Absoiption towers

An improvement over the Kremser and Souders and Brown approach was suggested by Ed mister9 who developed the following equation to define na effective absoiption factor for the tower ... 

To determine the required size of an absorption or stripping nrtl, it is necessary to know not only the equilibrium soluhility of the solute in the solvent and the material balance atound the column bas also the rate at which solute is transferred from one phase to the other within the tower. This rale directly affects the volume of packing needed in a packed tower, the degree of dispersion requited in a spray contactor, and (somewhat less directly) the number of trays required in a nay tower. The last effect occurs as a result of the influence of mass transfer rms on tray efficiency which is discussed in a later section. Because of its direct effect ou packed tower design and the importance of this type of contactor in absoiption. this discussion of mass transfer is aimed primarily at the packed tower case. A more detailed review of mass transfer theoty is given in Chapter 2. 

The most fundamental pieces of vapor liquid separation equipment in the chemical engineer s toolbox are either an absorption or stripping tower. In this section, absoiption design will be investigated. Absorption operations have found considerable application in chemical industries, some of which include air purification and removing catalyst poisons from reactive gas mixtures. A typical absorption tower is shown in Figure 5.1. 

A methodology for predicting the performance of an isothermal packed tower used for chemical absorption has been developed by Joshi et al. The study was based on the absorption of COi in a hot aqueous solution of potassium carbonate however, the general approach is applicable to other chemical absoiption processes. 

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