The main objective of these experiments was to study the oxygen mass transfer rate through the volumetric mass transfer coefficient (kLa) for an experimental set-up equipped with a rotating magnetic field (RMF) generator and various liquids. The experimental results indicated that kLa increased along the magnetic strength and the superficial gas velocity. Mathematical correlations defining the influence of the considered factors on kLa were proposed.
The paper presents an investigation of mass transfer in gas-liquid annular flow in a microreactor. The microreactor had a meandered shape with a square cross-section of the channel (292×292 μm, hydraulic diameter 292 μm) and 250 mm in length. The rate of CO2 absorption from the CO2/N2 mixture in NaOH (0.1 M, 0.2 M, 0.7 M, 1.0 M and 1.5 M) water solutions was measured. Two velocities of gas flow and two velocities of liquid flow were used. In two cases a fully developed annular flow at the beginning of the channel was observed, whilst in two cases annular flow was formed only in about 2/3 of the microchannel length. Based on the measurements of CO2 absorption rate, the values of volumetric liquid - side mass transfer coefficients with the chemical reaction were determined. Then physical values of coefficients were found. Obtained results were discussed and their values were compared with the values predicted by literature correlations.
The aim of the paper is to present the hydrodynamic, mass transfer and illumination characteristics of a laboratory helical-tube photobioreactor Biostat PBR-2S, commercially available and used in many laboratories in Poland and worldwide. The investigated hydrodynamics parameters were: mean liquid circulation rate, liquid velocity/residence time in the tubular part of the apparatus and mixing time, measured in the wide range of rotary speed of the circulation pump. The influence of the aeration intensity on these parameters was also checked. The volumetric oxygen and carbon dioxide transfer coefficients in the liquid phase and their dependency on the liquid circulation rate and gas inflow rate were determined. The experiments were performed in tap water and then in a real three-phase cultivation broth at the end of thermophilic cyanobacteria T. synechococus growth. For the final evaluation of the tested PBR there were series of test cultivations run under different conditions of illumination. The highest final concentration of the biomass of tested cyanobacteria reached the relatively high value of 4.38 g/dm3 of the dry biomass, although the process conditions were not fully optimized. The laboratory photobioreactor PBR-2S proved to be a good tool for investigations of microalgae cultivation processes. The presented results and practical observations may help to analyze and understand the mutual influence of the specific process parameters in the described PBR, especially during autotrophic organism cultivations.
Gas-liquid microreactors find an increasing range of applications both in production, and for chemical analysis. The most often employed flow regime in these microreactors is Taylor flow. The rate of absorption of gases in liquids depends on gas-side and liquid-side resistances. There are several publications about liquid-side mass transfer coefficients in Taylor flow, but the data about gas-side mass transfer coefficients are practically non existent. We analysed the problem of gas-side mass transfer resistance in Taylor flow and determined conditions, in which it may influence the overall mass transfer rate. Investigations were performed using numerical simulations. The influence of the gas diffusivity, gas viscosity, channel diameter, bubble length and gas bubble velocity has been determined. It was found that in some case the mass transfer resistances in both phases are comparable and the gas-side resistance may be significant. In such cases, neglecting the gas-side coefficient may lead to errors in the experimental data interpretation.
Electroflotation is used in the water treatment industry for the recovery of suspended particles. In this study the bubble formation and release of hydrogen bubbles generated electrolytically from a platinum cathode was investigated. Previously, it was found that both the growth rate and detachment diameter increased with increasing wire diameter. Conversely, current density had little effect on the released bubble size. It was also found that the detached bubbles rapidly increased in volume as they rose through the liquid as a result of decreasing hydrostatic pressure and high levels of dissolved hydrogen gas in the surrounding liquid. The experimental system was computationally modelled using a Lagrangian-Eulerian Discrete Particle approach. It was revealed that desorption of gaseous solutes from the electrolyte solution, other than hydrogen, may have a significant impact on the diameter variation of the formed bubbles. The simulation confirmed that liquid circulation, either forced or induced by the rising bubble plume, influences both the hydrogen supersaturation (concentration) in the neighbourhood of the electrode and the size of the resulting bubbles.
In this work a concept of energetic efficiency of mixing is presented and discussed; a classical definition of mixing efficiency is modified to include effects of the Schmidt number and the Reynolds number. Generalization to turbulent flows is presented as well. It is shown how the energetic efficiency of mixing as well as efficiencies of drop breakage and mass transfer in twophase liquid-liquid systems can be identified using mathematical models and test chemical reactions. New expressions for analyzing efficiency problem are applied to identify the energetic efficiency of mixing in a stirred tank, a rotor stator mixer and a microreactor. Published experimental data and new results obtained using new systems of test reactions are applied. It has been shown that the efficiency of mixing is small in popular types of reactors and mixers and thus there is some space for improvement.
