Module 1

An Autonomous Institution
Affiliated to VTU, Belagavi

Approved by AICTE, New Delhi
Recognised by UGC with 2(f) & 12(B)
Accredited by NBA & NAAC
Mass transfer - II
(MVJ21CH63)
Prepared by :
Dr. Seriyala Anil Kumar
Assistant Professor & Placements Officer
Department of Chemical Engineering
Affiliated to VTU, Belagavi, Approved by AICTE, New Delhi, Recognised by UGC with 2(f) & 12 (B), Accredited by NBA & NAAC 1
An Autonomous Institute
Chemical engineer
UNIT – I
Gas Liquid Contacting Systems: Types, construction and working of plate and packed
columns, types and properties of industrial packing’s, plate efficiencies, HETP and HTU
concepts.
Absorption: Solvent selection for absorption. Material balance and concept of driving
force and minimum solvent rates. Multistage absorption columns. Design of Plate
columns. Absorption and desorption factors.
Gas-Liquid contacting systems
Tray (or) Plate column Packed column
Plate column
Introduction
• Plate columns can handle wide range of gas and liquid flow
rates.
• Plate column provide stage controlled contact.
• Plate column operation is considerably smooth.
• Plate efficiency can be predicted more accurately
• When the liquid cause fouling or deposition of solids, even
though the tray is blocked up, it is easier to clean it.
Plate column
Introduction
▪ Plate column is composed of several equilibrium stages.

▪ Every Equilibrium Stage has its own VLE (vapour liquid
equilibrium) different.
▪ Equilibrium Stage is called tray. Active area
▪ Tray has different designs (bubble cap – valve – sieve).
Weir
Tray Downcomer
Plate column
Basic components of tray column
▪ Inlets (Feed Tray)

▪ Outlets
▪ Rectifying Section
▪ Stripping Section
▪ Overhead System
▪ Bottom System
Plate column
▪ Inlets:
✓ The feed inlets are located between the rectifying and stripping
sections.
✓ Distillation columns can have three or more feed lines.
✓ Feed Tray: The location is determined by the ratio of stages above and
below the inlet feed line.
▪ Outlets:
✓ The overhead outlet is the vapor exit point from the distillation
column to pass into the condenser.
✓ The bottoms outlet is used to remove residue from the distillation
column and to feed the reboiler.
✓ The side stream outlet is used to remove side product in
multicomponent distillation processes.
Plate column
▪ Rectifying Section:
✓ Located above the feed tray.
✓ Has a higher concentration of light components than the
stripping section
▪ Stripping Section
✓ Located below the feed tray.
✓ Temperatures in the stripping section are usually much higher
than in the rectifying section.
✓ Has a higher concentration of heavier components than the
rectifying section.
Plate column Overhead System

•Overhead System
▪Used to condense hot vapors into liquid.
▪May be:
✓Total Condenser
✓Partial Condenser
•Bottom System
▪Help to control overlap and heat balance
▪May be:
✓Reboiler
✓Steam Injection
Bottom System
Weir:
•The function of a weir is to maintain a desired liquid level on the
tray
Types:
• Low weirs are frequently used in low pressure or vacuum
columns.
• Notched (rectangular or V-shaped) weirs are commonly used for
low liquid loads.
The higher the liquid level tends the higher the tray pressure drop and
more liquid hold-up on the tray, which may be undesirable if the
liquid is toxic or hazardous.
Downcomers:
The function of downcomer is to guide liquid flow from an upper tray to
a lower tray.
• A downcomer must be sufficiently large to allow liquid to flow smoothly
without choking.
• Inadequate downcomer area will lead to downcomer choking, whereby
liquid backs up the downcomer into the tray above and eventually flood
the column.
• Sufficient time must also be provided to allow proper vapour
disengagement from the down-flowing liquid, so that the liquid is
relatively free of vapour when it enters the tray below.
Types:
• Straight: is widely used as it provides good utilization of column area for
downflow and has cost and simplicity advantage.
• Sloped: can be used if vapour-liquid disengagement is difficult (e.g. due to
foaming) and also provide a slightly larger active area for vapour-liquid
contact, but is also more expensive.
Tray classification according to pass No.
▪ The more paths for liquid flow, the higher the liquid handling capacity
▪ Liquid flow paths change pressure balance, multiple flow paths can increase
vapor capacity as well.
▪ 1, 2, 4 paths common
▪ 3 used occasionally
▪ 5+ not common
▪ The more passes, the larger the tower minimum diameter.
▪ The active area should be a minimum width to allow for manways
Types of trays
There are three types of trays used in distillation towers:

