Gas Absorption

• Gas absorption is an operation in which a gas mixture is contacted

with a liquid for the purposes of preferentially dissolving one or more
components of the gas and to provide a solution of them in the liquid.

• For example, the gas from by-product coke ovens is washed with
water to remove ammonia and again with an oil to remove benzene
and toluene vapors.

• Removal of hydrogen sulphide gas by washing with various alkaline

solutions, in which it is absorbed.
• Recovery of solvent vapors from a gas stream by washing the gas
with an appropriate solvent for the vapors.

• Such operations require mass transfer of a substance from the gas

stream to the liquid.

• When mass transfer occurs in the opposite direction it is called as

Desorption or stripping.
 Equilibrium Solubility of gases in Liquids
• If a quantity of a single gas and a non volatile liquid are brought to
the equilibrium, the resulting concentration of dissolved gas in the
liquid is said to be the gas solubility at the prevailing temperature and
pressure.
Fig : Solubilities of gases in water
• From the figure we can conclude that:

• At fixed temperature the solubility concentration will increase with

pressure in the manner as shown in curve A.

• Different gases and liquid yield different solubility curves.

• If the equilibrium pressure of a gas at a given liquid concentration is

high as in the curve B, the gas is said to be relatively insoluble while
if it is low as for curve C, the solubility is said to be high.

• With increase in temperature the solubility of gas decreases.

 Multicomponent Systems
• If a mixture of gases is brought into contact with a liquid under
certain conditions the equilibrium solubilities of each gas will be
independent of the other, provided that the equilibrium is described
in terms of partial pressure in the gas mixture and the liquid mixture
forms an ideal solution.

• For example: a mixture of propane and butane gases will dissolve in a

non volatile paraffin oil independently since the solution is ideal.

• On the other hand, the solubility of ammonia in water can be

expected to be influenced by the presence of methylamine, since the
resulting solutions of these gases are not ideal.
 Ideal Liquid Solutions
• When the liquid phase is considered ideal we can compute the
equilibrium partial pressure of a gas from the solution.
There are four significant characteristics of ideal solutions, all interrelated:
❑ The average intermolecular forces of attraction and repulsion in the
solution are unchanged on mixing the constituents.
❑ The volume of the solution varies linearly with composition.
❑ There is neither absorption nor evolution of heat in mixing the
constituents.
❑ The total vapor pressure of the solution varies linearly with composition
expressed as mole fractions.
• When the gas mixture in equilibrium with an ideal liquid solution also
follows the ideal gas laws, the partial pressure of a solute gas A,
equals the product of its vapor pressure at the same temperature and
its mole fraction in the solution.


• Raoult’s law P = px

• For non ideal solutions Henry’s law holds

p*
y* = = mx
pt
Example:
After long contact with a hydrocarbon oil and establishment of equilibrium, a
gas mixture has the following composition at 2 X 105 N/m2 total pressure, 24
º C: methane 60% , ethane 20%, propane 8%, n-butane 6%, n-pentane 6%.
Calculate the composition of the equilibrium solution.

Data: vapor pressure of gases at given temperature

For methane at this pressure the solubility is almost zero.
Ethane: 42.05 * 105 N/m2
Propane: 8.96 * 105 N/m2
n -butane: 2.36 * 105 N/m2
n- pentane: 0.66 * 105 N/m2
 Choice of Solvent for Gas Absorption
• Gas Solubility

• Volatility

• Corrosiveness

• Cost

• Viscosity

• Non toxic, non flammable and chemically stable, low freezing point
One component Transferred: Material Balances
• Consider counter flow of gas and liquid in absorber
• ‘G’ refers to total moles of gas at any point in tower
• Unit of ‘G’ is expressed as (total mol)/(area of cross section*time)
• Gas stream is made up of diffusing solute A of mole fraction ‘y’ ,
partial pressure p , or mole ratio ‘Y’
• Insoluble gas ‘Gs’
• Since the solvent gas (Gs) and solvent liquid (Ls) are essentially
unchanged in quantity as they pass through the tower, it is
convenient to express the material balance in terms of these.

