Pressurized water scrubbing for biogas purification

[abhivmairal]

I was designing pressurized water packed bed column for biogas purification wherein I am having the issue that the loading factor (X) as predicted in simulation is very high and falling outside the range of the generalized pressure-drop correlation (GPDC).

X = L/G sqrt ( Dens G/ Dens L).

Request you to suggest me a method in calculation of column diameter and also how to determine the height of the packed bed column.

Regards
Abhijeet

 

[georgeverghese]

Have a read of the section on packed column hydraulics (page 14-39 onwards in Perry Chem Eng Handbook, 7th edn) which also discusses some limitations of the Eckert GPDC graphs. Agreed, at high loading factors, flooding is probable since the lines ( including the flood line) all tend to converge at high loading factors.

To calculate the packed bed height, ideally you need actual peformance data from similar systems. There are some generalised correlations ( Hayden O Connell, AIChem E), but I recall using these for trayed columns, and not for HTU in packed columns. Have a read of this chapter and other chapters in Perry to see if there is some alternate guidance for HTU. Presume you have a simulator result for NTU.