Three-dimensional simulation of bubble behavior and mass transfer for CO₂ absorption in nanoabsorbents

CO₂ absorption performance in gas-liquid system is affected by nanoparticles. The enhancement mechanisms involved have been extensively paid attention. The CO₂ gas bubble behaviors and the characteristics of the nanoparticle motion have been clarified in the present study. The equivalent substitution method is used to regard the liquid with nanoparticles as a continuous term with changed physical properties, that is, nanofluid. Therefore, the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method is employed to well predict the gas bubble behaviors and mass transfer coefficient in nanofluid. It is found that the mass transfer coefficient in the gas-liquid system for CO₂ absorption can be significantly enhanced by Al₂O₃ nanoparticles. With the increase of nanoparticles volume concentration, the surface renewal frequency increases dramatically. The discrete-particle-method (DPM) is adopted to track the motion of nanoparticles. In this way, the deformation of the bubbles and the motion of the nanoparticle are well captured. It is concluded that the enhanced mass transfer coefficient in gas-liquid-nanoparticle system is not only related to the Brownian motion of the particles, but also related to the nanoparticle deduced turbulence in the liquid field..