CO 2 absorption characteristics in a random packed column with various geometric structures and working conditions

CO 2 emissions have been continuously increasing in recent years and exacerbating global warming, so CO 2 emissions mitigation is of great benefit to the control of climate change. In this work, the computational models of CO 2 absorption by aqueous ammonia solution in a random packed column are developed, where the packing porosity obeys the normal, empirical profile, piecewise constant distributions. The hydrodynamic and mass transfer performances, as well as the CO 2 removal efficiency, are obtained by means of numerical simulation. The results show that the random packing with porosity following the normal distribution leads to a better mass transfer performance, thus a high CO 2 removal efficiency. The height‐to‐diameter ratio of 3 is preferred due to the better CO 2 absorption performance. More ammonia solution can form a bigger interfacial area, and thus enhance mass transfer performance. However, the increased CO 2 flow rate is unfavorable to the CO 2 absorption. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.