CONTINUOUS

HUMIDIFICATION
PROCESSES
KMJ 32203 SEPARATION PROCESS
SEMESTER 1, ACADEMIC SESSION 2022/23

[email protected]
 Overview
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
2
 INTRODUCTION TO GAS-LIQUID

CONTACTORS
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR

WATER COOLING TOWERS

 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING

TOWER
 OPTIMIZATION OF WATER AIR

FLOW VALUE
bblee@unimap
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
3
GAS-LIQUID SEPARATION
1. Absorption:
 Two contacting phases: a gas & a liquid

 A solute (A) or several solutes are absorbed

from the gas phase into a liquid phase.

 It involves molecular & turbulent diffusion

or mass transfer of solute A through a

stagnant non-diffusing B into stagnant liquid
C.
TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES

 Example: Absorption of ammonia A from air

B
by the liquid water C.
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
2. Stripping or Desorption
 The reverse of absorption
5

 Example: Stream stripping of nonvolatile oils, the

steam contacts the oil and small amounts of volative

components of the oil pass out with the stream.
 Humidification:

 When the gas is pure air and the liquid is pure water

– increase moisture in the air.

 Dehumidification

 removal of water

vapor from air

 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
3. Distillation:
6
 A volatile vapor phase and a liquid phase

that vaporizes are involved.

 Example: Distillation of

an ethanol-water
solution, where the
vapor contains a
concentration of
ethanol greater in
the liquid
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
Liquid-liquid separation
4. Liquid-liquid extraction:
7

 Two phases: liquids

 A solute or solutes are

removed from 1 liquid

phase to another liquid
phase
 Example: Acetic acid from

a water solution by
isopropyl ether
bblee@unimap
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
Liquid-solid separation
8 5. Leaching:
 A process to extract a solute from a solid (also

known as extraction).
 Example: Leaching copper from solid ores by

sulfuric acid or leaching vegetable oils from

solid soyabeans by organic solvent (e.g. hexane)
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
Liquid-solid / gas-solid separation
9
6. Membrane processing:
 The relatively thin, solid membrane controls the

rate of movement of molecules between two phases.

 Example: Removal of salt from seawater, purify gases
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
7. Crystallization:
 Solute components (soluble in a solution) can be
10

removed from the solution by adjusting the

conditions (i.e. temperature or concentration),
the solubility of one or more solute components is
exceeded and they crystallize out as a solid phase.
 Example: Crystallization of sugar from solution,

crystallization of metal salts on the processing of

metal ore solutions.

bblee@unimap
 TYPES OF SEPARATION PROCESSES
8. Adsorption:
 one or more components of a liquid or gas stream
11

are adsorbed on the surface or in the pores of a

solid adsorbent and a separation is obtained.
 Example: separation of paraffin from aromatics,

removal of solvents from air.

 INTRODUCTION TO GAS-LIQUID CONTACTORS
 When a warm liquid is brought into direct contact with unsaturated gas:
 Some of the liquid is vaporized.
12

 Liquid temperature will drop because of the latent heat of

evaporation.
 This is done for some purposes:

 Humidifying air for control of the moisture content of air in drying air

or air conditioning.
 Dehumidifying air, where cold water condenses some water vapor

from warm air.

 Water cooling, where evaporation of water to the air cools warm

water.
 INTRODUCTION TO GAS-LIQUID CONTACTORS
 Towers for water cooling:
13
 In a typical water-cooling tower,

warm water flows countercurrently

to an air stream.
 The warm water enters the top of a

packed tower (distributed by troughs)

and cascades down through the
packing, leaving at the bottom.
 Air enters at the bottom of the towers

and flow upward through the

descending water by inducing of the
buoyancy of warm water (natural
draft) or by the action of a fan.
 INTRODUCTION TO GAS-LIQUID CONTACTORS
 The tower packing consists of slats of plastic or of a
14
packed bed that provides large interfacial areas of
contact between the water and air in the form of
droplets and films of water
 The water can only be cooled to the wet bulb
temperature, about 3 K or more above this
 INTRODUCTION TO GAS-LIQUID CONTACTORS
15

 Only a small amount of water is lost by

evaporation.
 The latent heat of vaporization of water is about
2300 kJ/kg, a typical change of 8K in water
temperature corresponds to an evaporation loss
of about 1.5%.
 Hence, the total flow of water is assumed to
be constant in calculations of tower size.

bblee@unimap
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER
COOLING TOWERS

16
Temperature and concentration profile at interface
 Water vapor diffuses from the interface to the bulk gas
phase with a driving force in the gas phase of (Hi - HG) kg
H2O/kg dry air.
 There is no driving force for mass transfer in liquid phase
(water - pure liquid)
 The temperature driving force is TL-Ti in the liquid phase
and TI - TG (K or C) in the gas phase.
 Sensible heat flows from the bulk liquid to the interface in
the liquid & from interface to the gas phase.
 Latent heat leaves the interface in the water vapor,
diffusing to the gas phase.
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS
 Heat (liquid) = Heat (Interface) + latent heat flow in the gas
17
 These conditions occur at the upper part of the cooling tower.

