Dynamic modeling of absorption/desorption closed-loop including periphery

Abstract

Reactive absorption is one of the most important separation processes used within the chemical industry to address the environmental protection challenges. In this process, undesirable gaseous components are captured by chemical reaction in a solvent and the loaded solvent is then regenerated in the desorption unit. Both process steps take place simultaneously and strongly interact resulting in a very complex process behavior. To ensure stable and safe process operation, even in presence of instabilities/malfunctions, understanding of the dynamic process behavior is essential. In this work, the development of a novel dynamic model for simulation of a reactive absorption/desorption process in a closed-loop configuration including the periphery of the plant is presented. The validation of the model is accomplished based on two dynamic experiments carried out in our own pilot plant. The deviations between experimental and simulated outlet gas concentrations are below 10% for both experiments.