
mixture in the liquid.
• The differences in solubility of gases in a given solvent
are utilised to effect such a separation.
• It is used for the recovery or removal of the solute gas.
• In gas absorption:
• The soluble component of a gas mixture is called as the solute
gas.
• The insoluble component is called as the inert gas or carrier
gas.
• The liquid used for absorption purpose is called as the solvent
or absorbent
• It is also termed as scrubbing and is second most used
unit operation in chemical industry.
• The reverse of absorption is called as desorption or
stripping and is equally important.
Absorption:
Absorption:
Selection criteria for solvent:
• Gas Solubility: The solvent selected should have a high solubility
for the solute to be absorbed.
• Volatility: The gas leaving an absorption unit is generally saturated
with the solvent. Hence to minimize the loss of solvent, it should
have less volatility.
• Corrosive nature: The solvent should not be corrosive towards
common materials of construction so that the construction
material for an absorption equipment will not be too expensive.
• Viscosity: The solvent should have a low viscosity for rapid
absorption rates, low pumping cost and better heat transfer.
• Cost and availability: The solvent should be cheap and readily
available.
• Others: The solvent should be non-toxic, non-flammable, non-
foaming, and chemically stable from a handling and storage point
of view.
 Absorption: Counter current operation

𝐺−𝐺𝑠 𝐺−𝐺𝑠 +𝐺𝑠 𝑌+1 𝐺

𝐺 − 𝐺𝑠 = 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑡𝑒 → 𝐺𝑠
=𝑌 → 𝐺𝑆
= 1
→ 𝐺𝑠 = 𝑌+1
𝐺
𝐺−𝐺𝑠 𝐺−𝑌+1 1 𝑌 𝑦 𝑌 𝑦
𝑦= = = 1 − 𝑌+1 = 𝑌+1 → 1−𝑦 = 𝑌+1−𝑌 → 𝑌 = 1−𝑦
𝐺 𝐺
Absorption:
 Absorption: Cocurrent operation

Taking solute balance on envelope 1

Out𝑝𝑢𝑡 = 𝐿𝑠 𝑋 + 𝐺𝑆 𝑌
𝐼𝑛𝑝𝑢𝑡 = 𝐿𝑠 𝑋1 + 𝐺𝑆 𝑌1
𝐿𝑠 𝑋 + 𝐺𝑆 𝑌=𝐿𝑠 𝑋1 + 𝐺𝑆 𝑌1 → 𝐿𝑠 𝑋 − 𝐿𝑠 𝑋1 = 𝐺𝑆 𝑌1 − 𝐺𝑆 𝑌 → 𝐿𝑠 𝑋 − 𝑋1 = 𝐺𝑆 𝑌1 − 𝑌
→ 𝐿𝑠 𝑋 − 𝑋1 = −𝐺𝑆 𝑌 − 𝑌1
Taking solute balance on envelope 2
𝐿𝑠 𝑋2 − 𝑋1 = −𝐺𝑆 𝑌2 − 𝑌1
Minimum Liquid rate
 Design of Packed column:
 Tray/Plate Column: Stage wise contactor
 Packed column: Differential contactor.
 Sizing of Packed column:
 Selection of solvents,
 Selection of packings,
 Determination of minimum and actual solvent flow rate,
 Determination of the column diameter
 Determination of packing height,
 Design of liquid distributor etc.,

G’ and L’ are Gas and liquid flow rate on basis of per unit
cross sectional area (mol/m2.sec).
Interfacial area of contact between gas and liquid 𝑎 is per
unit packed volume (m2/m3)
Consider steady state material balance over height dh
 Design of Packed column:

𝑎 𝑑ℎ 𝑁𝐴 = −𝐺 ′ 𝑑𝑦 + 𝑦 𝑎 𝑑ℎ 𝑁𝐴
𝑎 𝑑ℎ 𝑁𝐴 − 𝑦 𝑎 𝑑ℎ 𝑁𝐴 = −𝐺 ′ 𝑑𝑦 → 𝑎 𝑑ℎ 𝑁𝐴 (1 − 𝑦) = −𝐺 ′ 𝑑𝑦
𝑁𝐴 = 𝑘𝑦 (𝑦 − 𝑦𝑖 )

