Al-Hussein bin Talal University

Department of Engineering
Unit Operations Lab

Student Name :- Ahlam Zureiqat

(120130503001)

Experiment (4)
Wetted Wall Gas Absorption column
Eng.Eman
Abstract:
The aim of the experiment was to form the variation of mass transfer coefficients
of humidification of air with air flow rate & the other aim is to determine the
power relationship between the transfer coefficient and the mass flow rate of
absorping water at different air flow rate using watted wall gas absorption column
(CES) device. The result show that as the airflow rate decreased the mass transfer
coefficient decreased & increasing the diameter will decrease the mass transfer
coefficient, also Reynolds number noted that for turbulent flow the mass transfer
was much higher than laminar flow .
Introduction:
Gas absorption 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. from the liquid phase to the gas phase. The principles
for both systems are the same.We will focus on the analysis for gas
absorption, 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 non-soluble in the liquid and the liquid is non-volatile, which means that

there is no transfer of molecules from the liquid to the gas phase .

Wetted Wall Column plays a very significant role in process engineering in terms of designing
equipment and to obtain data to enable further study of important chemical processes such as
gas absorption, distillation and vaporization the data from wetted wall columns can also be used
to arrive at a correlation between components presents in different phases which exist in
equilibrium and most importantly the mass transfer coefficient.
The process involves a vertical tube with a diameter to allow gas to show through the gas can
show either ways either way upward or downward the tubes also includes a volatile liquid
which shows down in a thin film. The interfacial area is measured and kept contestants this is
the area between the gas phase and thin film of liquid. The evaporation rate of liquid into the
gas stream is very useful because it is the one used to calculate the mass transfer coefficient for
the gas phase. The rate of mass transfer is heavily controlled by the conditions that are present
at the interface between the liquid film and the gas stream.
It has been noted that most times the liquid film is laminar but the show of the gas stream
could also be laminar or turbulents this shows us that the mass transfer coefficient is heavily
depended on the type of show for the gas phase. The whole point for us doing the experiment
was to get a variation of mass transfer coefficient for humidification of air with air showrate.
The other objective was to discover the correlation between mass transfer coefficient and
Reynolds number for both show laminar and turbulent.
Calculation and Figure:
Air flow rate = 1000 cm3/min
= 150 cm3/min
Water flow rate = 2.5*10-3kg/s
= 2.5*10-6m3/s
Diameter of column (Dc) = 3.16 cm
Height of column = 90 cm
μL = 0.00102 Ns/m2

ρL = 1000 kg/ m3
DL = 2.5 * 10-9 m2/s
O2 in = 7.30%
O2 out =38.60%

∆CLM = (100-7.3)-(100-38.6)/Ln((100-37)/(100-38.6))
= 75.97850162
= 6.838065146 ppm
= 0.006838265 kg/m3
Wetted perimeter = π*Dc
= 3.14*3.16*10-2
= 0.099224 m

Т= water flow rate / wetted perimeter

= 2.5*10-3/0.099224
= 0.025195517 kg/sm

Re= 4*Т /μL

 = 4*0.025195517/1.02*10-3
= 98.80594986
J= change in O2 concentration * volumetric flow rate of water
= (38.6-7.3)*0.09*10-3*2.5*10-6
= 7.042510-9 kg/s
A=Dc * π*z
= 3.16*10-2*3.14*0.9
=0.0893016 m2
KL= j/A*∆CLM
7.042510-9/(0.0893016*0.006838065)
= 1.15464*10-5
KL*z/Dl = 4156.706998

Figure 1

Sh = KL*z/DL = 4156.706998
Sc = μL/ ρL*DL = 408
Ga = ρL2*g*z3 / μL2 = 6.88*10-12
Re = 4 t / μL = 98.8059494986
Log sh = 3.618749
Log Re = 1.994783

Sh = 0.724*(Sc)0.5 * (Ga)1/6*Ren
Log(Sh) = n log(Re)+ log (0.2016818)

Discussion:
It can be seen that as the airshow rate decreased the mass transfer coefficient also decreased
because with started with a high showrate of air so this works and agrees with the theory
because usually you would start with a low airshow rate and expect the mass transfer
coefficient to increase as the air showrate is increase by in out experiment the mass transfer
. coefficient was noted to be decreasing as the airshow rate was decreased
The other effect that was part of the experiment was the diameter of the column that the
shuids where showing in and we noted that increasing the diameter was found to decrease the
.mass transfer coefficient
another key factor that played a part in the mass transfer coefficient was the Reynolds number
it was noted that for turbulent show the mass transfer was much higher this because in
turbulent show the shuid was undergoing irregular mixing and shuctuations which is very
different to laminar show which had a much lower mass transfer coefficient because the shuid
.was showing in smooth layers
another factor that made the turbulent to have a much high mass transfer coefficient was
because in this show the speed of the $uid was continuously undergoing changes in both
magnitude and direction. as touched on brieshy the laminar show had a lower mass transfer
coefficient this is because the laminar show made the shuid move in parallel layers and the
layers were showing smoothly along and over each other and the viscosity of the shuid
dampened an instability and I think this played a major part in the low values for the mass
transfer coefficient in contrast to the turbulent values. lastly because the velocity remained
constant for the laminar show which lead to less mixing and interaction between the shuids and
.lead to a lesser mass transfer coefficient

:Conclusion
This excitement allowed use to explore the importance of shuid showrates on the
mass transfer coefficient which showed us the more shuid showing the higher the
mass transfer and we also looked at the effect on Reynolds number on the mass
transfer concluding that for the different show types laminar will also result in a
lower mass transfer coefficient because of its principles and turbulent will have a
higher mass transfer coefficient because of its principles and last but not least we
also find out that the diameter of the column used had an effect on the show type
and mass transfer coefficient .This was very important because mass transfer has a
lot of applications in chemical and process engineering such as dispersion of
contaminants drying and humidifying separation and doping in materials
vaporisation and condensation in a mixture.