The equipment set up is composed of a packed column absorber which is packed

with approximately 5 L, 4.3 kg of ceramics Raschig rings. Water is fed to the

top of the column and the air to the bottom. Ammonia gas is mixed with air right
before it enters the column. The flow rates of both water and air are controlled
using rotameters. The set up comes with an ammonia analyzer with infrared
continuously reading the amount of ammonia in air. The overhead product is sent
through water trap to have the sample stream to the ammonia analyzer free of
water.

Calibration of water flow rate is executed. Water flow rate is set at 375 cm3/min on
the water rotameter. A few minutes is allowed for water seal to form at the bottom
of the column to ensure a steady flow at the exit pipe and to achieve a steady-state
condition. 1000 ml of water is collected in a flask and the stopwatch is
simultaneously started. The time taken for water to fill the task at amount of
1000ml is recorded. This experiment is repeated with different water flow rates
which are 500, 725, 975, 1150, and 1250 cm3/min.

Air flow rate calibration is also executed. Water valve is opened to form water seal
at the bottom of the column. This is to ensure that no air flows out through the
bottom. The air rotameter is set to 1 SCFM and 5 minutes is allowed for the air
flow rate to achieve steady state condition. The pressure drop across the packed
column is recorded. The experiment is repeated using air flow rates of 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
and 7 SCFM and going backwards from 7 SCFM to 1 SCFM.

The range of flow rates that cause flooding is also obtained. In this experiment, the
water flow rate is held constant and the air flow rate is increased by 0.5 SCFM
until flooding occurs. Flooding occurs when there is a big increase in pressure drop
across the column after increasing the air flow rate. The experiment is then
continued by following the same procedure with different water flow rates.

The objective is to find the height transfer unit as a function of flow rates of gas
and liquid phases. For ammonia absorption, the ammonia rotameter will be set
constant throughout this experiment. Three different air flow rates will be used
with three different water flow rates in an increasing manner. Based on our data, it
shows that we should use 2, 3 and 4 SCFM for air flow rates and any higher than
that would lead to flooding. NH4OH
The water is first flown to form water seal at the bottom of the column. The water
flow rate is set at 500 cc/min and the air flow is set at 2 SCFM. The ammonia
reading at the analyzer and the pressure drop are recorded. An amount of 50 ml of
effluent water at the bottom is taken into a beaker for titration. The acid amount
needed to neutralize ammonium hydroxide is recorded.
With these data,
Titration