Gas Liquid Contacting

Equipments

Kalyan Gayen
Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
NIT Agartala
Equipments/devices for interphase mass transfer

1. Gas – Liquid / Vapor – Liquid contacting

Examples: a) Gas absorption and Striping
b) Distillation
c) Humidification or Dehumidification
d) Water cooling
2. Liquid – Liquid contacting (Solvent extraction)
3. Gas – Solid contacting (drying and adsorption)
4. Liquid – Solid contacting (leaching, crystallization
and ion exchange)
 Gas – Liquid contacting equipments

Gas is dispersed
in the liquid in
the form of
bubbles

Bubble Column Tray/Plate Column

 Gas – Liquid contacting equipments

Liquid is
dispersed in the
form of droplets
or
discontinuous
fill in a
continuous gas
phase

Spray Tower Packed Tower

 Gas – Liquid contacting equipments

Both liquid and

gas are in
continuous
mode

Falling film contactor

 Gas – Liquid contacting equipments

1. Tray/plate column
2. Packed tower

Widely used gas-liquid

contacting
equipments

Tray/Plate Column Packed Tower

Packed column
 Plate column
Condenser

Overhead Vapor

Overhead Product
Reflux
Rectifying
Section

Stripping Reboiler
Section

Bottoms Product
Plate column
 Packed Bed Columns

 Used more often for absorption and

distillation of vapor-liquid mixtures.
 The liquid flows downward through the packing and the
vapor flows upward through the column.
 Advantages
 Cost efficient

 Lower pressure drop

 Good for thermally sensitive liquids

 Disadvantages
 Packing can break during installation
 Tray Column
The number of trays or stages is dependent
 Advantages
 Cost efficient

 Can handle high liquid flow rates

 Disadvantages
 Higher pressure drops than packed columns

 Foaming can occur due to agitation

 Plate or Tray column

Tray/Plate Column
Plate or Tray column

Consists of maily four parts

1. Shell
2. Trays
3. Downcomers and Weirs
4. Nozzles
 Shell (Plate column)

1. Shell is usually made of metal or alloy. The

material is selected on the basis of corrosiveness
of the fluids, temperature, pressure conditions
and cost. Sometimes plastic (Fibire reinforced
plastic) are also used
2. Tower diameter: 1 – 10 meter
3. Shell thickness is generally calculated using
standard vessel design code
4. Shell is generally fabricated based on design
 Tray (Plate column)

Tray has two major functions

1. It allows the gas to flow through the holes; the
gas vigorously bubbles through the liquid to form
a gas-liquid dispersion. The tray holds the
dispersion on it
2. The trays separate the column into a number of
compartments each of which constitute a stage.
Mass transfer between phases occurs on a tray.
Therefore, the trays as a whole constitute the
heart of a column. The performance of a column
depends upon the performance of the trays
 Tray (Plate column)

Types of tray
1. Bubble cap trays
2. Sieve tray
3. Valve tray
Bubble Cap Tray

Sieve Tray
valve tray
 Bubble Cap Tray

Bubble Cap Tray

 Sieve Tray

Sieve Tray
 Valve Tray

valve tray

Variable area
 Comparison of Trays

Turndown ratio= design vapor throughput/minimum operatable throughput

Share market: Bubble cup tray Sieve tray Valve Tray

~5% ~25% ~70%
Plate design
Downcomers and Weirs
Operational limits for tray
Optimum operation
Packed Tower

Components:
1. Shell
2. Packing
3. Packing support and gas distributor
4. Liquid collector and liquid distributor
5. Demister or Entrainment Eliminator
Types of tower packing
 Packing

Characteristics of tower packing:

1. Large surface area
2. Uniform flow of gas and liquid
3. High void volume for low pressure drop
4. High mechanical strength
5. Fouling resistance
 Random packing
Random packings are simply dumped into the tower during
installation and allowed to fall at random.
1) Raschig rings: Diameter ranges from 6 to 100 mm. Made of
chemical stoneware or porcelain (Not used for alkali & acids),
carbon (Except strongly oxidizing atmospheres), metals or plastics
(deteriorates with certain organic solvents & oxygen bearing gases
at elevated temperature)
 2.Lessing ring

Lessing and others with internal classifications are less frequently used.
 3) Berl Saddle

(Chemical stoneware or plastics) 6 to 75 mm diameter

 4) Intalox saddle

(Chemical stoneware or plastics) 6 to 75 mm diameter

 5) Tellerette

(Plastics & metals)

6) Pall ring
The Pall ring attempts to increase the useful aspects of packing, by giving an
increased number of edges to disrupt flow, whilst also reducing the volume
taken up by the ring packing medium itself. Rather than using a solid-walled
tube, the Pall ring resembles an open basket structure of thin bars. These form
both a tube and also a radial structure of cross bars . Pall rings may be injection
moulded of plastics, moulded of ceramics or press-formed from metal sheet. In
order to prevent the breakage of ceramic or carbon packing , the tower may
first be filled with water to reduce the velocity of falling object.
 Regular or Structured Packing

Advantage of low pressure drop for gas side flow and greater fluid flow but on
the other side requires more cost for installation.
Stacked Raschig rings are economically practical in very large size only.
Wood grids or hurdles are inexpensive and frequently used where large
void volume is required.
Woven wire screen rolled as a fabric into cylinders provide a large
interfacial surface for contacted liquid and gas , and very low pressure
drop.
 Random packing
First Generation (Raschig Ring, Berl Saddle)
1895 to the 1950s
simple shapes with closed surfaces, robust
and stable design, cost-effective production
Second Generation (Pall Ring, Intalox Saddle)
late 1950s to the early 1970s
surfaces with cutted windows and bent tongues,
improved area distribution lowering pressure
drop and enhancing capacity
Third Generation (Net/Grid Structures, IMPT Ring)
late 1970s to the 1990s
framework structure, large free cross section,
low pressure drop, high efficiency
Fourth Generation (Raschig Super-Ring)
late 1990s until present
lower pressure drop and better mass transfer
efficiency