Masoud Mofarahi

This study presents the rate-based modeling for CO2 absorption into a novel amine solution, 1DMA2P, in a column packed with random packing. The rate-based model has been developed on the basis of five key elements: the heat and mass transfer balances, thermodynamic model, estimation of physicochemical properties, enhancement factor model, and calculations of column internal hydraulic. The heat and mass transfer balances were derived based on the two-film theory by taking a differential element from a packed column. The Deshmukh–Mather model as thermodynamic framework was incorporated in the rate-based model to calculate the CO2 loading of 1DMA2P solution. The physicochemical properties such as amine density, amine viscosity, amine surface tension, amine heat capacity, and diffusivity of the CO2 in amine solution were predicted based on the thermodynamic correlations developed in this study. The rate-based model was numerically solved and validated by using experimental data of the CO2 concentration along the height of a packed column. In addition, we have performed the sensitivity analysis on the profiles of CO2 and H2O and profiles of gas and liquid temperature by applying four different mass transfer correlations of the random packing. Also, the effects of different operating parameters were investigated on the CO2 mole fraction profiles in gas phase. The rate-based model predicted the experimental data of CO2 concentration along the height of a packed column with an AARD % of 2.18. The sensitivity analysis showed that Onda’s correlations provided good results in comparison with other analyzed correlations.