Mass transfer examples

FIGURE 5 Two easy mass transfer examples. In the unsteady case in (a), the water evaporates into the air. In the steady-state case in (b), the spheres are always wet with water, which again evaporates. 

Aeration, absorption, and stripping are unit operations that rely on flow of masses between phases. When a difference in concentration exists between two points in a body of mass, a flow of mass occurs between the points. When the flow occurs between two phases of masses, a transfer of mass between the phases is said to occur. This transfer of mass between phases is called mass transfer. Examples of unit operations that embody the concept of mass transfer are distillation, absorption, dehumidilication, hquid extraction, leaching, and crystallization. 

By injection of a tracer gas into the flow (continuous or batchwise form) and by measuring its concentration and velocity one obtains information on the residence time distribution (RTD), mixing or mass transfer. Examples of applications of gas tracers to fluidized beds are presented in Table 9. Figure 27 presents a model of gas flow in the fluidized bed and an example of recorded data. Gas tracking is also a useful way to measure mass transfer in fluidized beds, as reported by Ebert et al. (1993) and de Kok et al. (1986). 

In two-phase batch reactors we always have the problem of non-steady state mass transfer. Examples of processes of this type are found in the chemical dissolution of solids in a liquid, see sections 10.3 and 11.2. 

There are some catalytic processes where a gas and a liquid are contacted with a solid catalyst. They are often carried out in slurry reactors or in three phase packed beds. Also in this case there may be a possibility of dissolving the gaseous reactant in the liquid before it enters the reactor, thus avoiding the problems inherent to gas/liquid mass transfer (example polypropylene process). 

Though the case of constant matrix elements and the example investigated by Hite are the only situations for which Che stoichiometric relations have been fully established in pellets of arbitrary shape, it is worth mentioning situations in which these relations are known not to hold. When the composition and pressure at the surface of the pellet may vary in an arbitrary way from point to point it seems unlikely on intuitive grounds that equations (11.3) will be satisfied, and Hite and Jackson [77] confirmed by direct computation that there are, indeed, simple situations in which they are violated. Less obviously, direct computation [75] has also shown them to be violated even when the pressure and composition of the environment are the same everywhere, in the case where finite resistances to mass transfer exist at the surface of Che pellet. 

For hquid systems v is approximately independent of velocity, so that a plot of JT versus v provides a convenient method of determining both the axial dispersion and mass transfer resistance. For vapor-phase systems at low Reynolds numbers is approximately constant since dispersion is determined mainly by molecular diffusion. It is therefore more convenient to plot H./v versus 1/, which yields as the slope and the mass transfer resistance as the intercept. Examples of such plots are shown in Figure 16. 

Chemical Equilibria. In many cases, mass transfer between two Hquid phases is accompanied by a chemical change. The transferring species can dissociate or polymerize depending on the nature of the solvent, or a reaction may occur between the transferring species and an extractant present in one phase. An example of the former case is the distribution of benzoic acid [65-85-0] between water and benzene. In the aqueous phase, the acid is partially dissociated ... 

The enhanced rate expressions for regimes 3 and 4 have been presented (48) and can be appHed (49,50) when one phase consists of a pure reactant, for example in the saponification of an ester. However, it should be noted that in the more general case where component C in equation 19 is transferred from one inert solvent (A) to another (B), an enhancement of the mass-transfer coefficient in the B-rich phase has the effect of moving the controlling mass-transfer resistance to the A-rich phase, in accordance with equation 17. Resistance in both Hquid phases is taken into account in a detailed model (51) which is apphcable to the reversible reactions involved in metal extraction. This model, which can accommodate the case of interfacial reaction, has been successfully compared with rate data from the Hterature (51). 

Sedimentation is also used for other purposes. For example, relative motion of particles and Hquid iacreases the mass-transfer coefficient. This motion is particularly useful ia solvent extraction ia immiscible Hquid—Hquid systems (see Extraction, liquid-liquid). An important commercial use of sedimentation is ia continuous countercurrent washing, where a series of continuous thickeners is used ia a countercurrent mode ia conjunction with reslurrying to remove mother liquor or to wash soluble substances from the soHds. Most appHcations of sedimentation are, however, ia straight sohd—Hquid separation. 

