Abstract:
The objective of this research is to study the adsorption mechanism of carbon dioxide by bubble column and internal airlift reactor considering the suitable sparger with plastic media. First, the hole sizes in sparger were varied to investigate the effect on mass transfer and the bubble hydrodynamic parameters. Then, the media shapes and the media volume were varied by 4 shapes from 2 to 10 percent. The experiment was set up by the suitable sparger considered from first step. In the next step, CO2 absorption efficiencies were studied with MEA and Na2CO3 solution. The optimum concentration of the solution was used with the best media. Finally, the previous results were applied to compare the absorption efficiency of two types of columns. The study found that large rigid sparger had the lowest energy consumption and provided good mass transfer coefficient at the flow rate of 12.5 LPM. In addition, mass transfer efficiency increased by using high-porosity plastic media (cylindrical hollow media). The efficiency enhanced by using 5 to 10 percent by volume. The result also found that 1 percent concentration by volume of MEA provided 92 percent of absorption efficiency. However, the presence of media in liquid phase slightly increased the absorption efficiency. The density and surface tension in liquid phase were changed by using solution instead of tap water, Comparing between two columns, bubble column was suitable for low flow rate because the bubble freely and thoroughly moved in the liquid phase. While internal airlift reactor was suitable for high gas flow rate in order to provide the good circulation in the system