ABSTRACT

This gas absorption experiment is conducted to examine the air pressure drop across the
column as a function of air flowrate for different water flow rate through the column. The
experiment uses the gas absorption unit model: BP 751-B to demonstrate the absorption of air
into water in a packed column where the gas and liquid mixture will counter- currently flow
through the packing. The experiment is conducted with three different water flow rates which
are 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 litres per minute. For every water flow rates the unit is run for nine
different air flow rate which are 20, 40, 60, 80, 100, 120, 140, 160 and 180 litre per minutes.
The experiment is started by setting the water flow rate to 1.0 L/min and the pressure drop is
taken every two minutes at every nine different air flow rates stated before. The experiment is
then repeated with other water flowrate. If the flooding does occur, the pressure drop reading
is stopped. For the result, we can say that increasing of air flow rate will increase the pressure
drop and increasing the water flow rate will result to greater value for pressure drop. Plot of
pressure drop against the air flow rate for every different flow rate in a log-log plot also
shows that increasing air flowrate will increase the pressure drop. The flooding point is
determined experimentally and for 2 LPM of water, the flooding point is at 160 LPM of air
flow rate. For 3 LPM of water flow rate, the flooding point is at 120 LPM of air flow rate.
Comparison on the experimental value and correlated value for pressure drop is also made.
For every water flow rate, the values of experimental pressure drop are lower than the
correlated pressure drop. Based on the values, error is calculated and due to some errors the
calculated value of errors are quite big.