Mass Transfer Operations-I

Prof. Bishnupada Mandal

Department of Chemical Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati

Lecture - 20
Liquid dispersed: Venture scrubber, wetted wall column, Packed tower

Welcome to the 4th lecture of module 3 of Mass Transfer Operation. In module 3, we are
discussing equipment for gas liquid operations. Before going to the next lecture let us
have small recap on our previous lecture.

(Refer Slide Time: 00:52)

In our previous lecture, we consider mostly design of tray towers or plate tower. So,
different aspects of tray towers we have considered mostly a tower diameter, then the
plate geometry, plate and we considered the pressure drop in the column and mostly the
tray spacing and finally, we have tried to solve a design problems, although it is a very
preliminary stage of design, but the digital design will be discussed in your design course
chemical engineering design course. So, in this lecture we will discuss the design of or
the different aspects of in lecture 4, we will consider design of packed towers.
(Refer Slide Time: 02:03)

So, different aspects of packed towers we will consider in this lecture.

(Refer Slide Time: 02:14)

This is no picture in which you can see there are packing. So, this is a continuous contact
equipment in a packed towers. It is widely used for gas absorption, distillation and also
liquid extraction. As you can see it consists of a cylindrical shell which is filled with a
suitable packing material, so which you can see the random packing which is given over
here random packing material and the purpose of the packing is to provide no large
interfacial area for the contact between the gas and liquid.
(Refer Slide Time: 03:06)

So, a set of tower internals are fitted to the tower you can see the tower internals, one is
the packing support over here packing support and then we have liquid distributors. In
many situations the liquid distributors are located at different places not only at the top;
top is any where it is required, but if you have a tall tower there in that case the single
distribution may not help proper flow of the liquid and gas. So, we need to have
intermittent liquid distributor inside the column. So, you can see you over here liquid
distributor and it is basically redistributors, one is distributor another is called liquid
redistributors. Then demister sometimes it is used basically to break the mist which will
form inside the column.

The liquid is distributed at the top of the packing and trickles down through the bed,
which will fall through the interspace distance or white space between the packing
materials and which is trickle down through the bed.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:27)

There is a shell in the column this called a no cylinder like a cylindrical shape shell. It is
generally made of no steel or plastic and it may be ceramic materials or any other
suitable materials depending on the application. A pipe section may be used as a shell if
the diameter is small. So, if your diameter of the column required for a particular
application is not much, so we can use a pipe as a shell of the packed column.

(Refer Slide Time: 05:09)

Now, tower packing are made of different materials, one of them is ceramic materials,
then metals we can use metals or plastics. So, it also again depends on the material you
would like to handle in your tower. There are different designs of know packing, so and
they are classified as the random or dumped packing and other one is structured packing.

So, random packing you just take the different materials of different no geometry either
ball or in different shapes and load the packing inside the column, so you can just dump
the packing material randomly. And structured packing the packing material are stacked
in such a way that it helps to proper distribution of the gas and liquid and which increase
the also the interfacial area between the gas and liquid, so structured packing. And then
also there is grid packing, so you can make a different grid and then you put the packing
material grid packing.

(Refer Slide Time: 06:27)

So, the packing random packing are just dumped into the shell to give the packing pieces
a random orientation. So, you do not have control on the orientations of the packing
material, which is random packing. Random packing are also classified as first
generation, second generation and third generation packing.
(Refer Slide Time: 06:57)

So, the first generation packing is the Raching ring, you can see Raching ring, then
Lessing ring and Cross-partition ring, Berl saddle. So, different type of design of the
random packing material you could see which times to times design changes depending
on the applications you are going to have and then the cost as well (Refer Time: 07:24).

So, the cost parameter also looked into while making this no packing. So, these are
called first generation random packing. Then second generation random packing, it has a
different shapes one is you can see the interlock saddle which is looks like this and then
you have poll ring, then you have dumped interlock saddles plastic rings, then interlock
saddle and its modification has been done later. So, different modification poll ring and
then their modified versions you could see over here. So, these are a different kind of
internal modifications has been made to enhance the surface area and to increase its
efficiency of the packing. So, these are called second generation packing.
(Refer Slide Time: 08:25)

The third generation packing are Jaeger Tripac, Koch Flexisaddle, Hiflow and Norpac.
So, you can see the design of the third generation random packing which are much more
efficient compared to the first and second generation random packing. As far as random
packing is concerned it is generally considered cheaper compared to the structured
packing.