Fig. 10-5-1: Temperature and

concentration profiles in upper part of bblee@unim
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR
WATER COOLING TOWERS
18

 In lower part of cooling tower, the

temperature of bulk water is higher than
the wet bulb temperature of air but may be
below the dry bulb temperature:
Twet bulb,air < Tbulk water < Tdry bulb
 Then, the direction of the sensible heat flow
is reversed.
bblee@unimap
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS

 Rate equations for heat and mass transfer

19 For a packed water-cooling tower with air flowing upward
& water countercurrently downward in the tower.
 The total interfacial area between the air and water phases is
unknown since the surface area of the packing is not equal to
the interfacial area between the water droplets and the air.
 Define a quantity a, (m2 of interfacial area per m3 volume of
packed section, m2/m3).
 This is combined with the gas phase mass transfer coefficient
kG in kg.mol/s.m2.Pa or Kg mol/s.m2.atm to give a volumetric
coefficient kGa in kgmol/s.m3 volume.Pa or Kg mol/s.m3.atm
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS
 The process is carried out adiabatically and the
20 various streams and conditions are:
 L = water flow, kg water/s.m2

 T = temperature of water, C or K
L
 G = dry air flow, kg/s.m 2

 T = temperature of air, C or K
G
 H = humidity of air, kg water/kg dry air

 H = enthalpy of air-water vapor mixture, J/kg dry

y
air

 Latent heat, λ0 (J/kg or kJ/kg) at T0

 The humid heat, cS =
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS

 Total heat balance of

21
tower (dashed-line):

 Assumes L is essentially
constant (only a small
amount is evaporated)
 Heat capacity cL of the
liquid is assumed
constant (4.187 x 103
J/kg. K)
Fig. 10-5-2: Continuous
countercurrent adiabatic water cooling
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS

 When Hy vs TL is plotted, the above equation is

22
a straight live with a slope of LcL/G.

Fig. 10-5-3: Temperature enthalpy diagram

and operating line for water-cooling tower.
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS
 Making overall heat balance:
23

 Making a heat balance for dz column height and

neglecting sensible heat terms compared to the
latent heat,
 The total sensible heat transfer from the bulk
liquid to the interface is

 hLa is the liquid phase volumetric heat transfer

coefficient in W/m3.K
 Ti is the interface temperature.
 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS
 For adiabatic mass transfer the rate of heat
24 transfer due to the latent heat in the water vapor
being transferred can be obtained:

 Using a volumetric basis,

 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS
 The rate of sensible heat transfer in the gas:
25

 From above equations:

 From Substituting PkGa for kya,

 Substituting and Rearranging,

 Adding and Subtracting cSTo inside the brackets,

 THEORY AND CALCULATION FOR WATER COOLING TOWERS

 The terms inside the braces (Hyi-Hy), so:

26

 Integrating, the final equation to use to calculate

the tower height:

 The final result rearranged:

 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
27
 Design of water cooling tower using film mass
transfer coefficients:
1) The enthalpy of saturated air Hyi is plotted versus
Ti on a H versus T plot:
Fig. 10-5-3:
Temperature
enthalpy
diagram and
operating line
for water-
cooling tower.
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 This enthalpy is calculated with:
28

 using the saturation humidity from the

humidity chart for a given temperature
(with 0oC as a base temperature)
 Calculated values

are tabulated.
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
2. Knowing the entering air conditions TG1 and H1,
the enthalpy of this air Hy1 is calculated from:
29

 The point Hy1 and TL1 (desired leaving water

temperature) is plotted as one point on the
operating line.
 The operating line is plotted with a slope LcL/G
and ends at point TL2, which is the entering water
temperature. → This gives Hy2.
 Alternatively Hy2 can be calculated from:
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
3. Knowing hLa and kGa, lines with a slope of
30

-hLa/kGaMBP are plotted.

 From the equation:

 point P represents Hy and TL on the operating

line, and point M represents Hyi and Ti, the
interface conditions.
 Hence, line MS or Hyo-Hy represents the driving
force in the equation:
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
4. The driving force Hyi - Hy is computed for
31

various values of TL between TL1 and TL2.

 Then by plotting 1/(Hyi-Hy) versus Hy from Hy1 to
Hy2, a graphical integration is performed to
obtain the value of the integral.

