Al-Balqa' Applied University

Faculty of Engineering Technology

Department of Chemical Engineering

Report of Control Laboratory

Gas Absorption
:Edited by
Khaled Saad Khalaf Nayaif
Meshari Hamed ALshammari
Mohmmad

PAGE

TITLE

Abstract

Introduction

Aims

Theory

5-6

Apparatus and Materials

7-8

Methodology

-9

Results

10-13

Calculations

14

Discussion

15

Conclusion

16

Recommendations

17

Referemces

ABSTRACT

Gas absorption is a process in which the soluble parts of mixture are

transferred to a liquid.Gas absorption is done in a packed column .This report
are done as to examine the air pressure drop across the column as a function
of air flow rate for different water flow rates through the column. When the
1

air pressure drop to certain limit, the phenomena known as flooding will
occur in which the system can no longer operate as it is. Hence the flooding
point is to be determined as to make sure that the process should be made
.to operate under the flooding point

INTRODUCTION
Gas absorption is a process in which the soluble parts of a gas mixture are
transferred to or dissolved in a liquid. The reverse process, called desorption
or stripping, is used to transfer volatile parts from a liquid mixture to a gas
[1] . Therefore there will be mass transfer of the component of the gas from
the gas phase to the liquid phase. The solute transferred is said to be
absorbed by the liquid. In gas desorption (or stripping), the mass transfer is
in the opposite direction, of which the transfer is from the liquid phase to the
gas phase. The principles for both systems are the same. But from here and

on, we are only interested in gas absorption . There are 2 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
AIMS
To examine the air pressure drop across the column as a function of air flow
.rate for different water flow rates through the column
THEORY
Another definition of gas absorption/desorption is ,a process in which a
gaseous mixture is brought into contact with a liquid and during this contact
a component is transferred between the gas stream and the liquid stream.
The gas may be bubbled through the liquid, or it may be passed over
streams of the liquid, arranged to provide a large surface through which the
mass transfer can occur. The liquid film in this latter case can flow down the
sides of columns or over packing, or it can cascade from one tray to another
3

with the liquid falling and the gas rising in the counter flow. The gas, or
components of it, either dissolves in the liquid (absorption) or extracts a
volatile component from the liquid (desorption). [2]
In every packed tower with a given size of packing and type , has an upper
limit to the rate of gas flow known as flooding velocity of which the tower
cannot operate above the velocity mentioned earlier. At low gas velocities
the liquid flows downward through the packing uninfluenced by the upward
gas flow. As the gas flow rate increases at low gas velocities the pressure
drop starts to rise at higher rate. The liquid accumulation increases as the
gas flow rate is increased . At the flooding point, the liquid will no longer
have the ability to flow down through the pack column and later is blown out
with or by the gas. [3]
APPARATUS
:The apparatus used in this experiment are
SOLTEQ-QVF Absorption column (Model: BP 751-B)

The material used in this experiment is water and air.

METHODOLOGY / PROCEDURES
A) General start-up
1. All vavlves are closed except the ventilation valve V13.
2. All gas connections are ensured of properly fitted.

3. The valve on the compressed air supply line is opened. The supply
pressure is setted up in between 2 to 3 bar by turning the regulator knob
clockwise.
4. The shut-off valve on CO2 gas cylinder is opened. The CO2 gas cylinder
pressure is ensured to be sufficient.
5. The power for the control panel is turned on.

B) Experimental Procedures : Hydrodynamic of a Packed Column

(Wet Column Presssure Drop)
1. The general start up procedures are carried out
2. The receiving vessel B2 is filled with 50 L of water by opening valve V3
and V5.
3. Valve V3 is closed.
4. Valve V10 and valve V9 are slightly opened. The flow of water from vessel
B1 through pump P1 is observed.
5. Pump 1 is switched on then valve V11 is slowly opened and adjusted to
give a water flow rate of around 1 L/min. Water is allowed to enter the top
of column K1, flow down the column and accumulate at the bottom until it
overflows back to vessel B1.

6. Valve 11 is opened and and adjusted to give a water fow rate of 0.5 L/min
into column K1.
7. Valve V1 is opened and adjusted to give an air flow rate of 40L/min into
column K1.
8. The liquid and gas flow in the column 1 are observed , the pressure drop
across the column at dPT-201 is recorded.
9. Steps 6 to 7 are repeated with different values of air flow rate, where each
time is increased by 40L/min while the same water flow rate is
maintained.
10. Steps 5 to 8 are repeated with different values of water flow rate, of
which each time is increased by 0.5L/min by adjusting valve 11.

C) General Shut-Down Procedures

1. Pump 1 is switched off.
2. Valves V1,V2 and V3 are closed
3. The valves on the compressed air supply line is closed and the supply
pressure is exhausted by turning the regulator knob counterclockwise all
the way.
4. The shut-off valves on CO2 gas cylinder is closed
5. All liquid in the column in K1 is drained by opening valve V4 and V5.
6. All iquid from receiving vessels B1 and B2 are drained by opening valves
V7 and V8.
7. All liquid from pump 1 is drained by opening valve V10.
7

8. The power for the control panel is turned off.

RESULTS AND CALCULATIONS

Pressure drop (mmH2O)

Flow rate
(L/min)

