Effective Mass Transfer Area Measurement Using a CO2-NaOH System: Impact of Different Sources of Kinetics Models and Physical Properties

Absorption of carbon dioxide into sodium hydroxide solution has been extensively used for mass transfer investigation in gas-liquid contacting reactors. To obtain a reliable value of effective mass transfer area (A), the selection of fundamental parameters, such as reaction rate constant, diffusion coefficient, and solubility data, is significant for data processing, and very little literature has been reported on the selection of these parameters. Therefore, an evaluation of the sources of fundamental parameters needs to be given. In this work, six parameter sources, including classic literature and newly published papers, were evaluated for effective mass transfer area measurement in a rotating packed bed. Quantitative comparisons demonstrated that using different reaction kinetics models will cause a large deviation in the values of the effective mass transfer area. Further, the inconsistency between the sources of kinetics models and physical properties can also cause a large deviation, which should be avoided.