• A solute balance about the lower part of the tower is

Note: For an absorber the operating line lies always above the equilibrium
solubility curve, while for stripper the line is always below.
 Minimum Liquid-Gas ratio for Absorbers
• In the design of absorbers
• G or Gs is fixed (quantity of gas to be treated)
• Terminal concentrations are also fixed , Y1 and Y2
• Composition of entering liquid(X2) is also fixed by process
requirement .
• The quantity of liquid to be used is subject to choice.
• How to choose the quantity of liquid ?????
Point P corresponds to Minimum Gas to liquid ratio, at this point the diffusional
driving force is zero, required time for concentration change is infinite and
infinitely tall tower is required.
 Problem based on Gas Absorption
A coal gas is to be freed of its light oil by scrubbing with wash oil as an
absorbent and the light oil recovered by stripping the resulting solution
with steam. The circumstances are as follows.

Absorber Gas in. 0.250 m3/s at 26°C, Pt = 1.07*105 N/m2, containing

2.0% by volume of light oil vapors. The light oil will be assumed to be
entirely benzene, and a 95% removal is required. The wash oil is to
enter at 26°C, containing 0.005 mole fraction benzene, and has an
average molecular weight 260. An oil circulation rate of 1.5 times the
minimum is to be used. Wash oil-benzene solutions are ideal. The
temperature will be constant at 26°C. Vapor pressure of benzene at
26°C is 13330 N/m2. Compute the oil circulation rate.
Solution:
• Convert G, Gs, L , Ls into kmol/s
𝑃𝑉
• Calculate G1 using 𝑛 = where V= 0.250 m3
𝑅𝑇
𝑦1
• Given y1=0.02, from this calculate 𝑌1 =
1−𝑦1
• calculate 𝐺𝑠 = 𝐺(1 − 𝑦1 )
• For 95% removal of benzene 𝑌2 = 0.05𝑌1
𝑥2
• 𝑥2 = 0.005, 𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑐𝑢𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑋2 =
1−𝑥2
• for ideal solutions P * = 13330 * x
•
*
P 13330
=y =
*
*x
Pt Pt
 𝑌∗ 𝑋
• Substitute in the last equation 𝑦∗ = and 𝑥 =
1+𝑌 ∗ 1+𝑋

𝑌∗ 𝑋
• We get = 0.125 ∗ (This is the equation for equilibrium curve)
1+𝑌 ∗ 1+𝑋

• Generate equilibrium data Y* vs X from above equation by taking

various Y values and calculate corresponding X.

• Take various values of Y between (0 -0.022) with 1 cm=0.004

• Now from the point (X2, Y2) draw a tangent to the curve and locate X1
• Now calculate minimum Ls from the equation given below
𝐺𝑠 (𝑌1 −𝑌2 )
min 𝐿𝑠 =
(𝑋1 −𝑋2 )

• Now operating flow rate 1.5 times the minimum

• From operating flow rate of liquid Ls, calculate X1 the composition of

oil.
 Problem based on Stripper
The solution from the absorber is to be heated to 120°C and will enter
the stripper at I std atm pressure. Stripping steam will be at standard
atmospheric pressure, superheated to 122°C. The debenzolized oil
0.005 mole fraction benzene, is to be cooled to 26°C and returned to
the absorber. A steam rate of 1.5 times the minimum is to be used. The
temperature will be constant at 122°C. Compute the steam circulation
rate. At 122 °C, the vapor pressure of benzene is 319.9 kN/m2
 Solution steps
• Find the equilibrium curve equation for stripper in the same way as
done for absorber by using the vapor pressure at given temperature.

• Generate the equilibrium data Y* vs X, by taking various values of X(

0-0.2) with scale 1 cm=0.05, and calculate corresponding values of Y
from the equation.