(Refer Slide Time: 08:57)

So, structured packing we have quite a few varieties of structured packing are available,
one of them is the interlocks high performance corrugated structured packing you can see
how it is designed and has very high surface area then flexeramic corrugated structured
packing made as no ceramic materials and also it is a structured packing.

Advantage over random packing is that it has a low pressure drop, improved capacity
and efficiency. The disadvantage of the structured packing is that installation cost is
more. So, for structured packing you should have a know proper installation procedure to
be followed, otherwise the distribution until it is properly installed inside the column it
will block the flow of the liquid and the gas and pressure drop will be higher. So, proper
installation has to be made in case of the structured packing and hence its installation
cost is higher compared to the random packing. However, it has no good advantage over
the random packing which is know the pressure drop is comparatively low and it has
interfacial area is much higher compared to the random packing and its efficiency is also
higher.

(Refer Slide Time: 10:29)

So, as we said the large surface area characteristics of the tower packing which are
required uniform flow of gas and liquid and high void volume which is also required,
sufficient mechanical strength and should be fouling resistant. So, these are the
properties or characteristics of the packing materials required and which mostly
supported by the structured packing.
(Refer Slide Time: 11:01)

Now, liquid distribution proper distribution of the liquid at the top of the packing is
essential for satisfactory performance of the packed towers. Otherwise, what would
happen a significant portion of the packing near the top of the tower will remain dry. So,
if that happens the efficiency of the tower is going to go down. Dry packing are
completely in effective for mass transfers. So, ideally the liquid should be distributed at
an infinite points on the bed. So, at all the points the liquid should be properly distributed
and then the gas will be you know flowing through this and will have a large interfacial
area.

(Refer Slide Time: 11:49)

Various distributors are used for liquid distribution at large number of points; one such is
that V-notched channel distributor. So, this is the V-notched channel distributor which is
used to distribute the liquid at different points. Then Orifice liquid distributor; so, this is
you know the design is like a orifice and it you know efficiently distribute the liquid
throughout the column internals. Then Spray channel distributor, where know it the
liquid is sprayed through a channels, so it distributes know evenly throughout the
column.

(Refer Slide Time: 12:31)

Liquid holdup as you know it should have must have reasonable liquid holdup in the bed
in order to facilitate mass transfer. If you could not a no give a proper liquid holdup
inside the column there will be less contact between the gas and liquid and hence the
mass transfer will not be effective. So, we should have a reasonable liquid hold up in the
bed in order to facilitate the mass transfer.

Excessive liquid hold up, so if we have very high liquid hold up then it causes no
increase in pressure drop. So, we should not have very high liquid holdup which will
increase the pressure drop and also increase the energy cost will be much higher. And it
also increases the liquid entrainment, so the liquid holdup is more the entrainment will be
more and also decreases the mass transfer efficiency. So, we should not have no
excessive liquid holdup; so, permissible limit from few percent to 15 percent of the bed
volume. So, the liquid holdup should be within the 15 percent of the total packed bed
volume.

(Refer Slide Time: 13:57)

The specific liquid holdup h L can be obtained from the following correlation; h L is
equal to 0.93 V L a p divided by g to the power one-six into mu L square a p square
divided by rho L square into g to the power one-tenth into sigma L a p divided by rho L g
to the power one-eighth. So, with this equation we can calculate the liquid holdup h L.

In this case, h L is the specific liquid holdup which is in meter cube of liquid per meter
cube of bed volume, and V L is a superficial liquid velocity in meter per second, a p is a
specific surface area of the packing that means, it is meter square per meter cube of the
bed volume or meter cube of the bed and g is the acceleration due to gravity. Sigma L is
the surface tension of the liquid it is in newton per meter, rho L is the density of the
liquid which is kg per meter cube and mu L is the viscosity of the liquid in kg per meter
second. So, all these are in SI unit. With this no, a correlation we can calculate the
specific liquid holdup.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:43)

Now, we would like to see the phenomena of loading and flooding in the packed weight.
We have discussed this in case of the tray towers or the plate towers now the similar
phenomena we will discuss in case of the packed towers. The liquid in a packed towers
flows down by gravity. The gas which flows from the bottom to top and is pressure
driven which is generated by blower or compressor. Then the gas undergoes pressure
drop as it flows through the bed due to the few factors, one is friction and then change of
flow direction and expansion or contractions, as you know there will be different size of
packing materials and the white space are not uniform throughout the base.

