CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SERIES: GAS ABSORPTION

EXERCISES
1.

To increase the absorption factor, (where , G

gas flow rate, S solvent flow rate)
(A) increase both G and S
(B) decrease both G and S
(C) increase S and decrease G
(D) increase G and decrease S

2.

In a packed absorption tower, if the

equilibrium and operating lines are both
straight lines, then the ratio, HETP/HTUOG
_______ the absorption factor.
(A) increase with increase in
(B) is one at unity value of
(C) both (a) and (b)
(D) neither (a) nor (b)

3.

4.

5.

In case of an absorber, the operating

(A) line always lies above the equilibrium
curve
(B) line always lies below the equilibrium
curve
(C) line can either be above or below the
equilibrium curve
(D) velocity is more than the loading velocity
Absorption with chemical reaction is involved
in the removal of
(A) carbon dioxide from gaseous stream
using alkaline solution
(B) benzol from coke oven gas using solar
oil/wash oil
(C) ammonia from coke oven gas using
refrigerated water
(D) tar from coke oven gas in primary gas
coolers using chilled water
Use of raschig rings in place of crushed
stones as packing in packed beds (other
things being the same)
(A) increases pressure drop, increases
surface area
(B) decreases pressure drop, increases
surface area
(C) increases pressure drop, decreases
surface area
(D) decreases pressure drop, decreases
surface area

ENGR. RONNIE V. FLORES

6.

At the same gas flow rate, the pressure drop

in a packed tower being irrigated with liquid
________ that in dry packed tower.
(A) is greater than
(B) is lower than
(C) is same as
(D) cannot be predicted as dats is insufficient

7.

Absorption factor is defined as

(A) ratio of the equilibrium curve and the
slope of the operating line
(B) slope of the operating line and the slope
of equilibrium curve
(C) difference of the slope of the operating
and the slope of the equilibrium curve
(D) product of the slopes of the equilibrium
curve and operating line

8.

Which of the following quantities need not be

fixed before starting the design of a co-current
absorber?
(A) Heat gain or loss
(B) Flow rate of entering liquid
(C) Flow rate of gas
(D) None of the above

9.

The reciprocal of absorption factor is

(A) Selectivity index
(B) Relative volatility
(C) Stripping factor
(D) Murphree efficiency

10.

In an absorption column, the flooding velocity

for random packing is ____________ that for
stacked/regular packing.
(A) greater than
(B) smaller than
(C) equal to
(D) either (a) or (b); depends on tyoe of
packing

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SERIES: GAS ABSORPTION

EXERCISES
11.

12.

13.

14.

Carbon disulfide is to be absorbed from a

dilute gas mixture CS2-N2 into a pure nonvolatile oil at amospheric pressure in a
counter-current absorber. The mole fraction
of CS2 in inlet gas is 0.05 and the flow rate of
gas stream is 1,500 kmol/h. The equilibrium
relation is given by: = 0.5, where is the
mole fraction of CS2 in liquid stream. It is
desired to reduce the mole fraction of CS2 in
the gas stream to 0.005. (A) Calculate the
minimum value of L/G, where L is the liquid
flow rate in kmol/h, while G is the gas flow
rate. (B) Derive the equation for the operating
line, if L/G is equal to 1.5 times the minimum
value. ANSWER
A counter-current plate absorber is to be
installed for scrubbing of an air mixture
containing 5% ammonia by volume. The
scrubber is fed with water containing 0.002
mole NH3 per mole of water. The scrubbing
water flows at a rate of 1.0 mole water per
mole air. It is necessary to absorb 85% of the
ammonia present in the gas by operating the
absorber at 200 C.
3
0.80

=
3
2
Calculate the concentration of NH3 in the
outgoing liquid and estimate the number of
stages necessary for this operation.
ANSWER
Air concentrated with solute P is brought in
contact with water. At steady state, the bulk
concentrations of P in air and water are 0.3
and 0.02 respectively.
The equilibrium
equation relating the interface compositions is
= 0.25 . Assume that the mass transfer
coefficients FG and FL are identical, what is
the gas phase mole fraction of P at the
interface ? ANSWER
The equilibrium data for a certain absorption
may be represented by the equation =
5.2 2 , where, = kmol of dissolved
absorbable material per kmol of pure
absorbing liquid and = kmol of gaseous

ENGR. RONNIE V. FLORES

absorbable material per kmol of inert gas.

