The vapour liquid equilibrium (VLE) apparatus for atmospheric pressure is designed to operate at temperatures up to 80°C. It consists of 3 gas washing bottles with a sintered glass gas sparger placed in series (2,3,4 in the figure). At the start of each experiment a sample preloaded with CO₂ is fed into the bottles. The bottles are heated by water and placed in a heated cabinet with temperature measured to within ±0.1°C. The gas phase is circulated through the system, and the gas sparger system serves the purpose of a fast approach to equilibrium. When equilibrium is obtained liquid is sampled (bottle 4) for chemical analysis.

• cyclic capacity
• heat of absorption
• absorber heights etc