Gas absorption:

• It is a mass transfer operation in which one or more

gaseous solutes is removed by dissolution in a liquid.
• The inert gas in the gas mixture is called “carrier gas”.
• In the absorption process of ammonia from air-ammonia
mixture by water, air is carrier gas, ammonia is ”solute”
and water is absorbent.
• An intimate contact between solute gas and absorbent
liquid is achieved in a suitable absorption equipment
• Namely, tray tower, packed column, spray tower, venture
scrubber, etc.
• Desorption or stripping operation is the reverse of
absorption.
• Absorption operation is of two types - physical and chemical.
 Equilibrium solubility of gases in liquids
• For the determination of driving force in any mass transfer
operation, the solubility of a species in a solvent, i.e.,
equilibrium distribution between phases is important.
• With the increase in temperature, solubility of a gas
in liquid decreases. Hence, absorption is done at lower
temperature.
• On the contrary, desorption is done at higher
temperature. The equilibrium characteristics of a gas-
liquid system is discussed in chapter 3 (Mass Transfer
Coefficient).
 Selection of solvent for absorption and stripping

If the objective of absorption is separation of a particular

solute/component from a mixture, selection of absorbent
plays a great role and when absorption operation is used
to prepare a solution, solvent is selected according to final
product.

Few criteria for the selection of an absorbent are as follows:

 Gas Solubility: High solubility of a gas in the solvent is
preferred, utilizing low quantity of solvent. Absorbent should
not dissolve carrier gas. Similar chemical nature of solute and
absorbent (solvent) gives a good solubility. If chemical
reaction takes place between solute and solvent, rate of
absorption is extremely high. But the reaction should be
reversible to recover solvent during desorption.
Volatility: Low volatility or low vapor pressure of the solvent
enhances the absorption operation as solvent loss with
carrier gas is very small. Sometimes, a second less volatile
solvent is used to recover the first solvent.
 Viscosity: For better absorption, a solvent of low viscosity is
required. In mechanically agitated absorber, greater amount of
power is required for high viscous solvent and flooding is also caused
at lower liquid and gas flow rates.

Corrosiveness: Non-corrosive or less corrosive solvent reduces

equipment construction cost as well as maintenance cost.

Cost: The solvent should be cheap so that losses will be insignificant

and should be easily available.
Toxicity and Hazard: The solvent should be non-toxic, non-
flammable, non-hazardous and should be chemically stable.
• Steam is generally used as desorption or stripping medium
because the stripped solute can be recovered very easily by
condensing steam leaving the desorption tower.
 Design of single stage counter-current flow absorption
tower (packed tower)
• Two common gas absorption equipment are packed tower
and plate tower.
• Other absorption equipment are, namely, spray column,
agitated contactor, venture scrubber, etc.
• The gas and the liquid phases come in contact in several
discrete stages. Thus, a stage wise contact is there in a
plate column.
• But in packed tower, the up-flowing gas remains in contact
with down-flowing liquid throughout the packing, at every
point of the tower.
• Therefore, packed tower is known as continuous differential
contact equipment
• It is different from the stage-wise distillation column.
• In the staged distillation column the equilibrium in each stage
will vary, not in a continuous fashion
• whereas in the packed column the equilibrium is changed point
wise in each axial location continuously.
 Steps for the design of packed tower
(A) Selection of solvent; (B) Selection of packing
(C) Calculation of minimum solvent flow rate as well as actual
solvent flow rate
(D) Column diameter; (E) Height of column
(F) Design of solvent distributors and redistributors (if
needed)
(G) Design of gas distributor, packing support, shell, nozzles,
column support.
 (a) Equilibrium data; (b) gas and liquid flow rates; (c) solute
concentration in two terminals; (d) individual and overall
volumetric mass transfer coefficients should be known for
the design of a packed absorption tower.

