Film and penetration theories for a first‐order reaction in exothermic gas absorption

Film and penetration models for simultaneous heat and mass transfer are developed for the absorption of gas with a first‐order chemical reaction in the liquid phase with temperature‐dependent solubility and reaction rate coefficient. These two models represent two extreme conditions of interfacial temperature rise and gas solubility and they are compared with some previous models (Allan and Mann, 1979; Asai et al., 1985). The approximate analytical expressions of the penetration model of Asai et al. (1985) are in good agreement with the numerical results of this work. The results reveal that under many practical circumstances the gas‐liquid interfacial temperature may be several degrees Kelvin higher than the bulk liquid temperature. The degree of deviation of the enhancement factor from its isothermal value at the bulk liquid temperature depends on the degree of difference of a certain dimensionless activation energy group from zero, which confirms the previous finding of Asai et al. (1985).