ABSTRACT
Design of absorbers and strippers requires accurate estimation of the effects of liquid-phase reaction upon interphase transfer rates and selectivity for targeted species. The sheer number of such rate estimates required to optimize absorber–stripper design motivates development of efficient algorithms. In each pass through a column, absorption rates must be calculated at numerous axial locations. Since early in the 20th century, mathematical models have been proposed to describe mass transfer between a gas phase and liquid flowing over and between column packing. The simple film model was proposed by Whitman and first applied by Hatta to absorption with chemical reaction. Elevated pressure promotes absorption. Furthermore, absorbers are generally operated at lower temperatures, though not so low that either the rate of reaction or, if it is endothermic, its equilibrium constant, is severely compromised.
