ABSORPTION WITH SIMULTANEOUS COMPLEX-REACTIONS IN BOTH PHASES, DEMONSTRATED BY THE MODELING AND CALCULATION OF A COUNTERCURRENT-FLOW COLUMN FOR THE PRODUCTION OF NITRIC-ACID

Separation processes with simultaneous chemical reactions play an important part in large-scale production. The calculation of the proper devices, usually plate columns, has not been satisfactorily solved in a general form. We present here an adequate model and a numerical method of calculation, with a corresponding computer program which allows the calculation of plate columns for absorption occurring with simultaneous reaction in both phases. The number of the reactant species and the number of the corresponding reactions is not limited. A column has been calculated rigorously for the most important industrial example of this kind of reaction, the absorption of nitrous gases in the production of nitric acid. © 1979.