Packed mass transfer rates

Design Procedure. The packed height of the tower required to reduce the concentration of the solute in the gas stream from to acceptable residual level ofjy 2 may be calculated by combining point values of the mass transfer rate and a differential material balance for the absorbed component. Referring to a sHce dh of the absorber (Fig. 5),... 

The predictions of correlations based on the film model often are nearly identical to predictions based on the penetration and surface-renewal models. Thus, in view of its relative simphcity, the film model normally is preferred for purposes of discussion or calculation. It should be noted that none of these theoretical models has proved adequate for maldug a priori predictions of mass-transfer rates in packed towers, and therefore empirical correlations such as those outlined later in Table 5-28. must be employed. 

To determine the mass-transfer rate, one needs the interfacial area in addition to the mass-transfer coefficient. For the simpler geometries, determining the interfacial area is straightforward. For packed beds of particles a, the interfacial area per volume can be estimated as shown in Table 5-27-A. For packed beds in distillation, absorption, and so on in Table 5-28, the interfacial area per volume is included with the mass-transfer coefficient in the correlations for HTU. For agitated liquid-liquid systems, the interfacial area can be estimated... 

Flow Reactors Fast reactions and those in the gas phase are generally done in tubular flow reaclors, just as they are often done on the commercial scale. Some heterogeneous reactors are shown in Fig. 23-29 the item in Fig. 23-29g is suited to liquid/liquid as well as gas/liquid. Stirred tanks, bubble and packed towers, and other commercial types are also used. The operadon of such units can sometimes be predicted from independent data of chemical and mass transfer rates, correlations of interfacial areas, droplet sizes, and other data. 

Use of Mass-Transfer-Rate Expression Figure 14-3 shows a section of a packed absorption tower together with the nomenclature that will be used in developing the equations which follow. In a differential section dh, we can equate the rate at which solute is lost from the gas phase to the rate at which it is transferred through the gas phase to the interface as follows ... 

The absorption of reactants (or desorption of products) in trickle-bed operation is a process step identical to that occurring in a packed-bed absorption process unaccompanied by chemical reaction in the liquid phase. The information on mass-transfer rates in such systems that is available in standard texts (N2, S6) is applicable to calculations regarding trickle beds. This information will not be reviewed in this paper, but it should be noted that it has been obtained almost exclusively for the more efficient types of packing material usually employed in absorption columns, such as rings, saddles, and spirals, and that there is an apparent lack of similar information for the particles of the shapes normally used in gas-liquid-particle operations, such as spheres and cylinders. 

It is concluded that gas bubble-columns exhibit mass-transfer rates of the same order of magnitude as packed columns at low liquid flow rates, and much higher mass-transfer rates at high liquid flow rates. The pressure drop across a bubble-column is much greater than that across packed columns of the same height. 

The mass-transfer rates obtainable across the gas-liquid interface are of nearly the same magnitude in the different operations. Bubble-column slurries exhibit rather higher transfer rates than conventional packed columns... 

Danckwerts et al. (D6, R4, R5) recently used the absorption of COz in carbonate-bicarbonate buffer solutions containing arsenate as a catalyst in the study of absorption in packed column. The C02 undergoes a pseudo first-order reaction and the reaction rate constant is well defined. Consequently this reaction could prove to be a useful method for determining mass-transfer rates and evaluating the reliability of analytical approaches proposed for the prediction of mass transfer with simultaneous chemical reaction in gas-liquid dispersions. 

Column reactors can contain a draft tube - possibly filled with a packing characterized by low pressure drop - or be coupled with a loop tube, to make the gas recirculating within the reaction zone (see Fig. 5.4-9). In recent years, the Buss loop reactor has found many applications in two- and three-phase processes About 200 Buss loop systems are now in operation worldwide, also in fine chemicals plants. This is due to the high mass-transfer rate between the gas and the liquid phase. The Buss loop reactor can be operated semibatch-wise or continuously. As a semibach reactor it is mostly used for catalytic hydrogenations. 

Fig. 4.18 represents a countercurrent-flow, packed gas absorption column, in which the absorption of solute is accompanied by the evolution of heat. In order to treat the case of concentrated gas and liquid streams, in which the total flow rates of both gas and liquid vary throughout the column, the solute concentrations in the gas and liquid are defined in terms of mole ratio units and related to the molar flow rates of solute free gas and liquid respectively, as discussed previously in Sec. 3.3.2. By convention, the mass transfer rate equation is however expressed in terms of mole fraction units. In Fig. 4.18, Gm is the molar flow of solute free gas (kmol/m s), is the molar flow of solute free liquid (kmol/m s), where both and Gm remain constant throughout the column. Y is the mole ratio of solute in the gas phase (kmol of solute/kmol of solute free gas), X is the mole ratio of solute in the liquid phase (kmol of...

Rao et al. (R7) first made local mass-transfer measurements, by ring electrodes embedded in the perforated plates between which a packed bed was contained. They measured the local mass-transfer rate at ring electrodes... 

Study of the eflSciency of packed columns in liquid-liquid extraction has shown that spontaneous interfacial turbulence or emulsification can increase mass-transfer rates by as much as three times when, for example, acetone is extracted from water to an organic solvent (84, 85). Another factor which may be important for flow over packing has been studied by Ratcliff and Reid (86). In the transfer of benzene into water, studied with a laminar spherical film of water flowing over a single sphere immersed in benzene, they found that in experiments where the interface was clean... 

In multiphase reactors we frequently exploit the density differences between phases to produce relative motions between phases for better contacting and higher mass transfer rates. As an example, in trickle bed reactors (Chapter 12) liquids flow by gravity down a packed bed filled with catalyst, while gases are pumped up through the reactor in countercurrent flow so that they may react together on the catalyst surface. 

One can increase the external mass transfer rate by increasing the flow velocily u over the catalyst pellet. In a slurry this can be accomplished by increasing the stirring, and in a packed bed or fluidized bed it can be increased somewhat by increasing the flow velocity (although with the same catalyst this decreases t, which lowers the conversion). 

Now, we consider gas-liquid mass transfer rates in gas absorption and its reverse operation - that is, gas desorption in packed columns. The gas entering the column from the bottom and the liquid entering from the top exchange solute while contacting each other. In case of absorption, the amount of solute transferred from the gas to the liquid per unit sectional area of the column is... 

In the general case where the equilibrium hne is curved, the mass transfer rate for gas absorption per differential packed height dZ and unit cross-sectional area of the column is given as... 

To determine the mass-transfer rate, one needs the interfacial area in addition to the mass-transfer coefficients. The literature on tower packings, for example, normally reports kGpa values measured at very low inlet-gas concentrations, so that yBM — 1, and at a total pressure close to 1 atmosphere. Thus, the correct rate coefficient for use in packed-tower design involving the use of the driving force (y-y /yBM is obtained by multiplying the reported kGpa values by the value of Pj employed in the actual test unit (here 1 atm = 101.3 kPa) and not the... 

Flooding, holdup, and mass transfer rates are highly interdependent and are not simply related. Reissinger and Schroter (1978) state that tray towers in comparison with other types have good efficiencies at 60 nr /m2 hr at frequencies of 60-90/min and amplitudes of 10 mm. Packed towers have about 2/3 the capacities of tray towers. Also in comparison with unagitated towers, which are limited to interfacial tensions below lOdyn/cm, pulsed towers are not limited by interfacial tension up to 30-40 dyn/cm. Some... 

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