The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Engineering 435

Chemical Process Systems Laboratory

Gas Absorption Column

Team Members:

Tricia Tanner
Kai Pandya
Georgia Caruthers
Don Conley

November 29, 1999

 2

Introduction:

The Absorber Group was assigned the project of determining the packing
factor of the gas absorber column in the Environmental Lab located in room 303
of the Administration Building. The water and airflow rates along with the
pressure drops were observed in order to determine the packing factor of the
glass rings that fill the column.
This report is organized with a background and theory description of the
column including the any pertinent equations and schematic diagrams. There
will also be a description of the procedure performed in the physical lab. The
next section will be the results section that describes what was observed and the
data. There will be tables and graphs, fully explained, included in this section.
Any conclusions and recommendations for the experiment will follow. An
appendix will be attached at the end and will include any raw data and the
references.

Background and Theory:

In a gas absorption column, the soluble vapor is absorbed from its

mixture with an inert gas by means of a liquid in which the solute gas is more or
less soluble. (p. 686, McCabe). In this experiment, air and water were used
alone for the start up mode. In years to come, Sulfur Dioxide, SO 2, will be
removed from the airflow stream.
The design of the gas absorption column or packed column in the lab is a
cylindrical column 5 feet in height and an outside diameter of 8.5 inches. The
tower is packed with 3/8in. cylindrical Raschig rings made of glass. Raschig rings
can also be ceramic and found in different sizes ranging from to 2 inches. The
air stream was pressurized at 40 psig and supplied through a line from plant
maintenance and fed to the bottom of the column. The airflow speed can be
adjusted from 0 to 100%. The water is supplied from a blue reservoir to the left
of the packed column and is fed to the top of the column with the use of a water
pump that can also be adjusted from 0 to 100%. LabView that records the data
onto the attached IBM compatible computer controls the entire system.
Two main formulas were used to find the packing factor. They are
Equations 1 and 2 with Equation 1 the Abscissa or x-axis and Equation 2 the
Ordinate or y-axis.

Gx y
(1)
Gy x y

Gy 2 Fpx 0.1
(2)
g ( x y ) y
 3

Figure 1
Generalized Correlation for Pressure Drop in Packed Columns
(Page 694, McCabe)

Where Gx = water flow rate (lbs/secin2)

Gy = air flow rate (lbs/secin2)
x = density of water (lbs/ft3)
y = density of air (lbs/ft3)
x = viscosity of water (centiposes)
g = acceleration due to gravity (32.2 ft/sec 2)
Fp = packing factor for pressure drop.

Procedure:

One continuous run of four different air pump speeds from 30 to 60%
while holding the water pump speed at 70% and of four different water pump
speeds from 70 to 100% while holding the air pump speed at 40% was
conducted. At each of the steps, the system was held until steady state was
reached (approximately two minutes). This gave the computer and LabView
sufficient time to record enough data points for analysis. After all eight settings
were complete the run was ended and the data was saved to the Engineering
435 web site.
 4

Results:

Table 1
Average Water Flow Values
Average Constant Air Valve Speed = 39.00%
Water Water Flow Standard Error P Standard Error Bar
% (gph) Deviation Bar 2 (in-H2O) Deviation 2
69.95 6.0747 0.4332 0.8665 5.5350 0.02185 0.04370
79.79 13.3321 0.2708 0.5415 6.8916 0.03563 0.07126
89.64 17.3494 0.2130 0.4261 8.4149 0.02356 0.04712
99.48 20.5833 0.2236 0.4473 9.0262 0.01986 0.03972

Table 1 shows the average values for the constant water pump speed. Water
flow was in gallons per hour. Average samples of values were taken at each of
the water percentiles. Standard Deviation and Error Bars were then applied to
each set of data.
Table 2
Average Air Flow Values
Average Constant Water Pump Speed = 69.43 %
Air % Airflow Standard Error P Standard Error Bar
(scfm) Deviation Bar 2 (in-H2O) Deviation 2
29 1.5905 0.0022 0.0043 1.9355 0.00861 0.01722
40 2.7000 0.0000 0.0000 5.5989 0.03452 0.06904
49 3.6135 0.0048 0.0096 9.5587 0.02715 0.05430
59 4.3600 0.0000 0.0000 15.0530 0.02899 0.05798

Table 2 shows the average values for the constant air valve speed. Air
measurements were taken in units of standard cubic feet per minute. The same
procedure was applied to Table 2 as was completed in Table 1

Table 3
Manually Read Data
Water Pump %Air Pump Water Flow Airflow
% (gph) (scfm)
70 40 6.0 2.8
80 40 12.5 2.8
90 40 16.5 2.8
100 40 20.0 2.8
70 30 7 0.8
70 40 7 2.8
70 50 7 3.7
70 60 7 off scale
70 100 7 off scale
 5

Table 3 shows the manually read data. The water flow was read of a manometer
and the airflow was read off a rotameter. The water flow was measured in
gallons per hour and the airflow was measured in standard cubic feet per minute.
This data was then used to calculate the calibration lines in figure 2.

