Investigation of mass-transfer performance for CO₂ absorption into diethylenetriamine (DETA) in a randomly packed column

The mass-transfer performance of CO₂ absorption into aqueous diethylenetriamine (DETA) solutions was investigated in an absorption column randomly packed with Dixon rings at 303-303 K and atmospheric pressure, and compared with that of monoethanolamine (MEA), which is widely considered as a benchmark solvent for CO₂ absorption. The mass-transfer performance was presented in terms of volumetric overall mass-transfer coefficient (K _Ga_v). In particular, the effects of operating parameters, such as inlet CO₂ loading, solvent concentration, liquid flow rate, inert gas flow rate, and liquid temperature, were investigated and compared for both MEA and DETA. Over 40 runs of absorption experiments were carried out in this study. The results showed that K_Ga_v of DETA was found to be higher than that of MEA. Also, inlet CO₂ loading, solvent concentration, liquid flow rate, and liquid inlet temperature had significant effect on K_Ga_v for both systems. However, the inert gas flow rate had an insignificant effect on K_Ga_v. Lastly, predictive correlations for K_Ga_v for DETA-CO₂ and MEA-CO₂ systems in randomly Dixon ring packed columns were successfully developed. The predicted results were found to be in relatively good agreement with the experimental results, with average absolute deviations (AADs) of 16% and 14%, respectively.