• Bubble Cap Tray
• Valve Tray
• Sieve Tray
Types of trays
Bubble Cap Tray
• In these trays, the gas passes through a series of slots
cut into the rim (or) cap.
• The liquid depth is such that the caps are fully
covered by them.
• Bubble-cap trays are used commonly in the
distillation process.
• This vapor comes into direct contact with the liquid
on the tray and transfers some heat energy.
• The liquid condenses the heavier components of the
vapor, whereas the lighter components move up the
tower.
Types of trays
Sieve \ Perforated Tray
• These are trays with perforations and the gas flows
through them.
• The gas dispersed by the perforations, expands the
liquid into a turbulent froth and results in providing
enormous interfacial area for mass transfer.
• These trays are subject to flooding because of
backup of liquid in the downspouts or excessive
entrainment.
• In comparison to bubble caps these are quite simple
and are also cost effective.
•.
Types of trays
Valve Tray
• These are sieve trays with large variable openings
for gas flow.
• The perforations are covered with movable caps,
which rise as the gas flow rate increases.
• Though the gas pressure drop is low, it is higher
than sieve trays.
• Valve trays have simple, movable plates.
• Plate movement depends on process flow.
• This type of tray is more efficient over a wider
range of flow rates than the sieve tray.
Comparison Sieve Valve Bubble Cap
Capacity Mid Highest Lowest
Pressure Drop Lower Mid Higher
Turndown Ratio Lowest [2.1] Higher [4 to 10.1] Mid
Entrainment Medium Medium Highest
Efficiency High High Lowest
Cost Cheapest 20 / 50% more than 100 / 200% more

Sieve than Sieve
Gas-Liquid contacting systems
Tray (or) Plate column Packed column
Packed column
Introduction
• Packed columns are more suitable for low-
capacity operations.
• Packed columns are particularly useful in the
field of vacuum distillation.
• For separating heat sensitive materials packed
columns are useful.
• Corrosion is a problem packing may occurs
when
• Pressure drop per unit length is less in packed
column.
Introduction Packing material
➢ Packed beds can be used in a chemical reactor, a distillation

process, or a scrubber.
➢ The purpose of a packed bed is typically to improve contact

between two phases in a chemical or similar process. Packing
Height (Z)
➢ The gas-liquid contact in a packed bed column is continuous,
not stage-wise, as in a plate column.
Packed Column Principle
• Packed towers use specially designed packing

materials to provide more surface area for
maximum contact between gases and liquids.
• Liquids wet the surface of the packing as they
migrate down the tower.
• Rising vapors come into contact with the wetted
surface and exchange heat.
The performance of a packed column is dependent on the
maintenance of good liquid and gas distribution throughout
the packed bed.
Packed column accessory
1) Shell:
• The cylindrical shell of the distillation column is typically metal,
carbon steel, stainless steel, special alloy or nonferrous.
• Columns can also be composed of glass, ceramic, plastic, or
wood.
• The column will depends on the design material, lining
specification, wall thickness, pressure rating, and temperature
rating.
• Liquid travels down through feed

distributors
• Hold-down grids
• Random and structured packing,
• Support plates, redistributors,
• Liquid collectors,
• Structured grids, and
• Finally into the bottom section.
Hot vapors move countercurrent to the downward

flow of liquid.
2) Types of packed columns:

