Final Report

CHEE3004 Project 2
Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design
Group A6
Matt Petrofes Declan Scott Shi Shou 42330604 42339166 42555201

Emma Stratford 42346388

Executive Summary

16 October 2013

Final Report

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction 1

List of Tables:
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CHEE3004 Project 2 Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design

1. Introduction

CHEE3004 Project 2 Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design

2. Solvent Selection
Select a solvent from the materials listed in Table 2 and an operating temperature for the absorber. Justify your selection of solvent and temperature.

3. Material Balance
As specified in the design brief, the absorption column is required to process 5200kmol/h of feed gas for the selective removal of CO2. The feed gas contains 0.185 mole fraction of CO2 and as such cannot be treated as a dilute mixture. Therefore, a detailed material balance was conducted over the column taking into account the changes in vapour and liquid flow rates along the height of the column. Before this was done, a number of simplifying assumptions regarding the system were made and are listed below. 3.1. Assumptions: Column is operating at steady state. Column operates isothermally at 298K Heat of absorption neglected. Solubility of all non-CO2 components in propylene carbonate solvent is negligible. Henrys Law is applicable at the given operating conditions. This is a reasonable assumption even though the system is not dilute and is at an elevated pressure as the source obtained this Henry coefficient solubility data at similar conditions.

1. 2. 3. 4.

5. Column operates at 1.2 times the minimum gas-to-liquid ratio. 6. Lean solvent entering the column is pure propylene carbonate Contains no dissolved CO2. 7. All gases exhibit ideal behaviour This was confirmed by correlating calculated partial pressures with those given in Aspen Plus (SHOW EVIDENCE). 3.2. Minimum Liquid-to-Gas Ratio: Based on these assumptions the minimum liquid-to-gas ratio required for the column was calculated by performing a material balance over the entire column, which can be seen in Appendix A1. From this the flow rate of solvent required to operate at 1.2 times the minimumgas to liquid ratio was calculated. These values, as well as mole fractions in each stream are summarised in Table 1 below. Column Parameters Lmin:Vs 4.27 Ls:Vs 5.12 H (MPa) 8.70 P (MPa) 2.17 Liquid Streams Ls (kmol/h) 21717.67 x1* 0.046 x1 0.039 x2 0 Gas Streams V1 (kmol/h) 5200 Vs (kmol/h) 4238 y1 0.185 y2 0.020

CHEE3004 Project 2 Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design

4. Appendices
4.1. Appendix A: Material Balance Calculations 4.1.1. Minimum Liquid-to-Gas Ratio:
V2, y2=0.02 CO2 Absorber P=2.17MPa T=298K L2, x2=0

V, y

L, x

V1=5200kmol/h, y1=0.185 T1=319.15K, P1=2.17MPa

L1, x1

Assumptions: Steady state operation Isothermal operation L/V =1.2 time Lmin/V Ideal gas behaviour Lean solvent is pure propylene carbonate Negligible solubility of non-CO2 components Henrys Law applicable throughout

Material Balance on Terminal Streams: CO absorbed in liquid = CO lost from vapour ( ) = ( ) = Ls, Vs are the respective liquid and vapour solute-free flow rates in kmol/h.

CHEE3004 Project 2 Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design X1 is the mole ratio of CO2 in the liquid phase at the bottom of the column. Y1 is the mole ratio of CO2 in the vapour phase at the bottom of the column.

The minimum liquid-to-gas ratio is given when the liquid exiting from the bottom of the column is in equilibrium with the gas stream entering the bottom of the column X1 = X1* = The equilibrium mole fraction of CO2 in the liquid phase is given by Henrys Law equilibrium relationship. For propylene carbonate at 298K, H=8.7MPa. Henrys Law is given by: =

Assuming that CO2 behaves as an ideal gas, the partial pressure can be given in terms of the total system pressure and the mole fraction of CO2. Therefore: = = 0.185 2.17 = 8.7 = 0.0461 Mole Ratios can then be calculated from the known mole fractions as follows: = 1 0.185 = 1 0.185 = 0.227

Mole ratios for other streams were calculated in the same way to give Y2 = 0.0204, X1*= 0.0484. The minimum liquid-to-gas ratio can then be calculated as follows: = = 0.227 0.0204 0.0484 0

= 4.27 Column operates at 1.2 times the minimum liquid-to-gas ratio therefore: = 1.2 = 1.2 4.27 = 5.12

CHEE3004 Project 2 Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design

The solute-free vapour flow rate is given by: = (1 ) = 5200 (1 0.185) = 4238/ The solute-free liquid flow rate can then be calculated by: = 5.12 4238 = 21717.67/

Knowing the liquid flow rate, the actual mole ratio of CO2 in the outlet liquid can then be calculated by rearranging the initial material balance equation: = ( ) 4238 (0.227 0.0204) = 21717.67 = 0.0403 1 + 0.0403 = 1 + 0.0403 = 0.03875

This can then be converted back to a mole fraction as follows: =

4.1.2. Operating Line Calculations: The equation describing the operating line for non-dilute systems can be obtained by writing a material balance on the top-half of absorber column (marked with a dashed line on the diagram). CO2 Balance: Rearranging CO2 Balance: = + + = +

Substituting in values for V, L, V2 and L2 in terms of Vs, y, x, y2 and x2:

= (1 ) = (1 )

CHEE3004 Project 2 Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design 1 1 + ( ) 1 1 1

= =

(1 ) ( ) + (1 ) 1 1 1

= (1 ) ( ( )+ ) 1 1 1 = ( ) 1 1 1 1 ( ( ) = ( ) 1 1 1 1 ) = ( ) 1 1 1 1

This cannot be solved explicitly for y in terms of x therefore it was solved in excel by using goal seek to set the following equation to 0 by varying x. This could be done multiple times to get a number of points on the operating line, allowing it to be plotted. The function set to 0 was: ( ) ( )=0 1 1 1 1

The results from using goal seek to solve for x in excel are shown in the table below: y 0.185 0.165 0.145 0.125 0.105 0.085 0.065 0.045 0.025 0.02 x 0.039 0.033 0.028 0.023 0.019 0.014 0.009 0.005 0.001 0.000 Goal Seek 7.97E-04 5.31E-04 3.34E-04 1.94E-04 1.01E-04 4.39E-05 1.42E-05 2.38E-06 -2.91E-04 -1.46E-07

The minimum operating line was determined in the same way by substituting Lmin for Ls to give: ( ) = 1 1 ( ) 1 1

CHEE3004 Project 2 Gas-Liquid Absorption Column Design

From these results both the actual and minimum operating lines were plotted on the design diagram, which is shown in Figure 1 in section 3. The equilibrium was also plotted from the equilibrium relationship given by Henrys Law: =