GAS ABSORPTION REVIEW QUESTIONS :
1. Give some industrial examples of gas absorption as a separation technique
2. Distinguish between absorption and stripping with reference to the mechanism of
interphase mass transfer.
3. Distinguish between the physical absorption and absorption with chemical reaction
with some suitable examples for both types.
4. Bring out the advantages and disadvantages of absorption involving chemical reaction
over the physical absorption.
5. Absorption and distillation are two important gas-liquid contact operations. Bring out
the essential difference between the two.
6. Describe the working of a tray tower with the help of a neat sketch.
7. Compare the different types of trays for stage-wise gas-liquid contact.
8. With reference to plate columns, explain the following: (a) Flooding (b) Entrainment
(c)Priming (d) Weeping (e) Dumping (f) Coning.
9. "In tray towers, conditions leading to high tray efficiencies result in several
operational difficulties." Elaborate.
10. Explain the influence of the liquid head and the gas velocity on tray efficiency.
11. What is the effect of liquid density, viscosity and gas solubility on the overall column
efficiency?
12. Substantiate the statement that the Murphree plate efficiencies can even exceed
100%.
13. Explain why the Murphree point efficiency will always be less than the plate
efficiency.
14. Show that when there is no horizontal liquid mixing over the plate, the Murphree
plate efficiency (EML) and the point efficiency (Eot) referred to the liquid can be related
as EML=1−e−NEot Net where Not is the number of transfer units referred to the liquid.
[Link] that the number of overall gas transfer unit in terms of mole ratios is given by
16. Describe the relative advantages of structured packings over random packing.17.
Explain channelling in packed columns. How can it be prevented?
18. Distinguish between random packing and regular packing with suitable examples.
19. What are the most desirable properties of tower packings for gas absorption?
20. Draw neat sketches of different types of random packings in use for gas-liquid
contact.
21. Describe the terms flooding and loading with reference to packed columns.
22. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of packed columns and tray columns.
23. Discuss the industrial application of sparged vessels (bubble columns).
24. What are the major limitations of bubble columns for gas absorption?
25. What are the major limitations of spray columns?
26. Explain why spray tower are preferred when absorption is gas-phase controlled.
27. Why should the absorption operations be carried out at low temperatures and high
pressures?
28. Why absorption columns are generally provided with cooling coils?
29. What are the important characteristics of ideal solutions?
30. Mention few examples for ideal solutions.
31. When ideal solutions are formed, the solubilities of gases in liquids are independent
of the solvent. Do you agree?
32. Why Henry's law constant increases with temperature?
33. How would you predict the solubility of a gas in a liquid if the Henrys law constant
for the system is available?
34. Distinguish between Raoult's law and Henry's law.
35. What is the number of degrees of freedom when ammonia is absorbed from air-
ammonia mixture in pure water?
36. What is the effect of temperature on solubility of gases in liquid?
37. Define absorption factor. What would be the value of absorption factor if the
operating and equilibrium lines are straight parallel lines?
38. To determine minimum solvent for absorption graphically, it is convenient to use
mole ratio
coordinate system for plotting the equilibrium curve and the operating line. Why?
39. Actual quantity of solvent used in absorption columns should be above the minimum
quantity. Why?
40. What is the physical significance of operating line and equilibrium curve in
absorption?
41. Explain why the operating line is not a straight line when plotted on mole fraction
coordinates.
42. It is the L/G ratio and not the absolute values of L and G that determines the height
of an absorption column. Do you agree? Substantiate.
43. What is HETP? Why is HETP-based method abandoned as a design technique?
44. What are the assumptions used in deriving the Kremser equations for determining
the number of theoretical plates?
45. Why is it not possible to achieve a good solute recovery in absorbers even by
providing large number of plates, if the absorption factor is less than unity?
46. The mole fraction of solute A in the gas phase is reduced from 0.5 to 0.48 over a
certain plate in an absorption column. The mole fraction of A in the liquid reaching a
plate is 0.2 and that in the liquid leaving is 0.23. The equilibrium is represented by y =
2x. What is the plate efficiency?
47. Distinguish between the height equivalent of a theoretical plate and the height of a
transfer unit.
48. How is the height of overall transfer unit related to the heights of individual gas and
liquid phase transfer units?
49. Derive Eq. (4.188) which relates the interfacial compositions and individual mass
transfer coefficients:
50. Absorption accompanied by a chemical reaction is sometimes advantageous for
industrial applications. Explain.
