Gas Purification Processes

The primary operation of gas purification processes generally falls into one of the
following five categories:
1. Absorption into a liquid
2. Adsorption on a solid
3. Permeation through a membrane
4. Chemical conversion to another compound
5. Condensation
Absorption:
It refers to the transfer of a component of a gas phase to a liquid phase in which it is
soluble.
Stripping is exactly the reverse-the transfer of a component from a liquid phase in which
it is
dissolved to a gas phase. Absorption is undoubtedly the single most important operation
of
gas purification processes and is used widely..
Adsorption:
It is the selective concentration of one or more components of a gas at the surface of a
microporous
solid. The mixture of adsorbed components is called the adsorbate, and the microporous
solid is the adsorbent. The attractive forces holding the adsorbate on the adsorbent are
weaker than those of chemical bonds, and the adsorbate can generally be released
(desorbed)
by raising the temperature or reducing the partial pressure of the component in the gas
phase
in a manner analogous to the stripping of an absorbed component from solution. When
an
adsorbed component reacts chemically with the solid, the operation is called
chemisorption
and desorption is generally not possible.
Membrane permeation:
It is a relatively new technology in the field of gas purification. In this process, polymeric
membranes separate gases by selective permeation of one or more gaseous
components from
one side of a membrane barrier to the other side. The components dissolve in the
polymer at
one surface and are transported across the membrane as the result of a concentration
gradient.
The concentration gradient is maintained by a high partial pressure of the key
components in
the gas on one side of the membrane barrier and a low partial pressure on the other
side.
Although membrane permeation is still a minor factor in the field of gas purification, it is
rapidly finding new applications.
Chemical conversion:
It is the principal operation in a wide variety of processes, including catalytic and
noncatalytic

gas phase reactions and the reaction of gas phase components with solids. The
reaction of gaseous Species with liquids and with solid particles suspended in liquids is
considered to be a special case of absorption and is discussed under that subject.
Condensation:
This process is of interest primarily for the removal of VOCs from exhaust gases. The
process consists of simply cooling the gas stream to a temperature at which the Organic
compound has a suitably low vapor pressure and collecting the condensate.