Use of metal mesh to increase absorption efficiency of volatile organic compound in microchannel

Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emissions can cause environmental problems and public health. Absorption is an effective method to reduce VOCs emission because it provides high capacity and low operating costs. In this work, microchannel was applied to increase mass transfer and interfacial area between the gas and liquid solvent. Moreover, a stainless steel mesh was used to prevent dispersion of one phase into the other. The stainless steel mesh was placed between two channels gas- and liquid-sides of the channel. The stainless steel mesh size was varied by using stainless steel mesh number 100, 200, and 300. Toluene was used as a representative of VOC and vegetable oil was used as a liquid solvent. The result of this work was found that the gas to liquid solvent flow rate ratio was a factor to control separation of gas and the liquid solvent. Moreover, size and surface property of stainless steel mesh played a crucial role in keeping gas and the liquid solvent separated. In addition, the removal efficiency of toluene depended on the influence of gas flow rate, liquid flow rate, channel length, channel thickness, mesh size and inlet gas concentration. Moreover, the removal efficiency of toluene was up to 97 % in this work. Finally, the liquid-side volumetric mass transfer coefficients in this work were calculated and found to be as high as 0.00165 s-1.