ABSORPTION & STRIPPING

 Absorption (or scrubbing) is the removal of a component (the solute or absorbate)

from a gas stream via uptake by a non-volatile liquid (the solvent or absorbent).

 Absorption is used to separate gas mixture; remove impurities, contaminants,

pollutants, or catalyst poisons from gas; or recovery of valuable chemicals.

 Desorption (or stripping) is the removal of a component from a liquid stream via
vaporization and uptake by an insoluble gas stream.

 Thus, absorption and stripping are opposite unit operations, and are often used
together as a cycle.

 Both absorption and stripping can be operated as equilibrium stage processes using
tray columns or, more commonly, using packed columns

 The inert gas in the gas mixture is called “carrier gas”.

 In the absorption process of ammonia from air-ammonia mixture by water, air is

carrier gas, ammonia is ‘‘solute” and water is absorbent.

 An intimate contact between solute gas and absorbent liquid is achieved in a suitable
absorption equipment, namely, tray tower, packed column, spray tower, venture
scrubber, etc.

 Absorption operation is of two types; physical and chemical.

Absorber/Stripper Cycle

Absorption Systems – Physical

 Physical absorption relies on the solubility of a particular gas in a liquid (e.g.

absorption of acetone from acetone – air mixture by water).

 This solubility is often quite low; consequently, a relatively large amount of liquid
solvent is needed to obtain the required separation.

 This liquid solvent containing the solute is typically regenerated by heating or

stripping to drive the solute back out.

 Because of the low solubility and large solvent amounts required in physical
absorption, chemical absorption is also used.

Absorption Systems – Chemical

 Chemical absorption relies on reaction of a particular gas with a reagent in a liquid

(e.g. absorption of nitrogen oxides by water to produce nitric acid).

 This absorption can often be quite high; consequently, a smaller amount of liquid
solvent/reagent is needed to obtain the required separation.

 However, the reagent may be relatively expensive, and it is often desirable to

regenerate when possible.

Equipment
  Absorption and stripping are conducted in tray towers (plate column), packed column,
spray tower, bubble column, and centrifugal contactors. The first two types of these
equipment will be discussed.

Tray tower:

 A tray tower is a vertical, cylindrical pressure vessel in which gas and liquid, which
flow counter currently, are contacted on a series of metal trays or plates.

 Liquid flows across any tray over an outlet weir, and into a down comer, which takes
the liquid by gravity to the tray below.

 The gas flows upward through opening in each tray, bubbling through the liquid on
the other tray.

 A schematic diagram for the flow patterns inside the tray column is shown below.

Figure : Typical cross-flow plate (sieve)

Packed tower

 The packed column is a vertical, cylindrical pressure vessel containing one or more
section of packing material over which the liquid flows down wards by gravity as a
film or as droplets between packing elements.

 Gas flows upwards through the wetted packing contacting the liquid.
 The sections of packing are contained between a lower gas - injection support plate,
which holds the packing, and an upper grid or mish hold-down plate, which prevent
packing movement.

 A liquid distributor, placed above the hold-down plate, ensures uniform distribution
of liquid as it enters the packing section.

Figure: Packing absorber column

General Design Consideration

 Design or analysis of an absorber (or stripper) requires consideration of a number of

factors, including:

1. Entering gas (liquid) flow rate, composition, temperature, and pressure.

2. Design degree of recovery (R) of one or more solutes.

3. Choice absorbent (solvent).

4. Operating pressure and temperature and allowable pressure drop.

 5. Minimum absorbent (solvent) flowrate and actual solvent flowrate as a multiple of the
minimum rate needed to make the separation.

Number of equilibrium stages.

7. Heat effects and need for cooling (heating).

8. Type of absorber (stripper) equipment.

9. Height of absorber (stripper) column.

10. Diameter of absorber (stripper) column

Selection of solvent for absorption

 If the objective of absorption is separation of a particular component from a mixture,

selection of absorbent plays a great role.

 Few criteria for the selection of an absorbent/solvent are as follows:

(A) Gas Solubility: High solubility of a gas in the solvent is preferred, utilizing low quantity
of solvent.

(B) Volatility: Low volatility or low vapor pressure of the solvent enhances the absorption
operation as solvent loss with carrier gas is very small.

(C) Viscosity: For better absorption, a solvent of low viscosity is required.

(D)Corrosiveness: Non-corrosive or less corrosive solvent reduces equipment construction

cost as well as maintenance cost.

(E) Cost: The solvent should be cheap so that losses will be insignificant and should be easily
available.

(F) Toxicity and Hazard: The solvent should be non-toxic, nonflammable, non-hazardous and
should be chemically stable.

 The most widely absorbent (solvent) used are water, hydrocarbon oils, and aqueous
solutions of acids and bases. While the most common stripping agents used are water
vapor, air, inert gases, and hydrocarbon gases.

Types and Components of Absorbers

 Spray-Tower Absorbers
 Tray-Tower Absorbers

Sieve Trays Bubble-cap tray

Packed bed absorbers

Packing Material
 Factors for selection of packing material
Henry’s Law – Mole Fraction Relationship

 Absorption data is typically available in the form of solute mole fractions, y i vs. xi, or
in terms of the Henry’s constant, H.

