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but absorption
in liquids is generally the most economic type of process.
For economic reasons the absorbent must have a large capacity for carbon dioxide, be
capable of regeneration by driving off carbon dioxide, and have a high specific absorption
rate. Liquids used for the absorption of carbon dioxide may merely dissolve the gas
physically or may contain a solute which reacts with dissolved gas. The specific rate of
absorption into physical solvents is in general much less than that into chemical
absorbents.
II.
The stagnant film model is not a dynamic model and thus less
suited for modelling dynamic processes.
III.
The rate or absorption will be determined partly by the hydrodynamnic conditions (flow-rate,
geometry or packing or plate, physical properties of liquid, etc.) and partly by the physicochemical propertics of the system (solubility of carbon dioxide in the absorbent, diffusivity of
dissolved carbon dioxide and of reactants in solution, kinetics of reactions occurring in
solution, etc.). The hydrodynamic factors can, it is believed, be adequately described by two
quantities: kL (the liquid-film coefficient for absorption without reaction) and a (the
interfacial area which is effective in gas-absorption). The value of each of these can be
determined under any given set of hydrodynamic conditions.
If there is resistance to transfer on the gas side of the interface this must also be evaluated and
allowed for in the usual way.
There is a considerable amount of information in the literature regarding volumetric liquidfilm coefficients (kLa) ror the physical absorption of carbon dioxide, oxygen, etc. In various
types and sizes of packing.
The various theories or models which have bcen proposed for the gas-absorption process,
particularly the film model and various surface-renewal models, can be used to predict the
ratios of the rates of absorption with and without various
In gas-liquid jet reactors with two-phase nozzles such as an ejector, both gas and liquid
phases are concentrically introduced and the kinetic energy of the liquid jet is utilized to
disperse gas into fine bubbles. Therefore, larger gas-liquid interfacial areas and higher mass
transfer rates can be obtained than in other types of reactors.
Recently, jet reactors are increasingly used in various industries, such as absorber of
sparingly soluble gases, in waste water treatment and as fermentors in the production of
single-cell protein from biomass.
INTRODUCTION (report atay)
The Ejector Venturi Scrubber Is a wet type of contactor, which utilizes a liquid aedia to
absorb objectionable gases and particulates from a flue gas discharge stream.
Using a mechanical pump to impart a high velocity to the liquid, which accelerates the slower
moving (relatively) gas stream. The liquid is disrupted into droplets as it passes through an
atomizing nozzle. The gas is drawn through the system by transfer or momentum from the
liquid. This type is ca1led an ejector venturi scrubber. The two types of venturi scrubber
Ejector also have been widely used in industry for purposes other than scrubbing (see Table
1.1). They are known by various names., which are usually associated with the application.
Among such names are injector, ejector, eductor and water jet heat exchanger. The steam
injector, for example, is a jet pump designed to supply feed water to a steam boi1er, the
driving fluid being a proportion of the steam generated by the boi1er. The water jet ejector, on
the other hand, is designed to draw leakage air and other non-condensable gases from the
exhaust of a steam turbine p1ant. The water jet heat exchanger is essentia1ly the same as a
steam jet injector, the name signifying that the pump supp1ies heat to the feed water.
where kg and kl, are the overall gas side and liquid side transfer coefficients. kg and kl are the
respective individunl f.lm coefficients, and H is the Henrys Law constant for the solute.
For the case where the solute gas is very solub1e In the liquid phase, small changes of solute
in the gas phase will produce large solute concentration changes in the 1iquid phase. In that
case., the gas phase resistance dominates.Conversely, when the solute gas is relatively
insoluble in the liquid phase, the liquid phase is the major resistance kl kl
Gas Side Mass Transfer Coefficient
Ear1y investigators noted a similar dependence of mass, heat and momentum transfer upon
eddy activity. The existing empirical correlation for heat, mass and momentum transfer were
manipulated by Chilton and Colburn to obtain analogies between these processes in terms
In order to evaluate the liquid film coefficient. k1, the cases of physical absorption and
absorption with chemical reaction are considered be1ow.
