INTRODUCTION Gas absorption is a widely unit operation in chemical engineering.

There are numerous process applications where particular components need to be selectively removed from a gas stream. The type of contacting unit for the feed gas and the absorbing liquid can be tailored to the application along with the choice of the absorbent which will have a high selectivity for the desired components along with a high capacity for the absorbed components. The use of chemically reactive absorption systems has been developed by chemical engineers as a process that shows high selectivity and capacity as compared to absorbents which do not chemically react with the absorbing species. There are numerous applications of this approach in the chemical industry. Examples are the removal of ammonia in the Haber process of ammonia synthesis, separations of acid such as CO2 and H2S from natural gas, and CO separation from gas mixtures with H2. There are numerous types of contactors that have been developed to assure a good contact between the gas and liquid streams. This is important to obtain an ecient separation process that requires a minimal size for the absorber. Many of the contactors are similar to those used in distillation. These include bubble cap trays and columns lled with various packing. Chemical engineers need to be able to design gas absorbers which produce a treated gas of a desired purity with an optimal size and liquid ow. This can be based on existing correlations and, when required, laboratory and/or pilot plant data.

OBJECTIVE The main goals for this experiment is to demonstrate the absorption of CO2 into water using a packed column and to study the effect of water flow rates on the rate of CO2 absorption. Furthermore, this experiment is conduct to calculate the rate of absorption of CO2 into water and to investigate the saturation composition of CO2 in water.

THEORY Consider a system in which a gaseous component A is in equilibrium with both air and water at a given temperature. The equilibrium system can be expressed by Henrys Law : pA = HXA where H is the Henrys Law constant for the given system expressed in atm/mole fraction. Equilibrium curve can be plotted with an operating line as well. A single stage equilibrium process is defined as the one in which two different phases are brought into intimate contact with each other and then are separated. Various components transfer between the two phases and are essentially at equilibrium with each other after considerable mixing. V1YA1 L0XA0

L1XA1 V2YA2 Total material : L0 + V2 = L1 + V1 Component A : L0XA0 + V2YA2 = L1XA1 + V1YA1 In an absorption process, two immiscible phases (gas and liquid) are presented in which the solute will diffuse from one phase to the other through an interface between the two phases. For a solute A to diffuse from the gas phase V into the liquid phase L, it must first pass through phase V, the interface and then into phase L in series. A concentration gradient has to exist to allow the mass transfer to take place through resistances in each phase. There is usually negligible resistance to mass transfer across the interface. For a gas absorption process, it is common that only one solute component diffuses through stagnant gas and liquid phases. The rates of mass transfer in a packed absorption column can be represents as :

Gas film : NA = Kya ( y yi) Liquid film : NA = kxa (xi x) NA = rate of absorption Kx,y = individual film mass transfer coefficient a = interfacial area per unit packing volume x = concentration in liquid phase y = concentration in gas phase xi = concentration at the liquid interface yi = concentration at the gas interface Liquid film controlling means that any change in the liquid film coefficient kxa will effect a nearly proportional change on both Kya and Kxa, while change in the gas film coefficient kya will have little effect. Gas film controlling means that a change in kya will have a much larger effect on the overall values of kya and kxa, thus absorption rate, than a change in kxa. The pressure drop that occurs in a packed column is due to fluid friction among the packings. A point in which liquid holdup starts to increase, the slope of the pressure drop changes are called loading point.