So, if that would happen then the and also there will be channeling and all inside the bed,
so one factor would be the friction because of no it is the friction between the solid to
you know liquid and the and the gas. And secondly, is the change of flow directions
because if the flow path is not no like channel it is not the uniform channels. So, there
will be a change in the flow direction, and also as it is not uniform path there will be
some places expansion and there will be some places of contraction. So, because of these
the know gas undergoes pressure drop when it flows through the bed.
(Refer Slide Time: 17:39)

The maximum area available for flow of the gas when the tower is dry that is there is no
liquid throughput. So, if the tower is empty there is no liquid flow, so all the void space
are available for the gas to flow through that space. So, then we will experience
maximum flow of the gas through the tower when it is dry.

When the liquid flows through the bed a part of the void space is occupied by the liquid
and we called it is liquid holdup, then the area available for gas flow decreases. Thus, the
pressure drop increases with increasing liquid throughput. So, as the area for the gas flow
decreases because of increasing liquid throughput the pressure drop also increases.
(Refer Slide Time: 18:36)

Typical gas flow rate versus know pressure curves on the log-log scale for a dry bed and
constant liquid flow rate can be quantitatively shown in the figure over here. So, you can
see in the y axis it is log of no log scale log and delta P and the x axis is log G dash the
gas flow rate and at a constant liquid flow rate.

(Refer Slide Time: 19:06)

So, for a dry bed the pressure drop increases linearly with the gas flow rate. So, you can
see this is the for dry bed and the pressure drop as you can see is you know linearly
increases in this case. The gas rate is increased at a constant liquid rate, the drag force
increases and the liquid holdup in the bed increases. So, as you, will see the liquid
holdup slowly will increase as the drag force increase no because of increased gas flow
rate. Hence the pressure drop increases linearly to point P. So, up to this point, so the
pressure drop increases linearly.

(Refer Slide Time: 20:13)

So, what happens beyond this point? The accumulation of the liquid starts inside the
column and the region between P and Q is known as the loading region. So, this region,
so between this P and Q, in this region they is called the loading region and where the
maximum accumulation of that liquid can happen. The point Q is known as the point of
incipient flooding. So, this is the incipient flooding at point Q.

If the gas flow rate is again increased the liquid accumulation in the bed increases very
sharply because the column is already started flooding, and as you increase the pressure
there will be no complete flooding inside the column and the pressure drop will sharply
increase. So, you can see the sharp increase of pressure drop with a very small change of
the vapor or gas flow. So, then the situation is known as the flooding.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:23)

So, the region between Q and R is the flooding region. So, in this region is known as the
flooding region. In this region the mass transfer efficiency drops sharply and above for
the column may operate as bubble column, as you can see in this case it will run as
bubble column.

(Refer Slide Time: 21:48)

Now, we will discuss the mass transfer coefficient for the packed column. It will depend
on the type and size of the packing, the gas and the liquid flow rates, fluid properties and
the transport coefficient like density, viscosity, molecular diffusivity etcetera. So, the
mass transfer coefficient in packed towers will primarily depend on this parameters type
and size of packing we are going to use, gas and liquid flow rates, and other fluid
properties like know transport coefficient like density, viscosity, molecular diffusivity,
this parameters are required to calculate the mass transfer coefficient.

(Refer Slide Time: 22:42)

The data and mass transfer coefficient in a packed towers are generally expressed in
terms of dimensionless number and one of them is the Sherwood number. This is already
we have discussed at the beginning different dimensionless groups. So, in mass transfer
we have discussed you know different dimensionless groups in mass transfer. Sherwood
number is one of the dimensionless number, and then the Colburn factor j D and the third
is the height of transfer unit that is H tG or H tL.
(Refer Slide Time: 23:17)

For gas phase mass transfer in a bed with Rasching rings or Berl saddle packing the
correlations which are available which is j D is equal to 1.195 into Re G to the power
minus 0.36. So, in this case the Re G is equal to G dash into d divided by 1 minus epsilon
into mu G. G dash is the gas mass flow rate and mu G is the gas viscosity, epsilon is the
bed porosity and D is the diameter of the sphere having the same surface area as a piece
of packing. As you know the packing materials are not in uniform in size and the
diameter of a sphere, we will consider which have the same surface area of that packing
material. So, we can calculate like the equivalent diameter.