• Now plot the equilibrium curve.

• For the stripper X1 = 0.005 kmol benzene/kmol of oil and X2 is the

composition of oil obtained in the absorber.
• Y1= 0 kmol benzene/kmol steam

• For the minimum steam rate, from point (0.005, 0) draw a tangent to
the equilibrium curve and read the value of Y2(intersection of tangent
with the vertical line passing from point (X2, 0).

• Min Gs can be calculated using the equation given below

𝐿𝑠 (𝑋2 −𝑋1 )
min 𝐺𝑠 =
(𝑌2 −𝑌1 )
• Operating steam flow rate, Gs is 1.5 times the minimum.
Counter current Multistage operation
(One component transferred)
• No of trays or stages required for
operation can be determined by
drawing the stages in the cascade
form.

• As the gap between the equilibrium

curve and operating line decreases
the number of stages required for
absorption increases.

• If the operating line touches the

equilibrium curve then number of
stages required will be infinite.
Problem
• Determine the number of theoretical trays (stages) required for the
absorber in the last problem.
 Dilute Gas mixtures
• Where both operating line and equilibrium curve can be considered
straight, the number of ideal trays can be determined without
graphical methods.

• This will frequently be the case for relatively dilute gas and liquid
mixtures.

• If the quantity of gas absorbed is small, the total flow of liquid

entering and leaving the absorber remains substantially constant,
𝐿0 ≈ 𝐿𝑁𝑝 ≈ 𝐿 total mol/(area) (time), and similarly the total flow of
gas is substantially constant at G total mol/(area) (time).
• For such cases Kremser equations can be used to estimate the
number of stages.

For Absorption

where A = L/mG (Absorption factor)

‘m’ is the slope of equilibrium curve

For Stripping
where S =mG/L ( Stripping factor)
 Absorption factor (A)
• The absorption factor A = L/mG is the ratio of the slope of the
operating line to that of the equilibrium curve.

• For values of A less than unity, corresponding to convergence of the

operating line and equilibrium curve for the lower end of the
absorber, the fractional absorption of solute is definitely limited, even
for infinite theoretical trays.
• On the other hand, for values of A greater than unity, any degree of
absorption is possible if sufficient trays are provided.
• For a fixed degree of absorption from a fixed amount of gas, as A
increases beyond unity, the absorbed solute is dissolved in more and
more liquid and cost increases.

• At the same time, the number of trays decreases, so that the

equipment cost decreases.

• Hence the value of A or L/G must be chosen in such a way that total
cost is minimum.

• As a rule of thumb, A value between 1.25-2 results in economical

absorption.
Problem
• For the problem of absorber calculate the number of trays analytically
using Kremser equation.
Solution steps
• Kremser equations are based on mole fractions.
• 𝑌1 ≅ 𝑌𝑁𝑃+1 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑌2 ≈ 𝑌1
• 𝑋1 ≈ 𝑋𝑁𝑃 and 𝑋2 = 𝑋1
𝑌1
• 𝑦𝑁𝑝+1 = 0.02, 𝑦1 =
1+𝑌1
𝑦∗
• 𝑥0 = 0.005, 𝑚 = = 0.125
𝑥
• 𝐿𝑁𝑃 = 𝐿𝑠 (1 + 𝑋𝑁𝑃 )
𝐿𝑁𝑃 𝐿𝑁𝑃
• 𝐴𝑁𝑃 = ≈
𝑚𝐺𝑁𝑃 𝑚𝐺𝑁𝑃 +1
• 𝐿0 = 𝐿𝑠 (1 + 𝑋0 )
• 𝐺1 = 𝐺𝑠 (1 + 𝑌1 )
𝐿1 𝐿0
• 𝐴1 = ≈
𝑚𝐺1 𝑚𝐺1
•𝐴= 𝐴1 ∗ 𝐴𝑁𝑃

• Now use the equation for absorption to calculate the number of

stages.