Gas−liquid multiphase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) of amine absorption column with structured-packing for CO2 capture

• Amine absorber packed with Mellapak 250.X for CO2 capture was considered.
• Gas−liquid Eulerian porous media CFD model was used for the structured-packing.
• Liquid holdup of packing depended on drag coefficients of porous resistance force.
• Pressure drop depended on drag coefficients of gas−liquid momentum exchange force.

The gas−liquid multiphase Eulerian computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model was used to investigate hydrodynamics and CO2 removal efficiency of a pilot-scale amine absorber with structured-packing. The structured-packing was represented by a porous media zone having porous resistance, gas−liquid interfacial drag force, and liquid dispersion force. This study aimed to find a reasonable way to identify four modification factors of the Ergun coefficient that determine the hydrodynamic characteristics of structured-packing. The two modification factors (a and b) for porous resistance were mainly related to the liquid holdup (hL) with respect to the liquid load. The other two factors (c and d) for gas−liquid interfacial drag force depended on the specific wet pressure drop (ΔPwet/L) versus the gas load factor. The hL and ΔPwet/L increased in parallel with the increase of a and c, respectively, while the slopes of hL and ΔPwet/L increased with b and d, respectively.