Mass transfer in the falling liquid film

Abstract

Absorption of pure carbon dioxide (97-99%) by the city water was carried out in the wetted-wall column, which was constructed of standard 1/2″ iron pipe. The liquid film height per transfer unit, HL, based on the log. mean driving force was calculated from the data obtained over the range from 100 to 2, 000 of (Re)L. (Re)G was kept constant at about 700 for the majority of runs, since it was found by the preliminary runs that it had not any effect on the rate of absorption.The length of tube was varied from 508 to 1856mm. The discrepancy between the experiments and the theories by Hatta and Pigford was clearly recognized as already pointed out by Sherwood and Pigford in their book. While Emmert and Pigford tried to verify the theory by the interesting experiments using wetting agent, we attempted to explain the discrepancy by other theoretical relations derived here which were based on some added assumptions. These relations are not satisfactory, but they show somewhat better agreement than the previous theoretical lines.We recommend the experimental equations presented here for practical purposes, until a more perfect theory with due regard to the effect of turbulence is established in future.