CCB 2053 MASS TRANSFER DESIGN MAY 2013 SEMESTER

Assignment 1

Names:

Mohd Rafaei Bin Jaya Mohd Syauqi Bin Mohd Subri

16001 16133

MASS TRANSFER Mass transfer is the net movement of mass from one location, usually meaning a stream, phase, fraction or component, to another. In other words, mass transfer is the transport of one constituent from a region of higher concentration to that of a lower concentration. When a system contains two or more components whose concentrations vary from point to point, there is a natural tendency for mass to be transferred, minimizing the concentration differences within a system. Mass transfer occurs in many processes such as absorption, evaporation, adsorption, drying, precipitation, membrane filtration and distillation. In engineering, the phrase Mass Transfer is used to define the physical processes that involve diffusive and convective transport of chemical species within the physical systems. Mass transfer involves the following principles in order to take place which are mass transfer by ordinary molecular diffusion occurs because of a concentration difference, the mass transfer rate is proportional to the area normal to the direction of mass transfer, not to the volume (therefore, the rate is expressed as a flux) and lastly mass transfer stops when the concentration is uniform.

MOLECULAR DIFFUSION Molecular diffusion or molecular transport or often called simply by diffusion can be defined as the transfer or movement of individual molecules through a fluid by means of the random, individual movements of the molecules. In other words, diffusion is the movement under the influence of a physical stimulus of an individual component through a mixture. Since the molecules travel in a random path, molecular diffusion is often called a random -walk process. Molecular diffusion is also defined as the thermal motion of all liquid or gas particles at temperatures above absolute zero. The rate of this movement is a function of temperature, viscosity of the fluid and the size or mass of the particles. Diffusion explains the net flux of molecules from a region of higher concentration to one of lower concentration, but diffusion also occurs when there is no concentration gradient. The result of diffusion is a gradual mixing of material. Mathematically, Fick's laws of diffusion describe diffusion and they can be used to solve for the diffusion coefficient, D. The Ficks first law postulates that the diffusive flux goes from regions of high concentration to regions of low concentration, with a magnitude that is proportional to the concentration gradient. The Ficks first law is expressed as:

where; J is the diffusion flux, D is the diffusion coefficient or diffusivity, is the concentration in dimensions of compound i (amount of substance per unit volume) and is the position or length. The Ficks second law is expressed as:

where; is the concentration in dimensions of (amount of substance) per cubic length, is the time, is the diffusion coefficient in dimensions of square length per time and is the position or length. A diffusion rate constant or known as the mass transfer coefficient is an equation that relates the mass transfer rate, mass transfer area, and concentration gradient as driving force. It is expressed as:

where; is the mass transfer coefficient, is the mass transfer rate, is the effective mass transfer area and is the driving force concentration difference. This can be used to quantify the mass transfer between phases, immiscible and partially miscible fluid mixtures (or between a fluid and a porous solid). Quantifying mass transfer allows for design and manufacture of separation process equipment that can meet specified requirements, estimate what will happen in real life situations like chemical spill Mass transfer coefficients can be estimated from many different theoretical equations, correlations, and analogies that are functions of material properties, intensive properties and flow regime (laminar or turbulent flow).

CONVECTIVE MASS TRANSFER Convective mass transfer is the mass transfer between two moving contacting phases either the phases is between gas-liquid or liquid-liquid. It is the transfer of a material by the action of the fluid and occurs on a mass due to forced fluid movement. Fluid, such as water, is forced to move when it is stirred. Convective mass transfer is a faster mass transfer than molecular diffusion. Whenever stirring is involved, the application of convective mass transfer theories is used. In real life application, if you are using a blender, beating an egg, adding food colouring, and kneading bread dough are all examples of mass transfer due to convection. Technically, convection means the concerted, collective movement of ensembles of molecules within fluids (liquids and gases) and rheids. Convective mass transfer cannot take place in solids, since either bulk current flows or significant diffusion can take place in solids. Convective mass transfer is the major mode of mass transfer in fluids. Convective mass transfer takes place by means of diffusion; the random Brownian motion of individual particles in the fluid and by advection in which matter is transported by the larger-scale motion of currents in the fluids.

APPLICATION OF MASS TRANSFER PRINCIPLES: Gas Absorption and Desorption There are two types of absorption processes: physical absorption and chemical absorption, depending on whether there is any chemical reaction between the solute and the solvent (absorbent). 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. More complex examples of chemical absorption are processes for absorbing CO2 and H2S with aqueous solution of monoethanolamine (MEA), diethanolamine (DEA), diethyleneglycol (DEG) or triethyleneglycol (TEG), where a reversible chemical reaction takes place in the liquid phase. Chemical reactions can increase the rate of absorption, increase the absorption capacity of the solvent, increase selectivity to preferentially dissolve only certain components of the gas, and convert a hazardous chemical to a safe compound. In this case, gas absorption (also known as scrubbing) is an operation in which a gas mixture is contacted with a liquid for the purpose of preferentially dissolving one or more components of the gas mixture and to provide a solution of them in the liquid. Therefore we can see that there is a mass transfer of the component of the gas from the gas phase to the liquid phase. The solute so transferred is said to be absorbed by the liquid. In gas desorption (or stripping), the mass transfer is in the opposite direction, i.e. from the liquid phase to the gas phase. The principles for both systems are the same. In this process, the analysis for gas absorption will only be considered, for the simple case whereby only one component of the gas solute is being absorbed. The other components of the gas are assumed to be nonsoluble in the liquid (i.e. the other gas components are inert components), and the liquid is nonvolatile, which means that there is no transfer of molecules from the liquid to the gas phase. In addition, it is assumed there is no chemical reaction in the system and that it is operating at isothermal condition. The process of gas absorption thus involves the diffusion of solute from the gas phase through a stagnant or non-diffusing liquid. Two methods of contacting the gas and liquid are possible: counter-current operation and co-current operation. However, focus is mainly given to the counter-current gas absorption, as it was widely used in the industry. The main differences between the two configurations will be highlighted. Note that for counter-current operation, the gas enters the column or tower from below as leaves at the top, while liquid enters from the top and flows in opposite direction and exits from the bottom. The gas flows upwards while the liquid flow downwards. Inside the column where there is vapour-liquid contact, mass transfer by absorption occurs, i.e. there is a transfer of solute(s) from the gas phase to the liquid phase. Absorption and stripping are conducted in tray (or plate or stage) columns, packed columns, spray towers, bubble columns, and centrifugal contactors. In general, operating pressure should be high and temperature low for an absorber, to minimize stage requirements 4

