Effects of a Non-absorbable Gas on the Absorption Process in a Vertical Tube Absorber

Effects of a non-absorbable gas on the absorption process in a vertical tube absorber has been investigated numerically. The water vapor mixed with air is absorbed into LiBr/water solution film. The flow is assumed to be laminar and fully developed in both liquid and gas phases. The diffusion and energy equations were solved in both phases to give the temperature and concentrations, from which heat and mass fluxes were determined. The local absorption rate has been shown to decrease as the mass fraction of air in the water vapor increases. The vapor pressure of water at the liquid-vapor is interface reduced significantly since the non-absorbable gas accumulates near the interface. The effects of non-absorbable gases on absorption rate become larger as the mass flow rate of the vapor decreases. For a small amount of non-absorbable gases, the total absorption rate of water vapor increases as the mass flow rate of the vapor decreases. The total absorption rate increases as the mass flow rate of the vapor increases for large concentrations of non-absorbable gases at the inlet of an absorber.