I'm not sure there would be time to get a job like that done....

I'm not sure there would be time to get a job like that done. This is a Hazardous Facility, if not a Major Hazardous Facility. Onsite permits would take time. I was thinking more along the lines of some basic, half-done cleaning job.
I'm not a mechanical or chemical engineer but I would guess removing one absorber wouldn't really help. What's the difference between having two absorbers in series (where all the gas goes into the first absorber first, then into the second), and one absorber only (where all the gas goes into the one absorber)? In a series arrangement the same amount of gas is going into the first absorber regards of whether there's one or two.