PACKED BED ABSORPTION

AIM
To study and understand the mass transfer operations and to find the mass transfer
coefficient.
THEORY
PACKED BEDS
Packed bed reactors can be used in chemical reactions in chemical industries. These reactors
are tubular and are filled with solid catalyst particles, most often used to catalyse gas
reactions. In chemical processing, a packed bed is a hollow tube, pipe, or other vessel that is
filled with a packing material. The packing can be randomly filled with small objects like
Raschig rings or else it can be a specifically designed structured packing. Packed beds may
also contain catalyst particles or adsorbents such as zeolite pellets, granular activated carbon,
etc.
The column can be filled with random dumped packing (creating a random packed column)
or with structured packing sections, which are arranged or stacked (creating a stacked packed
column). In the column, liquids tend to wet the surface of the packing and the vapor pass
across this wetted surface, where mass transfer takes place. Packing material can be used
instead of trays to improve separation in distillation columns. Packing offers the advantage of
a lower pressure drop across the column (when compared to plates or trays), which is
beneficial while operating under vacuum. Differently shaped packing materials have different
surface areas and void space between the packing. Both of these factors affect packing
performance.
PURPOSE OF PACKED BEDS
The purpose of a packed bed is typically to improve contact between two phases in a chemical
or similar process. Packed beds can be used in a chemical reactor, a distillation process, or a
scrubber, but packed beds have also been used to store heat in chemical plants. In this case,
hot gases are allowed to escape through a vessel that is packed with a refractory material
until the packing is hot. Air or other cool gas is then fed back to the plant through the hot bed,
thereby pre-heating the air or gas feed. They provide better contact time and also provide
uniform distribution of liquids and gases throughout the column. They have open structure
which gives lesser resistance for the gas to flow.
The Ergun equation can be used to predict the pressure drop along the length of a packed
bed given the fluid velocity, the packing size, and the viscosity and density of the fluid.
GAS TRANSFER COEFFICIENT
In packed bed absorption set up a gaseous solute A, i.e. CO2 is absorbed in a solution
containing a reactive species B like NaOH. The reaction between CO2 and NaOH is as follows,
CO2 + 2 NaOH Na2CO3 + H2O
It may be assumed that as the solution is fairly concentrated there will be negligible vapor
pressure of CO2 over the solution, all resistance to transfer lies in the gas phase. The basic
equation which can be used to find out overall gas transfer coefficient K Ga is:
Gm (Y1 – Y2) = KGa P (Y –Ye)lm Z
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
DETERMINATION OF OVERALL GAS TRANSFER COEFFICIENT
1. Start up the set up.
2. The flow rates of the gas (air+CO2) and liquid (NaOH) phases are adjusted to
predefined values by valves provided on the rotameter. The CO2flow rate should
be such that the percentage of CO2 in the air- CO2 mixture is about 8-10%.
3. Allow the system to attain steady state. The time for steady state should be 3-4
times the mean residence time of the liquid phase in the column.
4. Collect outlet liquid samples for analysis after the steady state is achieved.
5. Titrate known volume V (25ml) of the sample against standard HCl using methyl
orange as an indicator. (Titrate value=T1). End point: Yellowish to reddish.
6. To another volume V of the sample is added a 25% (w/w) solution of BaCl 2 to
precipitate the Na2O3 Go on adding BaCl2 solution in the sample till precipitation
occurs, after completion of precipitation add some excess amount (approx. 50%
excess of the volume of sample taken). This solution is then titrated against the
standard HCl solution with phenolphthalein as the indicator. (Titrate value=T2).
End point: Pink to colorless.
7. Shut down the set up as mentioned in commissioning part above.
8. Experiment can be repeated for different flow rates.
RESULT
The overall gas transfer coefficient is 7.946*10^-6 k-mol/m3s(KN/m2)
DISCUSSION
SHIVAM DUBEY 2016A1PS0515G
Absorption in a chemical process refers to a mass transfer between gas and liquid which
transfers one or more components from the gas phase to the liquid phase. Absorption occurs
in two reaction processes, namely physical and chemical absorption. Physical absorption
takes place when there is no chemical reaction between the solute and the solvent.