a) Random Packing
b) Structured Packing
2) Types of packed column
a) Random Packing
• Random packing includes discrete pieces of packing that are
randomly dumped or poured into a packed column.
Use:
• It provides a surface for good vapor-liquid contact
• Distillation efficiency characteristics, and
• Pressure drop.
2) Types of packed column
b) Structured packing
• Structured packing has specific geometric shapes, like a
mesh.
Use:
• It works best in columns requiring high liquid loadings.
Packing Material
3) Packing Support
• The packing inside a distillation column is supported by packing
supports.
• It is designed to provide sufficient air-liquid passage.
4) Bed Limiters and Hold-Down Plates
• They are designed to keep fixed bed packing from migrating or
fluidizing out of the section.
• Hold-down plates rest on top of the packing, whereas bed limiters
are attached to the inside wall of the column.
• Hold-down plates are primarily used for carbon and ceramic
packing.
• Bed limiters are used on metal or plastic packing.
5) Liquid Distribution and Redistribution
• It’s so important device where it is used to disperse fluid evenly of the packing
to enhance distribution of liquid through packing.
• Poor liquid distribution reduces vapor-liquid contact and promotes channeling
which reduces the operation efficiency of the column.
over the top

6) Liquid Distributer
Pipe Ladder Channel Distributor Ring Distributor
Orifice Type Spray Nozzle Trough Type

Comparison Tray Column Packed Column
Capacity Higher Lower
Diameter Larger Smaller
Cost Less Expensive More Expensive
Maintenance Easier More Difficult
Vapour Liquid Contact Less More
Side Stream Available Not Available
Corrosive Materials Not Recommended Appropriate
Side Stream Wide range Not recommended for low rate
Pressure Drop Higher Lower
Max Temperature Higher Lower
Toxic And Flammable Not safe Appropriate
Liquids
Fouling Liquids Appropriate Not recommended
Foaming Systems Not Recommended Appropriate
Packing Height (Z)
Plate efficiency
Overall Efficiency (Eo) : Performance of a tray tower can also be calculated as overall
tray efficiency (Eo).
Eo = (Number of ideal trays required) / (Number of real trays required)
Point efficiency: It pertains to a particular place on the plate surface ( applied to

single location on a given plate).
𝑦𝑛, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 − 𝑦𝑛+1, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙

𝐸𝑂𝐺 =
𝑦 ∗𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 − 𝑦𝑛+1, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙
𝑦𝑛, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 = composition of vapour leaving specific location on plate n.

𝑦𝑛+1, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 = composition of vapour entering plate n at the same specific location.
𝑦 ∗𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 = Composition of vapour in equilibrium with the liquid at the same location ( i.e in
equilibrium with Xlocal.
Murphree tray efficiency
Module 1
Absorption
Difference between Absorption and adsorption
Adsorption Absorption
• Module – 1: Absorption considered between gas-liquid case
➢ GAS ABSORPTION
WHAT IS GAS ABSORPTION????
Absorption or gas absorption:
• It is a unit operation used in the chemical industry to separate gases by washing (or)
scrubbing a gas mixture with a suitable liquid.
• The physical principles of gas absorption mainly consider fundamentally
1. Solubility of the absorbed gas and,
2. The rate of mass transfer
• One (or) more of the components of the gas mixture dissolves (or) is absorbed in
the liquid, which can be removed from the mixture.
• In some systems, this gaseous components forms a physical solution with the
liquid (or) the solvent, and in other cases, it reacts with the liquid chemically.
• The purpose of such scrubbing operations may be any of the following:
• Gas purification (eg, removal of toxic gases or air pollutants from exhausts gases or
contaminants from gases that will be further processed).
• Product Recovery or production of gases for various purposes.
• The absorber may be a packed column, plate column, spray column, venturi
scrubbers, bubble column, falling films, wet scrubbers, stirred tanks.
• 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 substence 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 .
Choice Of Solvent for Absorption
• The following properties are to be considered while choosing a particular solvent in
any absorption system.
The factors to be considered are:

