Investigating the Effect of Interfacial Drag on Chemical Gas Absorption in a Packed Column by Modelling and Numerical Simulation

This paper presents several models which can be applied to simulate the gas absorption in countercurrent packed bed columns with first-order chemical reaction. The hydrodynamic models predict the velocity profile in liquid film for both laminar and turbulent conditions by using the interfacial drag which is the result of gas side interaction on liquid flow rate. As the gas or liquid flow rates increase, the pressure drop along the column and the interfacial drag increase which make the liquid film thickness to grow. Thus the liquid hold-up in the column increases too. Using the models, the mass transfer equations were developed to show how the interfacial drag can affect on the rate of absorption. A program was written in MATLAB which solved all models numerically, in order to obtain the absorption rate. The plotted graphs by the program show the increasing of the absorption rate with the growth of interfacial drag until loading is commenced. To confirm the models, the computed results were compared with experimental data. Acceptable results show the consistency.