Mass Transfer Operations

Department of Chemical Engineering Technology

Government College University Faisalabad

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 Unimolecular Diffusion: log-mean average concentration

Welty, James R., et al. Fundamentals of momentum, heat, and mass transfer. John Wiley & Sons, 2009 Mass Transfer Operations - CET, GCUF 2
 Numerical Problem-6

Geankoplis, Christie J. Transport processes and separation process

principles:. Prentice Hall Professional Technical Reference, 2003.
 Diffusion Coefficient (Diffusivity)
✓Fick’s law proportionality factor, DAB is known as the diffusion coefficient or diffusivity.
✓The diffusion coefficient depends upon the pressure, temperature, and composition of the system
✓The temperature & pressure is a measure of the average velocity and average collisions of gas
molecules respectively. Therefore, the diffusion rates are higher at higher temperatures and lower at
higher pressures. The diffusion coefficient of carbon through iron during a hardening process, for
example, increases by 6000 times as the temperature is raised from 500°C to 1000°C.

✓Diffusivity also depends on the presence of other components, the intra-molecular forces in the mixture
and the number of collisions of the diffusing molecules with other molecules present in the system
✓As one might expect from consideration of the mobility of the molecules, the diffusivities are generally
higher for gases (in the range 0.5 x 10-5 to 1.0 x 10-5 m2/s) than for liquids (in the range 10-10 to10-9
m2/s), which are higher than the values reported for solids (in the range 10-14 to 10-10 m2/s)
✓The following relation is useful in determining the diffusion coefficient for gases at different
temperatures and pressures from a knowledge of the diffusion coefficient at a specified temperature and
pressure

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 Determination of Diffusivity
✓ Values of diffusivities of gases may be obtained from literature, predicted from available equations or
by conducting suitable experiments.
✓ Because of the complex nature of mass diffusion, the
diffusion coefficients are usually determined From Literature
experimentally. From Books, Tables etc.

Diffusivity
✓ In the absence of experimental data, semi theoretical Limited data available
expressions have been developed which give
approximations, sometimes as valid as experimental Theoretically
values, due to the difficulties encountered in their Estimation method through theoretical
equations
measurement.
✓ The theoretical equations, based on kinetic theory of
From Experiments
gases.
By measuring experimental values for
✓ The diffusion process in solids and liquids is a great empirical equations
deal more complicated than that in gases, and the
diffusion coefficients in this case are almost exclusively
determined experimentally.

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 Determination of Gas Phase Diffusivity
The diffusivity (DAB) for the transfer of one gas in another is not known and experimental determination is not
practicable. It is necessary to use one of the many predictive procedures.
Theoretical diffusivity: Using Gilliland’s equation Theoretical diffusivity: Using Fuller equation
Gilliland determined the constants of their expression The equation developed by Fuller et al. (1966) is
from published experimental data and proposed the easy to apply and gives reliable estimates::
following simple empirical equation for prediction of
diffusivities of binary gas mixtures:

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 Experimental determination of diffusivities

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Numerical Problem-9
 Numerical Problem-9 (Continue..)

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