This
study proposes the utilization of a rotor–stator reactor
(RSR) to address the issue of excessive alkali consumption by CO2 in the treatment of off-gas containing HCl and CO2 in conventional columns. First, an investigation was conducted to
explore the interaction between HCl absorption and CO2 absorption
by alkali solution in the RSR. The results revealed that no discernible
interaction between HCl and CO2 absorption occurred in
the RSR under the typical concentrations of HCl and CO2 in off-gas. Subsequently, the absorption performances of HCl and
CO2 by using different absorbents in the RSR were explored.
It was observed that the absorption of HCl by both water and alkali
solution in the RSR demonstrated negligible disparities. This may
be attributed to the high liquid-side mass-transfer coefficient in
the RSR, which mitigated the intensification effect of the reaction
on the mass transfer of HCl. According to these findings, a selective
absorption process for HCl from a gas mixture containing CO2 employing an alkali solution during a recycle operation in the RSR
was implemented. This process facilitated the desorption of CO2 absorbed in the initial stage by lowering the final pH during
the recycling operation, resulting in zero consumption of alkali by
CO2. Although the process based on the packed column can
selectively absorb HCl by intensification such as multiple columns
in series, the smaller size of RSR will save the cost of equipment
investment.