(Refer Slide Time: 24:35)

For gas absorption of sulphur dioxide in water in a packed bed with 1 inch no Rasching
ring packing, the following correlations for H tG and H tL are available in the literature.

H tG is equal to 1.24 into G dash to the power 0.3 divided by L dash to the power 0.25 in
feet and H tL is equal to 0.37 divided by L dash to the power 0.18 feet. So, here L dash
and G dash is the liquid and gas mass flow rates in pound per feet square hour.

(Refer Slide Time: 25:30)

Now, if the values of H tG and H tL are available for any system, their values for any
other system can be calculated by applying the following correlations. So, if we know
the values for a particular system for H tG or H tL this can be applied to other system
provided that the packing size, the packing type and the phase flow rate remains the
same. So, if these conditions are satisfied same packing size, packing type and the phase
flow rate those are same if we know for a particular system it can be calculated for other
system of these values. So, these are very helpful correlations which is H tG 1 is equal to
H tG 2 into Schmidt number 1 divided by Schmidt number 2 whole to the power 0.5.

So, using this equation we can calculate the H tG for the new system. And similarly, for
the H tL and which also related to the Schmidt number of the 2 systems. The suffix
which are used 1 and 2 refer to the two systems concerned for the respective phases.
(Refer Slide Time: 27:04)

Now, a few correlations for gas and liquid phase mass transfer coefficients in packed
towers have been listed by Wagner et al. So, it is given in the literature for few
correlations for this systems. And Onda et al used experimental data to develop empirical
correlation for the mass transfer parameters as given below. So, one is a bar effective
divided by a p would be equal to 1 minus exponential minus 1.45 into sigma c by sigma
to the power 0.75 Re L to the power 0.1 into Fr L to the power minus 0.05 into We to the
power 0.2. And then k L would be rho L by mu L G to the power one-third would be
equal to 0.0051 Re L to the power two-third a bar effective divided by a p to the power
two-third Sc L to the power minus half a p d p to the power 0.4.
(Refer Slide Time: 28:25)

So, here K c by a p D G would be equal to c into reg to the power 0.7, Sc G to the power
one-third into ap d p to the power minus 2.0. This equations 8, 9 and 10 these are used to
calculate different parameters or the mass transfer coefficients. Here C is equal to 2 for d
p less than 15 millimeter and c would be equal to 5.23 for d p greater than 15 millimeter.
d p is the nominal packing diameter, sigma c as we in the earlier equation sigma c is the
critical surface tension at the packing surface in dyne per centimeter.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:20)

The correlation for k L and k c the effective gas liquid specific interfacial area of contract
that is a bar effective and the dynamic liquid holdup h L suggested by billet and cited are
semi empirical and based on the channel mode of a packed tower as well as on the
experimental data.

So, now we will discuss the design of Sparged Vessel.

(Refer Slide Time: 29:52)

So, in the sparged vessel gas bubble diameter is very important. The size of bubble
depends on the following factors. As you know the flow rate through the orifice the
orifice diameter the fluid properties then the extent of turbulence prevailing inside the
liquid. So, for air water system the following correlations can be used to estimate the size
of the bubble that is d p as they leave the orifice of the sparger. So, d b equal to 0.287 d
naught to the power half into Re naught to the power half. So, for Re naught less than
2100 we can use this correlation this is basically for the Reynolds number which is in the
laminar range, so within 2100.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:52)

And then this d b bubble diameter we can use this correlation for Reynolds number
which is greater than 10,000 and less than 50,000 which is d b equal to 0.0071 Re naught
to the power minus 0.05. So, this is for this Reynolds number. And d b is the bubble
diameter in meter and d o is the orifice dia in meter.

Now for the transition range, so which is between 2100 to around 10,000 there is no
correlations available for the data. So, it is suggested for air water system d b can be
approximated by the straight line on log-log plot between the points given by d p at Re
naught is equal to 2100 and Re naught equal to 10,000. So, if you wanted to calculate the
d b in case of the transition region we can have a log-log plot having the other two data,
two extreme data, so we can intrapolate and extrapolate and get the values for know d b
bubble diameter, in that range.
(Refer Slide Time: 32:16)

Now, gas holdup the volume fractions of the gas liquid mixture in the vessel which is
occupied by gas is called the gas holdup which is defined by small phi G and V G is the
superficial velocity. Then this V G by phi G is the true gas velocity relative to the vessel
wall, and let the flow of gas and liquid concurrent and upward. Then, if the relative
velocity of the liquid with respect to the vessel walls is equal to V L by 1 minus phi G.