The aim of this work was to investigate the heat and mass transfer during thermal decomposition of a single solid fuel particle. The problem regards the pyrolysis process which occurs in the absence of oxygen in the first stage of fuel oxidation. Moreover, the mass transfer during heating of the solid fuels is the basic phenomenon in the pyrolysis-derived alternative fuels (gas, liquid and solid phase) and in the gasification process which is focused on the generation of syngas (gas phase) and char (solid phase). Numerical simulations concern pyrolysis process of a single solid particle which occurs as a consequence of the particle temperature increase. The research was aimed at an analysis of the influence of particle physical properties on the devolatilization process. In the mathematical modeling the fuel grain is treated as an ideal sphere which consists of porous material (solid and gaseous phase), so as to simplify the final form of the partial differential equations. Assumption that the physical properties change only in the radial direction, reduces the partial derivatives of the angular coordinates. This leads to obtaining the equations which are only the functions of the radial coordinate. The model consists of the mass, momentum and energy equations for porous spherical solid particle heated by the stream of hot gas. The mass source term was determined in the wide range of the temperature according to the experimental data. The devolatilization rate was defined by the Arrhenius formula. The results of numerical simulation show that the heating and devolatilization time strongly depend on the physical properties of fuel. Moreover, proposed model allows to determine the pyrolysis process direction, which is limited by the equilibrium state.
Increasing of the efficiency of convective cooling of the inner surface of a short duct by changing its geometry was studied by the use of electrochemical limiting current technique (ELDCT). The duct consisted of seven identical, cylindrical segments. The changes of the duct geometry were obtained by mutual displacement of neighbouring segments, towards the radial direction. Mean values of the mass transfer coefficient for each segment and friction losses for the whole channel were measured for Reynolds numbers spanning the range 7700–35300 at the five values of displacement parameter. The results were used for estimation of cooling efficiency. Recommended values of displacement were determined to point the favourable conditions of heat/mass transfer in the duct. The results may be used, e.g. in the design of heat exchangers and channels for cooling of turbine blades and electronic equipment.
The characteristic of nano sized particles mass flux conditions are engaged in this investigation. Here we assume that the nano sized particle flux is zero and the nano sized particle fraction arranged itself on the boundary layer. With this convincing and revised relation, the features of Buongiorno relation on three-dimensional flow of Carreau fluid can be applied in a more efficient way. The governing partial differential equations of continuity, momentum, energy and concentration equations which are transmitted into set of pair of nonlinear ordinary differential equations utilizing similar transformations. The numeric solutions are acquired by engaging the bvp4c scheme, which is a finite-difference code for solving boundary value problems. A parametric study is accomplished to demonstrate the impact of Prandtl number,Weissenberg numbers, radiation parameter, chemical reaction parameter, thermophoresis parameter, Brownian motion parameter and Lewis number on the fluid velocity, temperature and concentration profiles as well skin friction coefficient, Nusselt number and Sherwood number within the boundary layer. From this we find the way in which magnetic parameter contributes to the increase in local skin fraction, and the decrease in the Nusselt and Sherwood numbers in these cases. The effects of the velocity temperature and concentration profile are obtained and presented graphically.
Adsorption experiments of nitric oxide in nitrogen carrier gas were held on activated carbon in a fixed bed flow system. Breakthrough curves describing the dependence of exit concentrations of nitric oxide on time were matched with theoretical response curves calculated from the linear driving force model (LDF). The model assumes Langmuir adsorption isotherm for the description of non-linear equilibrium and overall mass transfer coefficient for mass transfer mechanism. Overall mass transfer coefficients were obtained by the method of least squares for fitting numerically modelled breakthrough curves with experimental breakthrough curves. It was found that LDF model fits all the breakthrough curves and it is a useful tool for modelling purposes.