Tank Cells. A direct extension of laboratory beaker cells is represented in the use of plate electrodes immersed into a lined, rectangular tank, which may be fitted with a cover for gas collection or vapor control. The tank cell, which is usually undivided, is used in batch or semibatch operations. The tank cell has the attraction of being both simple to design and usually inexpensive. However, it is not the most suitable for large-scale operation or where forced convection is needed. Rotating cylinders or rotating disks have been used to overcome mass-transfer problems in tank cells. An example for electroorganic synthesis is available (46). 

Over 25 years ago the coking factor of the radiant coil was empirically correlated to operating conditions (48). It has been assumed that the mass transfer of coke precursors from the bulk of the gas to the walls was controlling the rate of deposition (39). Kinetic models (24,49,50) were developed based on the chemical reaction at the wall as a controlling step. Bench-scale data (51—53) appear to indicate that a chemical reaction controls. However, flow regimes of bench-scale reactors are so different from the commercial furnaces that scale-up of bench-scale results caimot be confidently appHed to commercial furnaces. For example. Figure 3 shows the coke deposited on a controlled cylindrical specimen in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and the rate of coke deposition. The deposition rate decreases with time and attains a pseudo steady value. Though this is achieved in a matter of rninutes in bench-scale reactors, it takes a few days in a commercial furnace. 

Mass-Transfer Coefficient Denoted by /c, K, and so on, the mass-transfer coefficient is the ratio of the flux to a concentration (or composition) difference. These coefficients generally represent rates of transfer that are much greater than those that occur by diffusion alone, as a result of convection or turbulence at the interface where mass transfer occurs. There exist several principles that relate that coefficient to the diffusivity and other fluid properties and to the intensity of motion and geometry. Examples that are outlined later are the film theoiy, the surface renewal theoiy, and the penetration the-oiy, all of which pertain to ideahzed cases. For many situations of practical interest like investigating the flow inside tubes and over flat surfaces as well as measuring external flowthrough banks of tubes, in fixed beds of particles, and the like, correlations have been developed that follow the same forms as the above theories. Examples of these are provided in the subsequent section on mass-transfer coefficient correlations. 

Problem Solving Methods Most, if not aU, problems or applications that involve mass transfer can be approached by a systematic-course of action. In the simplest cases, the unknown quantities are obvious. In more complex (e.g., iTmlticomponent, multiphase, multidimensional, nonisothermal, and/or transient) systems, it is more subtle to resolve the known and unknown quantities. For example, in multicomponent systems, one must know the fluxes of the components before predicting their effective diffusivities and vice versa. More will be said about that dilemma later. Once the known and unknown quantities are resolved, however, a combination of conservation equations, definitions, empirical relations, and properties are apphed to arrive at an answer. Figure 5-24 is a flowchart that illustrates the primary types of information and their relationships, and it apphes to many mass-transfer problems. 

Transfer of material between phases is important in most separation processes in which two phases are involved. When one phase is pure, mass transfer in the pure phase is not involved. For example, when a pure liqmd is being evaporated into a gas, only the gas-phase mass transfer need be calculated. Occasionally, mass transfer in one of the two phases may be neglec ted even though pure components are not involved. This will be the case when the resistance to mass transfer is much larger in one phase than in the other. Understanding the nature and magnitudes of these resistances is one of the keys to performing reliable mass transfer. In this section, mass transfer between gas and liquid phases will be discussed. The principles are easily applied to the other phases. 

When it is known that Hqg varies appreciably within the tower, this term must be placed inside the integr in Eqs. (5-277) and (5-278) for accurate calculations of hf. For example, the packed-tower design equation in terms of the overall gas-phase mass-transfer coefficient for absorption would be expressed as follows ... 

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