Limiting Gas Liquid Flows and Mass Transfer in a Novel Rotating Packed Bed (HiGee)

The flooding and mass transfer characteristics of a rotating packed bed (RPB) incorporating the split packing design innovation is studied. The air-water system is used for characterizing the flooding behavior, while mass transfer is studied for the chemisorption of CO2 in aqueous NaOH. Danckwert's chemical method is used to infer the effective specific interfacial area (a(e)) for mass transfer. The variation in the liquid side volumetric mass transfer coefficient (k(L)a(e)) with operating conditions is also measured. Consistently higher values of a(e) and k(L)a(e) are observed for counter-rotation of the adjacent packing rings compared to co-rotation. The flooding and mass transfer results are compared with existing literature data on packed columns and conventional HiGee to evaluate the process intensification potential of the novel HiGee. The flooding limits are comparable to conventional HiGee, while the reported a(e) and k(L)a(e) values are higher.