Study Of Hydrodynamics And Mass Transfer Of Oil Emulsion In A Pilot Scale Sieve Tray Column
Gurashi Abdalla Gasmelseed, Osama Abdelhameed Abdalla, Osman Tageldin Osman
كلية الهندسة-جامعة الخرطوم · السودان
A study of primary and secondary treated liquid petroleum wastes in apilot sieve tray column has been undertaken. The literature related to thistype of extractor and the relevant phenomena of droplet break-up andcoalescence, drop size and drop mass transfer have been reviewed.The method of treatment in local refineries has been investigated andit is observed that the primary and secondary processes are quite efficient,but the tertiary process leaves some of the oil in he effluent and this is whythe treated water is not recycled and reused. The treated waste/oil water ispumped into ponds for evaporation leaving the oil and other less volatilecomponents as a residue which have a negative impact on the environment.The system of oil in water is not a normal solute-solvent system, andto make it so the mixture has been emulsified with a surfactant producing apartially water miscible emulsion. Experiments were carried out with nonmasstransfer to determine the operating column hydrodynamics such asflooding. At 85% of flooding, mass transfer experiments were performedand the effects of drop size, drop size distribution and dispersed phaseholdup volume at variable agitation speeds on the column performancehave been investigated.The concentration profile has been measured and the overallexperimental mass transfer coefficients were calculated from the meandriving force using Simpson's rule. It is observed that drop size, drop sizedistribution and mass transfer coefficients were strongly dependent on thespeed of agitation. As the oil droplets were composed of emulsified oil inwater and the oil itself is completely immiscible in water, the direction ofmass transfer was from the emulsified droplets to the dispersed phase. Thiscondition coupled with high solubility of oil in n-hexane made theextraction process very efficient and an almost oil-free water could beobtained and recycled.