 Henry’s Law, in terms of the mole fractions of solute i and the total pressure, is:

Hi
yi  xi Hi y
PTot  i
PTot x i

 Henry’s Law is valid at low concentrations of solute i, approximately less than 10%.

Henry’s Law Constants

Absorption and Stripping Assumptions

We assume that:

 The carrier gas is insoluble (or it has a very low solubility) in the solvent.

 The solvent is nonvolatile (or it has a low vapor pressure).

 The system is isothermal. e.g., the effects of heat of solution or reaction are low or
there is a cooling or heating system in the column.

 The system is isobaric.

 The concentration of the solute is low, say <10% – this is the limit for the use of
Henry’s Law.

 While the total gas and liquid streams can change in absorption, the flow rate of the
carrier gas, which we assume to be insoluble in the solvent, does not change.

 Similarly, the flow rate of the solvent, which we assume to be nonvolatile, does not
change.

 Consequently, we can define our equilibrium curve and operating line in terms of
mole ratios with respect to the carrier gas and solvent, instead of mole fractions as we
did in distillation.
  Doing so circumvents the problem of the changing total gas and liquid stream
amounts or flowrates in absorption and stripping.

Absorption – Variable Specification

Total Vapor (V) and Total Liquid (L)

Flows Rates and Mole Fractions Carrier Gas (G) and Solvent (L)
Flow Rates and mole ratios

Liquid Solvent to Carrier Gas Ratio

Defining the L and G flow rates as

L = molar flow rate of nonvolatile solvent (solute-free absorbent)

G = molar flow rate of insoluble carrier gas (solute free gas)

The assumptions of a non-volatile solvent and insoluble carrier gas yields

L N  L j  L 0  L  constant

G N 1  G j  G 1  G  constant

We can define the ratio of liquid to gas as

L moles nonvolatil e solvent/hr

  constant
G moles insoluble carrier gas/hr
Mole Ratios

We can then define the gas and liquid molar ratios as

moles solute in gas moles solute in liquid

Y X
moles solute free carier gas moles solute free absorbent

The molar ratios are related to the mole fractions for solute i by

yi xi
Yi  Xi 
1 - yi 1- xi

Absorber Operating Line

Henry’s Law – Mole Ratio Relationship

We can rewrite Henry’s Law for solute i,

Hi
yi  xi
PTot

in mole ratios, using the mole fraction relationships,

yi xi
Yi  L X i  L 
1 - y i Yj1  X j   Y
11- x i X 0 
G  G 

McCabe-Thiele Plot – Absorber

Minimum Absorbent Rate – Lmin

McCabe-Thiele Plot – Stripper

Example

A gas stream containing 90 mol% N2 and 10% CO2 is passed through an absorber, in which
pure and cool water at 5oC is used as a solvent. The operation is assumed to be isothermal at
5oC and isobaric at 10 atm. The liquid flow rate is 1.5 times the minimum liquid flow rate .

Determine the number of equilibrium stages required to absorb 92 mol% of CO 2 given

Henry’s constant of CO2 in water at 5oC of 876 atm/mole fraction.

• Basis: 1.0 mol/h of the gas mixture

• The schematic diagram for this absorption operation can be illustrated as follows
Substituting given numerical values into the following equation

This is the equilibrium equation; thus, the equilibrium or the y-x data can be computed and
summarized in the following Table:
• However, both x and y have to be converted to X and Y as exemplified below

• From the problem statement, it is required that 92 mol% of CO2 is absorbed by the
solvent (i.e. cool water).

• Accordingly, only 8% of CO2 input into the absorber (i.e. yN+1 = 0.10) remains in the
gas mixture, which is equal to the mole fraction of CO2 of
The amount of carrier gas (i.e. N2 in this Example) is given as 90%, meaning that the flowrate
of the carrier gas (only) is

• Since pure water is used as the solvent, it results in the fact that x o =0 , which means
that xo = 0

• Accordingly, the origin of the operating line is the point (X o, Y1) of (0, 0.0089). The
equilibrium line (from the equilibrium data can be plotted on the Y-X coordinate as
shown on the next Page (as a solid line)

• The (L /G) min line is the line originates from the point of (0, 0.0089 and ) touches the
equilibrium line at Y = YN+1 = 0.11; note that the X value at the touching point is
0.00105
• The slope of the (L/ G)min line (the dotted lines) is found to be 97.2

• Hence, the slope of the actual operating line is 1.5 *(L/G)min = 1.5*97.2 = 145.8

• The origin of the actual operating line is still at the point (0, 0.0089 as ) per the
line

• SinceY1 must still be the same (at 0.11) as it is the requirement, the value of XN for
the actual operating line (with the slope of 145.8) can be computed as follows.

• Thus, the actual operating line is the line connecting between the point (x o,Y1) of (0,
0.0089) and the point (XN,YN+1) of (0.0007, 0.11).

• Step off stages from the point (xo,Y1) of (0, 0.0089) to the point where XN=0.0007
yields the number of equilibrium stages of ≈ 3.8.