Packing Characterization: Mass Transfer Properties

Abstract

Packing is widely used in post-combustion CO2 capture. This paper is focused on the measurement of three fundamental packing characteristics: effective gas-liquid contact area (ae), gas phase and liquid phase film mass transfer coefficient (kG) and (kL). Results show that contact area initially increases with liquid flow rate before it asymptotes to a value nearly equivalent to the nominal surface area. Initial attempts at constructing new mechanistic models have shown that existing kG and kL models can be improved. Both gas and liquid phase film mass transfer coefficients can be described as a power function of superficial gas or liquid velocity.