 Finally, the height z is calculated from:

 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 Design of water-cooling tower using overall mass-
transfer coefficients:
32

 An overall mass transfer coefficient KGa in kg

mol/s.m3.Pa is available, the column height:

 The value of H*y is determined by going vertically

from the value of Hy at point P upto the equilibrium
line to give H*y at point R, as shown Fig. 10.5.3.
 In many cases the experimental film coefficients kGa
and hLa are not available.
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 The few experimental data available indicate that
33

hLa is quite large and the slope of the lines

-hLa/(kGaMBP) in equation would be very large
and the value of Hyi would approach that of H*y
in Fig. 10.5.3.
 The tower design using the overall mass-transfer

coefficient is done using the following steps:

1. The enthalpy-temperature data from table above
are plotted as shown in Fig. 10.5-3.
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
2. Knowing the entering air conditions TG1 and H1,
the enthalpy of this air Hy1 is calculated from:
34

 The point Hy1 and TL1 (desired leaving water

temperature) is plotted as one point on the
operating line.
 The operating line is plotted with a slope LcL/G
and ends at point TL2, which is the entering water
temperature. → This gives Hy2.
 Alternatively Hy2 can be calculated from:
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
3. In Fig. 10.5-3 point P represents Hy and TL on the
35 operating line and point R represent H*y on the
equilibrium line.
 Hence, the vertical line RP or H* -H represents the
y y
driving force in the equation:

4. The driving force H*y - Hy is computed for various values

of TL between TLI and TL2.
 Then by plotting 1/(H* -H ) versus H from H to H , a
y y y y1 y2
graphical integration is performed to obtain the value of
integral in equation above.
 Finally the height z is obtained from the equation.
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING
TOWER
36
 Example 1:Use of Humidity Chart
 Air entering a dryer has a temperature (dry bulb
temperature) of 60oC and a dew point of 26.7oC.
Using the humidity chart, determine the actual
humidity H, percentage humidity HP, humid heat
cS, and the humid volume vH.
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 Solution:

 The dew point of 26.7oC is the temperature when the given

37
mixture is at 100% saturation.
 Starting at 26.7oC on humidity chart, drawing a vertical

line until it intersects the line for 100% humidity, a

humidity of H = 0.0225 kg H2O/kg dry air is read off the
plot.
 This is the actual humidity of the air at 60 oC.

 Stated in another way, if air at 60oC and having a humidity

H = 0.0225 is cooled, its dew point will be 26.7oC.

 Locating this point of H = 0.0225 and T = 60oC on the

chart, the percentage humidity HP is found to be 14%, by

linear interpolation vertically between the 10 and 20%
lines.
 OPTIMIZATION OF WATER AIR FLOW VALUE

38
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING
TOWER
39
 The humid heat for H = 0.0225 is calculated:

 The humid volume at 60oC is calculated:

 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
Example:
 A packed countercurrent water-cooling tower using
40

a gas flow rate of G = 1.356 kg dry air/s.m2 and a

water flow rate of L = 1.356 kg water/s.m2 is to
cool the water from TL2 = 43.3oC to TL1 = 29.4oC.
 The entering air at 29.4oC has a wet bulb

temperature of 23.9oC.
 The mass-transfer coefficient k a is estimated as
G
1.207 x 10-7 kgmol/s.m3.Pa and hLa/kGaMBP as
4.187 x 104 J/kg.K.
 Calculate the height of packed tower Z.

 The tower operates at a pressure of 1.013 x 105 Pa.

 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 The enthalpies from the saturated air-water vapor
mixtures are plotted (as in Figure 10.5-4).
41
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 The inlet air at TG1 = 29.4 oC has a wet bulb
temperature of 23.9oC. The humidity from the
42

humidity chart is H1 = 0.0165 kg H2O/kg dry air.

 Substituting:

 Noting that (29.4 - 0)oC = (29.4 - 0)K,

 The point Hy1 = 71.7 x 103 and TL1 = 29.4oC is

plotted.
 Substituting into:
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 Solving:
43

 The point Hy2 = 129.9 x 103, TL2 = 43.3oC is also

plotted, giving the operating line.
 Lines with slope -h a/k aM P = -41.87 x 103
L G B
J/kg.K are plotted
giving Hy1 and Hy
values, which are
tabulated (with
derived values as
shown).
 DESIGN OF WATER-COOLING TOWER
 Values of 1/(Hy1-Hy) are plotted versus H.
44

 The area under the curve from Hy1 = 71.7 x 103

to Hy2 = 129.9 x 103:

 Finally,
 OPTIMIZATION OF WATER AIR FLOW
VALUE
Often the air flow G is not fixed but must be set for
45
the design of the cooling tower.
 As shown in Figure 10.5-5 for a minimum value of

G, the operating line MN is drawn through the point

Hy1 and TL1 with a slope that touches the
equilibrium line at TL2, point N.
 If the equilibrium line is quite curved, line MN
could become tangent to the equilibrium line at the
point father down the equilibrium line than point N.
 For the actual tower, a value of G greater than G
min
must be used (typically G = 1.3 - 1.5 X Gmin is
used).
 OPTIMIZATION OF WATER AIR FLOW
VALUE
46

Fig. 10.5-5: Operating-line

construction for minimum gas