Packing Materials: Packing materials are utilized to provide

large interfacial area of contact between two phases. These
are made from either of ceramics, metals or plastics. A
number of packing materials with various size, shape and
performance are available.
 These are classified into three types, namely, dumped or random,
structured and grid.
The packing materials have following characteristics:
(a) Cost: The cost of the packing materials should be very low.
(b) Surface area: A large interfacial area of contact is always
recommended. In that case, pressure drop will be more.
(c) Void volume: A high void volume is needed to maintain low
pressure drop.
(d) Fouling resistance: Packing materials should not trap suspended
solids present in liquid. Bigger packing materials generally give low
fouling resistance.
(e) Mechanical strength: Good mechanical strength is
desired for choosing packing materials as this will not
break or deform during filling or operation.
(f) Uniform flow of streams: Stack of packing materials
should have uniform void spaces through which both the
streams (gas and liquid) can flow uniformly. Non-uniform
flow of streams leads to stagnant liquid pool which in
turn gives low mass transfer.
(A) Dumped or random packing materials: Dumped or
random packing materials are classified into three
categories as
1. first generation (1907 to mid 1950);
2. second generation (mid 1950 to mid 1970)
3. third generation (mid 1970 to till date). The first
generation random packing materials are of three
categories, such as, (a) Raschig rings; (b) Lessing rings and
modified Raschig rings and (c) Berl saddles. These are
shown in Figure 4.1.
• Abs
 The second generation random packing materials are mainly
(a) Intalox saddle and modification; (b) Pall ring and
modification. Intalox saddle is the modified version of Berl
saddle and offers less friction resistance due to particular
shape (two saddles will never nest). Pall rings are modified
version of Raschig rings. These are shown in Figure 4.2
 The third generation random packing materials are numeral;
(a) Intalox Metal Tower Packing (IMTP); (b) Nutter ring; (c)
Cascade Mini-Ring (CMR); (d) Jaeger Tripac; (e) Koch
Flexisaddle; (f) Nor-Pac; (g) Hiflow ring, etc. These are shown
in Figure 4.3.
• Abs
(B) Structured packing materials: These materials are used widely
as packing materials in packed tower due to low gas pressure drop
and improved efficiency.
Corrugated metal sheet structured packing and Wire mesh
structured packing materials are widely used in the industries. These
include Mellapak, Flexipak, Gempak, Montz and MaxPak. These are
shown in Figure 4.4.
• Grid packing materials: This packing material is used for
high gas or vapor capacities at low pressure drop. Mellagrid
series; Flexigrid series; Snap grid series are among these
grids.
Design of packed tower
The cross sectional view of the packed tower is shown in
 Design of packed tower may be

• on the basis of individual mass transfer coefficients or

• on the basis of overall mass transfer coefficient.
• The column is packed with packing materials (any type) to
provide more contact between gas and liquid.
Let, G/ and L/ are gas and liquid flow rate per unit area basis,
mol/h.m2. ā is specific interfacial contact area between gas
and liquid, m2/m3. The mole fraction of solute in gas is y.

Hence, solute flow rate in gas= G/y mol/h.m2

The decrease in solute flow rate over the thickness
dh is given as d(G/y)
For a unit cross-sectional area (1m2), volume of differential
section=1×dh m3
interfacial area of contact in differential section= ā×1×dh m2
If NA is solute flux and ky is individual gas-phase mass transfer
coefficient, solute transfer through differential section is
given as ā×dh×NA. Therefore,

The change in total gas flow rate (dG/) is equal to rate of

solute transfer

as carrier gas is not soluble

Putting the value of –dG/ in the above Equation 4.3, we have

The Boundary conditions: h=0; y=y1 ; h=hT ; y=y2

• Integration of Equation 4.6 gives the height of packed
column as follows

•Interfacial solute concentration, yi is not known; hence the

integration of the right hand side of Equation 4.7 is
complicated.
 STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURE

• For a particular gas-liquid system, draw equilibrium curve

on X-Y plane.
• Draw operating line in X-Y plane (PQ) using material
balance Equation.
• Lower terminal Q (X2, Y2) and upper terminal P (X1, Y1) are
placed in x-y plane.
• Overall mass balance Equation for the absorption tower is
as follows:
• Eq.

•If liquid mass flow rate, Ls is not known, minimum liquid

mass flow rate (Ls)min is to be determined. Ls is generally 1.2
to 2 times the (Ls)min.
• dgs
• In Figure 4.6, lower terminal of absorption tower is
represented by Q (X2, Y2); i.e., bottom of the tower.
• Operating line is PQ. If liquid rate is decreased, slope of
operating line (Ls/Gs) also decreases and
•operating line shifts from PQ to P/Q, when touches
equilibrium line. This operating line is tangent to equilibrium
line
 The driving force for absorption is zero at P/ and is called
“PINCH POINT”.
A point A (x, y) is taken on the operating line. From the
known value of kx and ky or kxā and kyā, a line is drawn with
slope of kx /ky to equilibrium line, B(xi,yi).
Line AB is called “TIE LINE” and xi and yi are known for a set
of values of x and y.
Step (3) is repeated for other points in the operating line to
get several (xi ,yi) sets for y1 ≥ y≥ y2.
 Calculate flow rate of gas G (kg/h) at each point as
G=Gs(1+y).
Calculate height of the packing hT of Equation 4.7 graphically
or numerically.
The height of the „stripping column‟ is also obtained in a
similar way. For stripping, y2>y1 and driving force is (yi-y). The
corresponding design Equation will be
•