Coalescence, surface area effect

Spray Towers A spray tower consists of an empty shell into the top of which the liquid is sprayed by means of nozzles of various kinds the droplets thus formed are then allowed to fall to the bottom of the tower through a stream of gas flowing upwards. The use of sprays appears to offer an easy way of greatly increasing the surface area exposed to the gas, but the effectiveness of the m.ethod depends on the production of fine droplets. These are difficult to produce and suffer from the disadvantage that they are liable to entrainment by the gas even at low gas velocities. The surface area may also be reduced as a result of the coalescence of the droplets first formed. As a consequence of these effects, the large increase in surface area expected may not be achieved, or if achieved m.ay be accompanied by serious entrainment and internal circulation of the liquid so that true counter-current flow is not obtained. A single spray tower is suitable for easy absorption duties. For difficult duties, a number of towers in series can be used. 

It is known that the effect of the surface area in the gasification of charcoal is intimately related to the very broad pore size distribution of this material. Random pore structure models accounting for the effects of pore growth and coalescence have been proposed by various authors and have often shown satisfactory agreement between theory and experiment, but none of the proposed kinetic relations describes the charcoal reactivity in the conversion range beyond X 0.7 satisfactorily. For the latter conversion... 

Increasing surfactant concentrations in the aeration cell has been found to decrease bubble diameter, bubble velocity, axial diffusion coefficient, but increase bubble s surface-to-volume ratio, and total bubble surface area in the system. The effect of a surface-active agent on the total surface area of the bubbles is also a function of its operating conditions. The surfactant s effect is pronounced in the case of a coarse gas diffuser where the chances of coalescence are great and the effectiveness of a surface-active solute in preventing coalescence increases with the length of its carbon chain. 

In Eq. (9.47), (Pg/V) is in W/m, D, in m, and in mm/s. The effect of D, is somewhat uncertain, since it is based only on two sizes, and for a conservative scaleup, this factor could be ignored. Of course, conditions dose to flooding may not be optimum for mass transfer, since bubble coalescence in the regions away from the impeller could greatly reduce the surface area. 

In a high-volume-fraction dispersion with electrosteric stabilization of the latex and an increasing dispersed-phase surface area, the high viscosity observed at low shear rates with decreasing latex size relates to electroviscous and hydration effects. Lower surface acid concentrations on some of the smaller latices may also result in partial flocculation of the latex and a higher effective volume fraction in the presence of coalescing aids (22, 26). 

Emulsions are thermodynamically unstable systems because of the positive energy required to increase the surface area between the oil and water phases. It is thermodynamically favored for the emulsions to reduce that surface area by separating into a systan that consists of a layer of oil (lower density) on top of a layer of water (higher density), unless they are effectively stabilized. Generally, the stability of food onulsions is complex because it covers a large number of phenomena, including flocculation, coalescence, CTeaming, and final phase separation. "... 

Supported metal catalysts comprise 0.1-20% by weight of a metal of Groups 8-11 dispersed over the surface of a support, which is typically a high-surface-area oxide. They are widely used on an industrial scale and in research laboratories. These materials are effective as catalysts because the metallic phase is present as extremely small particles, having a degree of dispersion of 10 to 100%. They are firmly anchored to the surface and are widely separated from each other, and hence do not readily coalesce or sinter. 

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