𝑎 𝑑ℎ 𝑘𝑦 𝑦 − 𝑦𝑖 1 − 𝑦 = −𝐺 ′ 𝑑𝑦

−𝐺 ′ 𝑑𝑦
𝑑ℎ =
𝑎 𝑘𝑦 𝑦−𝑦𝑖 1−𝑦

Integrating along the height of column:

ℎ𝑇 𝑦2 𝑦1
𝐺′ 𝐺′
ℎ𝑇 = 𝑑ℎ = − 𝑑𝑦 = 𝑑𝑦
𝑎 𝑘𝑦 𝑦 − 𝑦𝑖 1 − 𝑦 𝑎 𝑘𝑦 𝑦 − 𝑦𝑖 1 − 𝑦
0 𝑦1 𝑦2
Design of Packed column:
Design of Packed column:
Height of a transfer unit (HtG) and Number of transfer unit (NtG)

Height of packed bed can also be expressed as:

Design of Packed column:
Height of a transfer unit (HtG) and Number of transfer unit (NtG)

Height of packed bed can also be expressed as:

Design of Packed column:
Design of Packed column:
Height equivalent to a theoretical plate (HETP)
Problem:
Kremser equation:
• Algebraic determination of the number of stages.
• It is also known as Kremser-Brown-Souders equation).
• Number of stages can be calculated algebraically if operating line and
equilibrium lines are linear.

𝑌 = 𝛼𝑋
Equation of operating line:
𝐿𝑠 𝐿𝑠 𝑌𝑛 𝑌0 𝐿𝑠
𝑌𝑛+1 − 𝑌1 = 𝑋𝑛 − 𝑋0 = − = 𝑌𝑛 − 𝑌0 = 𝐴(𝑌𝑛 − 𝑌0 )
𝐺𝑠 𝐺𝑠 𝛼 𝛼 𝛼𝐺𝑠
𝐿
𝐴 = 𝛼𝐺𝑠 is called as absorption factor.
𝑠

𝛼𝐺𝑠
The reciprocal 𝑆 = 𝐿𝑠
is called as stripping factor.

Number of stages is given by:

𝑌𝑁+1 −𝛼𝑋0 1 1
𝑙𝑜𝑔 1−𝐴 +𝐴
𝑌1 −𝛼𝑋0
𝑁= 𝑙𝑜𝑔𝐴

Where 𝑌𝑁+1 refers to inlet concentration of solute in gas phase.

Kremser equation:
• Problem: A mixture containing 10 mol% SO2 and 90 mol% air at 1 atm total pressure and
at 30 0C is to be scrubbed with water to remove 97% of the SO2. The feed gas flow rate is
1500 kg/hr. Calculate minimum liquid rate. Equilibrium data is given as:
X 0 5.62032E-05 0.00014 0.00028 0.00042 0.00084 0.0014 0.00197 0.0028
Y 0 0.000790044 0.00223 0.00619 0.01065 0.02592 0.04737 0.06864 0.10429
An air stream of 12000 m3/h containing 2% Carbon disulphide is passed through an
absorption column. It is desired to remove 98% of carbon disulphide. The liquid rate can be
taken as 1.35 times of minimum liquid rate. The solvent used is purified and recycled such
that it contains 50ppm of carbon disulphide at inlet. Calculate Height of column required and
HETP.
Data: Mol. wt of CS2 = 76, mol wt of solvent 220, Overall liquid side mass transfer
coefficient is 112.2, tower diameter is 3.35m.
Equilibrium relationship is given by:
y=0.434x
Use following form of equation to calculate NtOG
𝑦1 𝑑𝑦 𝑦 −𝑦
1 2
𝑁𝑡𝑂𝐺 = 𝑦2 𝑦−𝑦∗
= (𝑦−𝑦∗)
𝑀

𝑦1 −𝑦∗1 −(𝑦2 −𝑦∗2 )

Where (𝑦 − 𝑦 ∗)𝑀 = 𝑦 −𝑦∗
ln[(𝑦1 −𝑦∗1 )]
2 2