Physical absorption
Higbie (1935) proposed the Penetration Theory which accounts for the transient diffusion
of solute from the gas to the liquid phase. By solving the partial differential equation, he
obtained the following
Equation for the mass flux at a point on the liquid surface which ie exposed to a solute gas:
Higbie assumed that the time of exposure te, was the same for all the liquid elements brought
up to the surface from the bulk liquid. The exposure time, te can be estimated from the
hydrodynamic conditions within the system.
The Dankcwerts (1951) surface renewal model assumes that the chance of an element of
surface being replaced with fresh liquid is independent of its time of exposure. Fresh fluid
elements remain in contact with the surface for variable times, t. The fractiona1 rate of
renewal, s, of the area exposed to penetration is assumed to remain constant and the surface
age distribution function is.
This represents the porbability that any element area will be exposed for time, t, before being
replaced with fresh fluid. The average absorption rate is
i) Diffusion of gaseous reactants from the bulk of the gas to the gas liquid interface.
ii) Diffusion of gaseous reactants from the interface to the bulk of the 1iquid phase.
iii) Chemical reaction within the liquid phase.
iv) Diffusion toward the liquid surfece of reactants initially present in the bu1k liquid phase:
and diffusion of reaction products away from the liquid surface.
If step (i) is rate controlling, the overall rate is not influenced by chemical reaction and the
process may be regarded as a simple mass transfer phenomenon.
van Krevelen and Hoftijzer (1968) have claasified chemical absorption processes into four
groups according to the rate of chemica1 reaction.
a) Very fast irreversible reactions (e.g. ammonia absorption In sulfuric acid) have so smal1 a
chemical resistance that the rate is determined practically by the mass transfer in the gas
phase.
b) Fast reversible reactions (e.g. absorption of hydrogen sulfide in alkaline liquors) where the
rate of absorption is determined by mass transfer in the gas phase, and by mass transfer of
the reactants and reaction products in the 1iquid phase.
c) Moderate speed reactions (e.g. absorption of CO2 in alkaline solutions), in which the rate
of absorption is determined by mass transfer of the reactants in the 1iquid phase.
d) For very slow reactions, rate of absorption is determined by diffusion of the reactants in
the liquid phase and by the rate of reaction in the 1iquid phase.
Nuang (1976) analyzed mass transfer into and out of droplets both experimentally and
theoretically. He stated that there are four stages of mass transfer in the life of each drop.
Hold up
It states that diffusion is a steady state process and the resistance to mass transfer lies in two
films on both sides of the interface.
It is described by Fick's first law,
In the film theory, the mass transfer coefficient kL is directly proportional to the
diffusion coefficient
k L=
D AB
NA =
D AB
dC A
dy
C A
CA
=D AB
2
t
y
D AB
4t
This variation has been developed by Vetrocoke in Italy. Use of various additives like amino
acids, arsenic trioxide, and selenium and tellurium oxides in hot potassium carbonate
absorbent solution which increase CO2 absorption rate, and decrease the steam required for
stripping CO2 from the solution.
The Vetrocoke processes have also employed air stripping for removing CO2 from additive
containing hot potassium carbonate solutions in cases in which CO2 is not recovered as a pure
gas.
Absorption of CO 2
The absorption of CO2 into lean potassium threonate solutions can be described by the
following equation (Danckwerts, 1970).
where
N CO
is the molar flow of CO2 crossing the liquid surface with interfacial area A, kL
H CO2 is
the Henry constant of CO2 in solution. The enhancement factor, E, is the ratio between the
amount of gas absorbed in the reactive liquid and the amount that would be absorbed if no
reaction took place. The enhancement factor is a function of the Hatta number, Ha, and the
infinite enhancement factor,
Mass Transfer
The absorption of CO2 into lean potassium threonate solutions can be described by the
following equation
where NCO2 is the molar flow of CO2 crossing the liquid surface
with interfacial area A, kL is the physical mass transfer coefficient,
PCO2 is the CO2 partial pressure and HCO2 is the Henry constant of
CO2 in solution.