An open-en ded, gas-abso rber design experiment has been developed for the undergr aduat e chemical engineering laborato ry. The experiment utilizes the Design-Build-Test (DBT) approach. Student teams are asked to design a column to perform a specific task , par tially build or configure the physical equipment for their design and operat e the gas absorber to test their design. Each laborato ry team conducting the experiment is assigned a unique objective involving the absor ption o f carbon dioxide, ammonia or ethanol from an air stream flowing at a specified rate. The experiment provides several choices of column diameter and packing types and size from which students can choose to complete their design. The goal of the present experiment is for students to design, build and test a gas Page 8.51.1