Figure 2

Air Valve Calibration Line Water Pump Calibratin Line

Absorber Calibration
y = 0.145x - 3.3667 y = 0.46x - 25.35
R2 = 0.9542 R2 = 0.9774
25.0

20.0

15.0
Flow

10.0

5.0

0.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
%

Water Pump % Air Pump % Linear (Water Pump %) Linear (Air Pump %)

The calibration data was analyzed to find a correlation between the

LabView program and the manometer and rotameter attached to the packed
column. The line on the left with the triangle markings is the calibration for the
airflow and the line on the right with the diamond markings is the calibration for
the water flow. This calibration line was necessary to find a basis for the
calculations.
 6

Table 4
Calibrated Water Flow Data
gph = 0.46*(%) - 25.35
Water Water Calibrated Standard Error P Standard Error
% Flow Water Deviation Bar 2 (in- Deviation Bar 2
(gph) Flow (gph) H2O)
69.95 6.0747 6.8270 0.4332 0.8665 5.5350 0.02185 0.04370
79.79 13.3321 11.3534 0.2708 0.5415 6.8916 0.39482 0.78964
89.64 17.3494 15.8844 0.2130 0.4261 8.4149 0.02356 0.04712
99.48 20.5833 20.4108 0.2236 0.4473 9.0262 0.01986 0.03972

Table 5
Calibrated Airflow Data
scfm = 0.145*(%) - 3.3667
Air % Airflow Calibrated Standard Error P Standard Error
(scfm) Air Flow Deviation Bar 2 (in- Deviation Bar 2
(scfm) H2O)
29.00 1.5905 0.8383 0.0022 0.0043 1.9355 0.00861 0.01722
40.00 2.7000 2.4333 0.0000 0.0000 5.5989 0.03452 0.06904
49.00 3.6135 3.7383 0.0048 0.0096 9.5587 0.02715 0.05430
59.00 4.3600 5.1883 0.0000 0.0000 15.0530 0.02899 0.05798

Tables 4 and 5 show the addition of the calibrated water and airflow. The units
for both the water and airflow continue to be gallons per hour and standard cubic
feet per minute respectively. Figures 3 and 4 will represent the flow of the
computer vs. the calibrated flow calibration.
 7

Figure 3
Calibrated Air Flow y = 1.5478x - 1.6961
R2 = 0.995
6

5
Air Flow, scfm (Calibrated)

0
1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
Air Flow, scfm (Computer)

Figure 3, as stated above, is the calibrated airflow data. The calibration between
the two sets of data points was relatively good with a R 2 value of 0.995. The
error bars on this graph are so small that they are almost zero at two points and
are zero on the other two points as shown in Tables 1 and 4.

Figure 4
Calibrated Water Flow y = 0.9171x + 0.4717
R2 = 0.9629
21

19

17
Water Flow, gph (Calibration)

15

13

11

5
5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21
Water Flow, gph (Computer)

Water Flow (gph) Linear (Water Flow (gph))

 8

Figure 4, as also stated above, is the calibrated water flow data. The calibration
between the two sets of data points was relatively good with a R 2 value of
0.9629. The error bars on this graph are larger than on Figure 3 that shows that
there was more variability between the average data points.

Table 6
Water Flow Rates for Constant Air Valve Speed
Calibrated Calibrated Gx Gy
Water Flow Water Flow
(gph) (ft3/sec)
6.8270 0.0003 4.47E-06 2.84E-05
11.3534 0.0004 7.43E-06 2.84E-05
15.8844 0.0006 1.04E-05 2.84E-05
20.4108 0.0008 1.34E-05 2.84E-05

Table 6 was used to calculate the water flow into cubic feet per second before
calculating the water and airflow rates in lbs/sec*in 2. This data was then used to
calculate the abscissa and the ordinate unknowns.

Table 7
Airflow Rates for Constant Pump Speed
Calibrated Air Calibrated Gx Gy
Flow (ft3/min) Air Flow
(ft3/sec)
0.8383 0.0140 4.31E-06 2.46E-04
2.4333 0.0406 4.31E-06 7.15E-04
3.7383 0.0623 4.31E-06 1.10E-03
5.1883 0.0865 4.31E-06 1.52E-03

Table 7 was used in the same way as Table 6.

Table 8
Determination of Packing Factor using Figure 1
Abscissa P/ft Ordinate Packing
(x-axis) height (y-axis) Factor
Constant 5.36E-03 1.1070 0
Air Valve 8.91E-03 1.3783 0
Speed 1.25E-02 1.6830 0.14 2.54 x 1010
1.60E-02 1.8052 0

Constant 5.97E-04 0.3871 0

Water 2.06E-04 1.1198 0
Pump 1.34E-04 1.9117 0
Speed 9.65E-05 3.0106 0
 9

Equations 1 and 2 were used to calculate the abscissa and ordinate values.
P/ft was the change in pressure (lbs/ft 3) divided by the height of the packing (ft).

Discussion:

The operators (Kai, Georgia, and Don) and I were able to run 8 runs, but after all
the calculations were through, all but 1 set of data points was able to be read on
correlation chart (Figure 1). The packing factor, Fp, was then found to be
25381022717.1847 or 2.54 x 1010. This does not compare to the literature value
of 1000 for 3/8 Raschig rings.

Conclusion:

With the packed column under construction for two of the lab periods, a better
packing factor could have been determined with more runs. Another suggestion
could be to have been able to find a larger correlation chart with lower numbers
than 0.1 on the Abscissa.
 10

Appendix:
References

Calvert, Seymour and Englund. Handbook of Air Pollution Technology. Wiley

and Sons. New York. 1984.

Felder and Rousseau. Elementary Principles of Chemical Processes, 2nd edition.

Lide, David R. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 71st edition.

McCabe, Smith, and Harriott. Unit Operations of Chemical Engineering, 5th

edition.

Data

Raw data is on the excel file labeled data10-19-99.xls

Table 9
Standard Values
Column 5.0000
Height
x 62.3700
y 0.0725
x (cP)= 0.9200
g 32.1740
2
Outside)
(ft/sec 8.5000
Diamet
X- 56.7450
er (in) =
Section