The unit is operated as continuous countercurrent absorption. The entering gas contains
5 moles of absorbable material per 20 mols of
inert gas. The absorbing liquid enters the
column as a pure material. Determine the
minimum ratio of liquid to gas if the gases
leaving the tower contain 1 mol absorbable
material per 50 mols of inert gas. ANSWER
15.

A dry gas mixture of 1,000 ft3/min containing

60% dry air and 40% SO3 is blown to the
bottom of an absorption tower and at the top
sprayed by 50 lb/min of 60% H2SO4. The acid
liquor coming out at the bottom of the tower is
an 84.8% H2SO4. The exit gases leaving the
top of the tower has a pressure of 29 in Hg
with the water vapor pressure 7 in Hg. What
percent of the SO3 of the entering gas is
converted to H2SO4? ANSWER

16.

A 5% butane and 95% air mixture from a

solvent extraction plant is absorbed in a
bubble-plate tower, with 8 ideal plates, at 760
mm Hg pressure and 15.6 C, to recover 95%
of the butane in the butane-air mixture.
Butane at 15.6 C has vapor pressure of 28
psia. Liquid butane has a density of 0.581
kg/L at 15.6 C. The absorbing non-volatile
oil used has a molecular weight of 250 and a
specific gravity of 0.90.
If Raoults and
Daltons laws apply, calculate the liters of
fresh absorbing oil needed per liter of butane
recovered from the butane-air mixture.
ANSWER

17.

Benzene is removed from air by absorbing it

in a non-volatile wash oil at 100 kPa in a
counter-current gas absorber. Gas flow rate
is 100 mol/min, which includes 2 mol/min of
benzene. The flow rate of wash oil is 50
mol/min. Vapor pressure of benzene at the
column conditions is 50 kPa. Benzene forms
an ideal solution with the wash oil and the
column is operating at steady state. Gas
phase can be assumed to follow ideal gas
law. Neglect the change in molar flow rates of
liquid and gas phases inside the column.

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CHEMICAL ENGINEERING SERIES: GAS ABSORPTION

EXERCISES
Determine the absorption factor for this
process. ANSWER
18.

A stripper with one equilibrium stage is

stripping 1-chloro-napthalene from water into
air. The liquid feed contains 2 x 10-6 mole
fraction of 1-chloro-napthalene and the total
liquid flow rate is 100 kmol/h. The inlet gas,
which is pure air, has total flow rate of 10
kmol/h. The column operates at 25 C and
the Henrys law constant for 1-chloronaphthalene is 10.96 atm/mol fraction. If an
outlet liquid mole fraction of 0.4 x 10-6 is
desired, what is the pressure (in atm) of the
stripper and what is the mole fraction of 1chloro-napthalene of the outlet air? ANSWER

19.

In a packed tower operated isothermally at a

pressure of 3 atm, the over-all mass transfer
coefficients have the following values: Gas
Phase: KGa 0.396 kmol/hm 3y; Liquid
Phase: KLa 13.9 kmol/hm 3x. Where
and refer to the driving forces in mole
fraction. The equilibrium composition of the
gaseous and liquid phase are characterized
by the equation of Henrys Law: = ,
where - equilibrium partial pressure of
transferring component in mm Hg;
Henrys law constant, mm Hg/mol fraction;
mole fraction of transferring component in
liquid phase. What is the numerical value of
the Henrys law constant? ANSWER

20.

A packed tower with an inside volume of 300

cu ft is to be used for an ammonia absorption
under such conditions tha KGa = 2.8
lbmol/hft3atm and Henrys law is applicable
to the ammonia solution.
The pressuredifference driving force at the top of the
column ( ) is 0.009 atm, and the
pressure-difference driving force at the bottom
of the column is 0.090 atm. If 550 lb of
ammonia, in addition to the inert gases, enters
the tower per hour, what percent of the
entering ammonia will be absorbed?
ANSWER

ENGR. RONNIE V. FLORES

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