The Influence of Chemical Reaction on Mass Transfer Behavior in the Membrane Absorption Process

Abstract

Special reaction systems were proposed to investigate the mechanism of the mass transfer process in the membrane absorption process. The mass transfer resistance of this process was calculated by using hydrophobic polypropylene (PP) hollow fiber membrane (HFM); and a 2‐order partial differential model, including reaction, was developed to describe the SO₂ and CO₂ absorption process using HFM. Throughout the experimental analyzing and model results, for either SO₂/air/NaOH system or CO₂/air‐NaOH system, different phenomena in these two systems were discussed. Since the reaction mechanisms of both the SO₂‐NaOH system and the CO₂‐NaOH system were different, the SO₂ and CO₂ mass transfer in liquid side were different. The relation between the chemical reaction mechanism and mass transfer, instead of the ionized effect, was the reason for deviation in SO₂ absorption process. The influence of liquid phase velocity and the concentration of absorbent on the mass transfer process was also discussed.

Keywords:

• Membrane absorption
• mass transfer resistance
• boundary layer
• mathematic simulation

Acknowledgment

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.20206002), the Beijing NOVA program (H013610250112), and the University Doctor Science Foundation of China (No. 20020010004).