18

16

14 120 100

58

21

18

10 9

53

30

80

60

40

20

Air
water

1.0

2.0

3.0

39 13

Table 1: Pressure Drop for Wet column

Figure 1: Pressure Drop vs. Air Flow Rate

Sample Calculations

:Data
Density of air = 1.175kg/m3
Density of water= 996kg/m3
Column diameter = 80mm
Area of packed column diameter = 0.005027m2
Packing Factor = 900 m1
Water viscosity = 0.001Ns/m2
: Theoretical Flooding Point
GG, gas flow rate (kg/m2s)

GG = GyXp / A

=
0.0779kg/m2s=

Capacity parameter, y-axis

0.0154=

GL , liquid flowrate per unit column cross-sectional area

=
x 10-3 kg/m2 3.896 =
Flow parameter , x- axis

= x-axis
10

3.032=
GL (kg/m2s)

Water Flow Rate (L/min)

x 10-3 3.896

1.0

6.6004

2.0

9.9006

3.0

Table 2 : Water Flowrate and GL , Liquid Flowrate per Unit Column CrossFlow parameter (x-axis) Capac
GG
Air
sectional Area
ity
flow
kg/m2)
Param
eter

Table 3 :Air Flowrate

rate
(L/min)

(y-

,gas flow rate

axis)

(kg/m2s) abrv. GG
,capacity parameter

(s

3.0LPM

2.0LPM

LPM 1.0

0.015 0.0779

20

.and flow parameter

4.3653

2.9102

3.032

0.061 0.1557

40

4
2.1840

1.4560

1.4560

0.138 0.2336

60

3
1.4557

0.009705

0.9705

0.245 0.3115

80

9
Figure 2 :

1.0917

0.5823

0.7278

Theoretical Pressure
Drop Correlation

100

1
0.8735

0.4854 0.00582
3

Chart For Random

Packings

0.384 0.3893

0.7279

0.4160

0.7531

0.553 0.4672

120

2
0.753 0.6229

140

1
0.5459

0.3639

0.9832

0.983 0.6229
2

160
11

(%) Error

Experimental

Theoretical

Water Flow

Flooding Air

Flooding Air

Rate

Flowrate

Flowrate

(L/min)

(L/min)

11.1

160

180

1.0

14.28

120

140

2.0

20

80

100

3.0

(L/min)

Table 4 : comparison of theoretical and correlation of flooding point

DISCUSSION
In this experiment, the interest is to examine the air pressure drop across the
column as a function of air flow rate for different water flow rates through the
column. The experiment based on the flow rate of liquid and gas in the
.packed
Firstly the water flow rate is kept constant to 1 L/min and the air flow rate is
then recorded after a 1 minute interval. Air flow rate is kept rising at constant
by 20 L/min by each 5 minutes. All reading of pressure drop are then
recorded until the flooding point is reached. The pressure drop for flow rate of
air are 0,2,6,7,9,10,13,21,58 mm H20 respectively to
.20,40,60,80,100,120,140,160 and 180 L/min of air
The flow rate of water is then adjusted to 2 L/min, the data recorded are

12

8,2,0,3,9,30,53 mm H20 respectively to 20,40,60,80,100,120,140,160 L/min

of air. It cannot reach 180 L/min of air flow rate as the water will sprayed out
from the column due to the high flow rate. Theoretically, the pressure drop
will increase as the air flow rate of air is increased, however at the beginning
of the experiment , the pump suddenly failed to work as an overflow occurs
.hence jeoparding the system of which being experimented
As the water flow rate is increased to 3 L/min, the datas are , 0,2,7,13,39 mm
H20 respectively to 20,40,60 and 80 L/min of air . Beyond 80 L/min of air , the
.flooding occurs
The graph of column Pressure Drop vs. Air Flow Rate is plotted and in which
the results from the plotted graph shown the higher the gas flow rate , the
.higher the pressure drop
For correlated value of the pressure drop,calculations has ben made and a
graph of capacity parameter against flow rate parameter is plotted. The
capacity parameter is indirectly proportional to flow rate parameter
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the air pressure drop across the column increases as the air
flow rate increases as well as the water flow rate through the column. From
the experiment, the value of experimental pressure drop is higher compared
to the correlated values for packed column. For packed column of water
flowrate of 1 LPM, the error invovled is the lowest that is 11.1 %, followed by
that of water flowrate of 2 LPM which is 14.28 % . At water flowrate of 3 LPM,
the error involved is 20% . These percentage errors between theoretical and
correlated calculations of flooding point are slightly high due to some
13

unexpected instrumental error as the pump suddenly shut off in the middle
of the experiment. Hence, all instruments must be checked before any
.experiment is conducted to ensure the accuracy of the outcomes

RECOMMENDATIONS
Some suggestion in improving the safety are to always check and rectify any
leak and all operating instructions supplied with the unit must be carefully
read and understood before attempting to operate the unit. Next, be
extremely careful when handling hazardous, flammable or polluting materials
such as CO2. Make sure the system is sufficiently ventilated when working at
.atmospheric pressure

14

REFERENCES

[1] Perry, Robert H., and Green. Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook. New
York: McGraw-Hill, Inc. (1984), pp14-6,18-22-2
[2] Retrieved on 12th March,2015 from
http://www.nzifst.org.nz/unitoperations/conteqseparation8.htm
[3] Geankoplis, C.J. (2003). Transport Processes and Separation Process
Principle, 4th Edition. New York: Prentice Hall,pp657-660
[4] Retrieved on 12th March,2015 from
http://www.separationprocesses.com)

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