How to calculate the pressure drop in an absorption tower
Thread Content
When simulating solvent absorption, can the pressure drop in the absorption tower be calculated? How to simulate it?
First, perform a process simulation; using the results from this simulation, hydraulic calculations are carried out for specific trays or packing to determine the pressure drop. These two steps may need to be repeated occasionally to ensure consistency
In process simulation software, the pressure drop of a typical tower is usually given in advance; it cannot be calculated directly through the software
Generally, it is estimated that the total pressure drop in a packed tower does not exceed 5 KPa; for plate towers, each actual plate results in a pressure drop of around 0.5 KPa. To obtain precise values, detailed hydraulic calculations are required. PROII also has a module for this purpose, but the values provided can only be used as references.
The total pressure drop in the column is determined by the process, as a higher column pressure inevitably leads to a higher temperature at the bottom of the column, which is undesirable for thermosensitive systems. Additionally, the vacuum system also requires a low pressure drop; if the operating pressure of the column is high, the pressure drop has little impact on the operation of the column. If you want to calculate the pressure drop in existing tower internals, you need specialized hydraulic calculation software, such as those from Sulzer or KG-TOWER; these software tools provide fairly accurate results, while process simulation software is not very useful for such calculations.