and/or absorbent flow rate to lower the equipment volume required to accommodate the gas flow. The reverse is true for stripping. However, the operating pressure should not be too high and the operating temperature should not be too low as to condense the feed gas. The types of trays used in absorption include: sieve tray, valve tray and bubble-cap trays. These internals are the same as those covered in "Distillation". Packed Column; both random and structured packings had been used. Spray Column; The gas flows upward continuously through an open chamber in which scrubbing liquid droplets falls from spray nozzles through the gas. The gas pressure drop is small, but separation is not as good as the bubble column. This column is widely used for its simplicity, low pressure drop, and resistance to scale deposition and plugging. Bubble Column; The gas is forced under pressure through perforated pipes submerged in the scrubbing liquid. As such the gas phase is dispersed and the liquid phase is continuous. As the bubbles rise through the liquid, absorption of the gas occurs. This type of device suffers from the high pressure drop due to the liquid hydrostatic head.

APPLICATION OF MASS TRANSFER PRINCIPLES: Industrial Distillation Large scale industrial distillation applications include both batch and continuous fractional, vacuum, azeotropic, extractive, and steam distillation. The most widely used industrial applications of continuous, steady-state fractional distillation are in petroleum refineries, petrochemical and chemical plants and natural gas processing plants. Industrial distillation is typically performed in large, vertical cylindrical columns known as distillation towers or distillation columns with diameters ranging from about 65 centimeters to 16 meters and heights ranging from about 6 meters to 90 meters or more. When the process feed has a diverse composition, as in distilling crude oil, liquid outlets at intervals up the column allow for the withdrawal of different fractions or products having different boiling points or boiling ranges. The "lightest" products (those with the lowest boiling point) exit from the top of the columns and the "heaviest" products (those with the highest boiling point) exit from the bottom of the column and are often called the bottoms. Industrial towers use reflux to achieve a more complete separation of products. Reflux refers to the portion of the condensed overhead liquid product from a distillation or fractionation tower that is returned to the upper part of the tower as shown in the schematic diagram of a typical, large-scale industrial distillation tower. Inside the tower, the downflowing reflux liquid provides cooling and condensation of the upflowing vapors thereby increasing the efficiency of the distillation tower. The more reflux that is provided for a given number of theoretical plates, the better the tower's separation of lower boiling materials from higher boiling materials. Alternatively, the more reflux that is provided for a given desired separation, the fewer the number of theoretical plates required. Such industrial fractionating towers are also used in air separation, producing liquid oxygen, liquid nitrogen, and high purity argon. Distillation of chlorosilanes also enables the production of high-purity silicon for use as a semiconductor.

Design and operation of a distillation tower depends on the feed and desired products. In modern industrial uses, a packing material is used in the column instead of trays when low pressure drops across the column are required. Other factors that favour packing are: vacuum systems, smaller diameter columns, corrosive systems, systems prone to foaming, systems requiring low liquid holdup and batch distillation. Conversely, factors that favor plate columns are: presence of solids in feed, high liquid rates, large column diameters, complex columns, columns with wide feed composition variation, columns with a chemical reaction, absorption columns, columns limited by foundation weight tolerance, low liquid rate, large turn-down ratio and those processes subject to process surges. This packing material can either be random dumped packing such as Raschig rings or structured sheet metal. Liquids tend to wet the surface of the packing and the vapours pass across this wetted surface, where mass transfer takes place. Unlike conventional tray distillation in which every tray represents a separate point of vapour-liquid equilibrium, the vapour-liquid equilibrium curve in a packed column is continuous. However, when modeling packed columns, it is useful to compute a number of "theoretical stages" to denote the separation efficiency of the packed column with respect to more traditional trays. Differently shaped packings have different surface areas and void space between packings. Both of these factors affect packing performance. Another factor in addition to the packing shape and surface area that affects the performance of random or structured packing is the liquid and vapour distribution entering the packed bed. The number of theoretical stages required to make a given separation is calculated using a specific vapour to liquid ratio. If the liquid and vapour are not evenly distributed across the superficial tower area as it enters the packed bed, the liquid to vapour ratio will not be correct in the packed bed and the required separation will not be achieved. The packing will appear to not be working properly. The design of the liquid distributors used to introduce the feed and reflux to a packed bed is critical to making the packing perform to it maximum efficiency.