The relative velocity of gas and liquid also known as slip velocity can be calculated V s
would be equal to V G by phi G minus V L by 1 minus phi G. So, with this equation we
can calculate. So, knowing the value of superficial velocity and then the gas holdup phi
G and also the liquid velocity we can calculate the slip velocity or relative velocity. So,
this equation will also give the slip velocity for counter current flow of a liquid if V L for
the downward liquid flow is assigned a negative value.
(Refer Slide Time: 33:34)

So, if we just put negative value to V L the same equations can be used to calculate the
slip velocity for the counter current operation. This is for the co-current operation or
concurrent operation and we can have the same slip velocity for the counter current
operation as well.

(Refer Slide Time: 34:14)

Now, specific interfacial area consider unit volume of gas and liquid mixture which
contains a gas volume of capital phi G made of n bubbles of diameter d b. So, in this case
we can write the number of bubbles would be equal to the gas volume phi G, capital phi
G divided by the pi d b cube divided by 6, the volume of the bubble. So, you can
calculate the number of bubbles which is equal to 6 phi G divided by pi d b cube.

Now, consider a is the interfacial area per unit volume in that case n would be equal to a
by pi d b square. Now, if we equate this two relation from this and this we will obtain a is
equal to 6 phi G divided by d b. At low velocities the bubble size may be taken as that
produced at the orifices of the spurge or can be correlated as necessary for pressure. So,
there might be corrections with the pressure or we can take as per the orifice design.

(Refer Slide Time: 35:41)

At large liquid velocity the bubble size may be changed by turbulent breakup and
coalescence of bubbles. For example, in case of air water system and in the range of phi
is equal to 0.1 to 0.4; V L by 1 minus phi G is equal to 0.15 to 15 meter per second. So,
the bubble size can be approximated d b would be equal to 2.344 into 10 to the power
minus 3 divided by V L by 1 minus phi G to the power 0.67. So, this d b is in meter and
V L is in meter per second.
(Refer Slide Time: 36:38)

So, in general for gas bubble liquid systems the liquid phase resistance is strongly
controlling and the gas phase mass transfer coefficient is negligible. So, because of this
know resistance which mostly lies in the liquid phase the liquid phase coefficient we
need to obtain for this case.

The liquid phase mass transfer coefficient can be correlated with the Sherwood number
which is Sh L in the liquid phase would be equal to F L d b divided by C D L, which is
equal to 2 plus b dash Re G to the power 0.779, Schmidt number in the liquid to the
power 0.546 whole into d b g to the power one-third divided by D L to the power two-
third.

So, here b dash over here is a constant which is 0.061 for the single gas bubbles and it is
0.0187 for know number of gas bubbles. Re G is equal to d b V s into rho L divided mu
L. So, this is the Reynolds number of the gas.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:12)

Now, the power supplied to the vessel content which is responsible for agitation and
creation of the large interfacial area is derived from the gas flow rate. Now, know
Bernoulli’s equation a mechanical energy balance know written for the gas between the
location o and the location s, location just above the sparge orifice and at the location s at
the liquid surface which can be used you have learnt the Bernoulli’s equation mechanical
energy balance equation in your fluid mechanics course.

So, which can be written over here V s square minus V naught square divided by twice g
c plus Z s minus Z naught into g by g c plus integral 0 to s d b by rho G plus W plus H F
equal to 0. Here H F is the frictional loss, and H F and V s may be neglected the gas
density can be described as ideal gas law.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:39)

In that case we can write V s square minus v naught square divided by twice g c plus Z s
minus Z naught into g by g c plus integral 0 to s d b by rho G plus W plus H F is equal to
0. This equation would be written as W is equal to V naught square divided by twice gc
plus rho c, W is equal to V naught square divided by 2 gc plus P naught by rho G naught
ln P naught divided by P s plus Z naught minus Z s into g by g c. This W is work done by
the gas on the vessel contact.

So, thank you for hearing this lecture. And we will continue our discussion in the next
lecture.