1. Gas solubility: The gas solubility should be high, thus increasing the rate of
absorption and decreasing the quantity of solvent required.
2. Chemical nature: Generally solvent should be chemically similar in structure to
that of the solute to be absorbed as it will provide good solubility. (E.g. miscible
and immiscible nature)
3. Recoverability: The solvent should be easily recovered and as it will help in
reusing it.
4. Volatility: The solvent should have a low vapour pressure, i.e. less volatile.
5. Corrosiveness: The solvent should not be corrosive to the material of
construction equipment.
6. Cost and availability: The solvent should be inexpensive and readily
available.
7. Viscosity: The solvent should have low viscosity as it will reduce pumping
and transportation costs.
8. Toxic, flammability and stability: The solvent should be non-toxic,
inflammable, chemically stable and non-reactive.
PHYSICAL vs CHEMICAL ABSORPTION
• When water and hydrocarbon oils are used as absorbents, no significant chemical reactions occur
between the absorbent and the solute, and the process is commonly referred to as physical absorption.
• When aqueous sodium hydroxide (a strong base) is used as the absorbent to dissolve an acid gas,
absorption is accompanied by a rapid and irreversible neutralization reaction in the liquid phase and the
process is referred to as chemical absorption or reactive absorption.
METHOD OF OPERATION
Two methods of contacting the gas and liquid are possible:
1. Counter-current operation and
2. Co-current operation.
We will focus principally on the counter-current gas absorption, as it was widely used in the industry.
Method of operation for contacting gas and liquid
• We will be concerned primarily with

counter-current gas absorption.
Counter-current operation Co-current operation

As shown in the Figure below, the gas flows upwards while the liquid flow downwards. Inside the column where
there is vapor-liquid contact, mass transfer by absorption occurs, i.e. there is a transfer of solute(s) from the gas
phase to the liquid phase.
Material balance and concept of driving force
(a) Counter-Current Gas Absorption
Notations :
• G1 and L2 be the molar flow rates of entering binary gaseous mixture and liquid
respectively in moles/(area)(time), i.e kg-moles/m2.s.
• G2 and L1 be the molar flow rates of leaving gaseous mixture and liquid respectively in
moles/(area)(time), i.e (kg-moles/m2.s).
• GS and LS be the molar flow rates of inert gas and pure liquid respectively in
moles/(area)(time).
• x, y be the mole fractions of solute in liquid and gas phases respectively.
• X, Y be the mole ratios of solute to inert component in liquid and gas phases
respectively.
• In the gas phase, only one component is transferred and the other component remains as inert.
• It is more convenient to represent the concentrations of solute in liquid and gas phases in terms of mole
ratios (X and Y) of solute to inert component.
Like wise mole fractions can be written as
The material balance on solute basis for the above countercurrent operation, we get
Note:
• The operating line is linear which passes through the coordinates (X1, Y1) and
(X2,Y2) with a slope of (LS/GS).
• Since the solute transfer is taking place from gas to liquid phase, the operating line
always lies above the equilibrium curve.
• Operating line for gas absorption lies above the equilibrium line.
• Also, in the analysis of gas absorption, we will need to know the minimum liquid rate
that can be used for a given separation, i.e. to remove a specified amount of solute
from the gas. This is known as the minimum liquid-to-gas ratio.
• The analysis is applicable to both tray and packed column.
Solution:
Multistage counter current absorption
Co-current single stage absorption:;

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An Autonomous Institution

Affiliated to VTU, Belagavi

Tray (or) Plate column Packed column

▪ Plate column is composed of several equilibrium stages.

▪ Inlets (Feed Tray)

Basic components of tray column

There are three types of trays used in distillation towers:

Pressure Drop Lower Mid Higher

Turndown Ratio Lowest [2.1] Higher [4 to 10.1] Mid

Entrainment Medium Medium Highest

Efficiency High High Lowest

Cost Cheapest 20 / 50% more than 100 / 200% more

Tray (or) Plate column Packed column

➢ Packed beds can be used in a chemical reactor, a distillation

➢ The purpose of a packed bed is typically to improve contact

• Packed towers use specially designed packing

• Liquid travels down through feed

Hot vapors move countercurrent to the downward

2) Types of packed columns:

over the top

Pipe Ladder Channel Distributor Ring Distributor

Orifice Type Spray Nozzle Trough Type

Eo = (Number of ideal trays required) / (Number of real trays required)

Point efficiency: It pertains to a particular place on the plate surface ( applied to

𝑦𝑛, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 − 𝑦𝑛+1, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙

𝑦𝑛, 𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑎𝑙 = composition of vapour leaving specific location on plate n.

• Gas absorption is usually carried out in vertical counter

The factors to be considered are:

• We will be concerned primarily with

Counter-current operation Co-current operation

Like wise mole fractions can be written as

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