The paper presents the algorithms for a flue gas/water waste-heat exchanger with and without condensation of water vapour contained in flue gas with experimental validation of theoretical results. The algorithms were used for calculations of the area of a heat exchanger using waste heat from a pulverised brown coal fired steam boiler operating in a power unit with a capacity of 900 MWe. In calculation of the condensing part, the calculation results obtained with two algorithms were compared (Colburn-Hobler and VDI algorithms). The VDI algorithm allowed to take into account the condensation of water vapour for flue gas temperatures above the temperature of the water dew point. Thanks to this, it was possible to calculate more accurately the required heat transfer area, which resulted in its reduction by 19 %. In addition, the influence of the mass transfer on the heat transfer area was taken into account, which contributed to a further reduction in the calculated size of the heat exchanger - in total by 28% as compared with the Colburn-Hobler algorithm. The presented VDI algorithm was used to design a 312 kW pilot-scale condensing heat exchanger installed in PGE Belchatow power plant. Obtained experimental results are in a good agreement with calculated values.
It is known that external diffusional resistances are significant in immobilized enzyme packed-bed reactors, especially at large scales. Thus, the external mass transfer effects were analyzed for hydrogen peroxide decomposition by immobilized Terminox Ultra catalase in a packed-bed bioreactor. For this purpose the apparent reaction rate constants, kP, were determined by conducting experimental works at different superficial velocities, U, and temperatures. To develop an external mass transfer model the correlation between the Colburn factor, JD, and the Reynolds number, Re, of the type JD = K Re(n-1) was assessed and related to the mass transfer coefficient, kmL. The values of K and n were calculated from the dependence (am kp-1 - kR-1) vs. Re-1 making use of the intrinsic reaction rate constants, kR, determined before. Based on statistical analysis it was found that the mass transfer correlation JD = 0.972 Re-0.368 predicts experimental data accurately. The proposed model would be useful for the design and optimization of industrial-scale reactors.
Energetic efficiency depicting the fraction of energy dissipation rate used to perform processes of drop breakup and mass transfer in two-phase, liquid-liquid systems is considered. Results of experiments carried out earlier in two types of high-shear mixers: an in-line rotor-stator mixer and a batch rotor-stator mixer, have been applied to identify and compare the efficiency of drop breakage and mass transfer in both types of mixers. The applied method is based on experimental determination of both: the product distribution of chemical test reactions and the drop size distributions. Experimental data are interpreted using a multifractal model of turbulence for drop breakage and the model by Favelukis and Lavrenteva for mass transfer. Results show that the energetic efficiency of the in-line mixer is higher than that of the batch mixer; two stator geometries were considered in the case of the batch mixer and the energetic efficiency of the device equipped with a standard emulsor screen (SES) was higher than the efficiency of the mixer equipped with a general purpose disintegrating head (GPDH) for drop breakup but smaller for mass transfer.
A pair of fast competitive reactions, neutralization and 2,2-dimetoxypropane (DMP) hydrolysis, has been applied do study mass transfer and micromixing in a T 50 Ultra-Turrax® - IKA rotor-stator device. In experiments the dispersed organic phase containing p-Toluenesulfonic acid (pTsOH) dissolved in diisopropyl ether, whereas the continuous phase was represented by the aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide, 2,2-dimetoxypropane (DMP) and ethanol. During mixing a fast mass transfer of a solute (pTsOH) from organic phase droplets, which were shrinking due to fast dissolution of the organic solvent, was followed by micromixing and chemical reactions in the continuous phase. Measured hydrolysis yields were applied to express effects of mixing on the course of chemical reactions. Modeling was based on application of models describing drop breakup, mass transfer in the liquid-liquid system and micromixing. Combined effects of mass transfer and drop breakage on drop population were expressed using the population balance equations. The model has been used to interpret experimental results, in particular to identify the efficiency of mixing.
Heat and mass transfer stretched flow of an incompressible, electrically conducting Jeffrey fluid has been studied numerically. Nanoparticles are suspended in the base fluid and it has many applications such as cooling of engines, thermal absorption systems, lubricants fuel cell, nanodrug delivery system and so on. Temperature dependent variable thermal conductivity with Rosseland approximation is taken into account and suction effect is employed in the boundary conditions. The governing partial differential equations are first transformed into set of ordinary differential equations using selected similarity transformations, which are then solved numerically using Runge-Kutta-Felhberg fourth-fifth order method along with shooting technique. The flow, heat and mass transfer characteristics with local Nusselt number for various physical parameters are presented graphically and a detailed discussion regarding the effect of flow parameters on velocity and temperature profiles are provided. It is found that, increase of variable thermal conductivity, radiation, Brownian motion and thermophoresis parameter increases the rate of heat transfer. Local Nusselt number has been computed for various parameters and it is observed that, in the presence of variable thermal conductivity and Rosseland approximation, heat transfer characteristics are higher as compared to the constant thermal conductivity and linear thermal radiation.