(152bb) The Development of Effective Area Correlation of Rotating Packed Beds and Its Application on CO2 Chemical Absorption Using Monoethanolamine Solutions

Prior rotating packed bed (RPB) modeling works share the common deficiency that applying inconsistent mass transfer correlations to best represent the data of carbon dioxide (CO₂) removal efficiency. Several studies even applied the correlations developed in conventional packed bed systems to their RPB modeling. Such approach for model development, however, would deliver questionable modeling results and unreliable design for the scaling-up purpose since these correlations are the elements for the calculation of CO₂ removal efficiency. It is reported that among the mass transfer correlations, only effective area (a_e) affects the CO₂ removal efficiency in RPB whereas liquid phase mass transfer coefficient (k_L) and liquid holdup (h_L) have little impact, despite the CO₂ chemical absorption using monoethanolamine (MEA) solution is a liquid-film controlled process. It is also reported that reliable a_e correlations are essential for RPB development. Hence, this study aims to develop reliable correlations of RPB and apply the developed correlations to the RPB model for predicting CO₂ removal efficiency. The predicted CO₂ removal efficiency is further validated against the experimental results. The absolute relative deviation (ARD) between predicted and experimental CO₂ removal efficiency is less than 30%. The results validate the modeling approach and suggest that reliable a_e correlations are essential for accurately predicting the CO₂ removal efficiency in the RPB.