Absorption with chemical reaction involves removing the impurities from gas phase and
dissolving them into a liquid phase by making a chemical reaction between them. The most
commonly used device for absorption process is a packed column, since packed area in the
column is used to develop more interfacial area between gas and liquid which increases the
absorption rate. The mechanism in packed tower is the gas and liquid phases flows counter –
currently where they interact on the packings interface. The liquid flows in downward
direction, over the surface of the packing, whereas the gas flows through the space or voids
of the packings in upward direction. The gas flow is driven by pressure while the liquid flow is
driven by the gravity force. The gas undergoes pressure drop due to the liquid occupied some
part of the open space and voids of the packing. Thus, reducing the area available for the gas
to flow. If the packing is dry with no liquid feed, then maximum flow gas is available. The
pressure drop increases as the liquid flow rate into the tower increases.
SUSHANTH DAHIYA 2016A1PS0525G
The aim of this experiment was to find out the mass transfer coefficient using titration .
packed bed column was used for the absorption process because it provides better surface
area for contact between the two phases. This experiment can used in industries to remove
c02 from flue gases and other effluents . c02 has dire consequences on our environment
because it causes global warming. Different indicators are used for different ph ranges.
MOHAMED ZAKI M. ROSHNAIWALA 2016A1PS0526G
The packed bed absorption also known as scrubbing is a mass transfer phenomenon.
Absorption is a process of the diffusion of components from the gas phase to the liquid
phase when they are brought in contact with each other and opposite of this process is
stripping. The flow rates of liquid and gas have to be carefully selected in order to achieve
effective Mass Transfer, to avoid undesirable phenomena such as flooding of the column.
The air is fed from the bottom and water is fed form the top of the column and pickings
used are rasching rings which are dump packed. The transfer of carbon dioxide to water
occurs in three steps: 1) from air to the air-water interfacial surface 2) across the interfacial
surface into the liquid phase, and finally 3) into the bulk liquid phase.
The purpose of column packings is to increase mass transfer efficiency by maximizing the
surface area per unit volume, which maximizes the vapour-liquid contact area. Here used is
dump packing as structured packing is costly and get corroded fast. The rate of mass
transfer depends on the surface area of packing and also the dispersion rate of solute from
gas to liquid. Mass transfer coefficient is a diffusion rate constant that relates the mass
transfer rate, mass transfer area, and concentration change as driving force. Mass transfer
coefficient is dependent on temperature and pressure and viscosity of solvent and also the
concentration gradient and medium of diffusion. It is directly proportional to temperature
and inversely to pressure and viscosity. More the mass transfer coefficient faster is the rate
of diffusion. More the solubility of gas in liquid more will be the mass transfer rate. Mass
transfer coefficient is predicted using Ficks law.
In the experiment the flow rate of water was changed and flow rate of air was fixed
constant.
In the titration we used excess of barium dichloride because to convert the sodium chloride
to sodium carbonate. The indicators used are methyl orange and phenopthaline. Different
indicators are used because each is efficient is certain range of pH value.
Applications of packed bed absorption towers are
1. Used in petroleum industries for hydro cracking.
2. To recover solvents.
SENTHILNATHAN AK 2016A1PS0519G
Absorption in a unit operation which is a mass transfer phenomena used to transfer one or
more components from a gas phase to a liquid phase using a appropriate solvent that absorbs
the necessary gaseous components. They are of two types physisorption and chemisorption.
Physisorption is a reversible phenomena while chemisorption involves changes in chemical
composition and hence irreversible phenomena. The apparatus used for absorption can
either be simple columns or packed columns with structured or random, packing with Raschig
rings or other materials. The packing is done to increase the contact time of the components
and also to allow the uniform distribution of the gas phase and the liquid phase. In this
experiment we have a stream of air and CO2 entering from the bottom and NaOH from the
top in a counter current arrangement through a packed absorption column. The NaOH
absorbs the CO2 from the gaseous mixture and flows out of the column. The sample is titrated
with two different indicators of different pH to find out the concentration of the sample. After
the concentrations are recorded we can find the mass transfer coefficient from the results
obtained. The indicators used in this case are phenolphthalein and barium chloride. Ergun
equation is used to find the pressure drop which facilitates the air flow in such kind of setups.
The liquid flow is on the account of gravity.