Dispersive contacting

A new supercritical fluid process has been developed for the continuous extraction of liquids. The most useful solvent employed in the recently patented process is supercritical or near-critical carbon dioxide(l). At the heart of the process are porous membranes. Their porosity combined with a near-critical fluid s high diffusivity create a dynamic non-dispersive contact between solvent and feed liquid. The technique is dubbed porocritical fluid extraction and will be commercialized as the Porocrit Process. 

Efforts are also being made to develop and use aqueous dispersed contact adhesives. The main types suitable for use as contact adhesives are the latex... 

Dispersed contact, where one or both liquids are mechanically dispersed to provide increased area for extraction. Dispersion may be brought about by causing one of the liquids to flow through nozzles, orifices, screens, packing, etc., or by agitation. The liquids may be dispersed once or many times after intermediate coalescence. 

Only the water based adhesives and glues such as vinyls, acrylics, some thermosetting glues such as UF, some fluid epoxies may be sprayed with airless spray. However, we may mention here the use of airless to spray a dispersion contact neoprene adhesive of high viscosity - 50,000 mPas - with a coverage of 100 g/m. ... 

Classical cocurrent separators in two-phase systems generally use dispersive contacting with one phase dispersed as drops (or bubbles). Porous membrane based systems can avoid such dispersive contacting, as we have... 

An interesting example of a large specific surface which is wholly external in nature is provided by a dispersed aerosol composed of fine particles free of cracks and fissures. As soon as the aerosol settles out, of course, its particles come into contact with one another and form aggregates but if the particles are spherical, more particularly if the material is hard, the particle-to-particle contacts will be very small in area the interparticulate junctions will then be so weak that many of them will become broken apart during mechanical handling, or be prized open by the film of adsorbate during an adsorption experiment. In favourable cases the flocculated specimen may have so open a structure that it behaves, as far as its adsorptive properties are concerned, as a completely non-porous material. Solids of this kind are of importance because of their relevance to standard adsorption isotherms (cf. Section 2.12) which play a fundamental role in procedures for the evaluation of specific surface area and pore size distribution by adsorption methods. 

When dispersed as a dust, adipic acid is subject to normal dust explosion hazards. See Table 3 for ignition properties of such dust—air mixtures. The material is an irritant, especially upon contact with the mucous membranes. Thus protective goggles or face shields should be worn when handling the material. Prolonged contact with the skin should also be avoided. Eye wash fountains, showers, and washing faciUties should be provided in work areas. However, MSDS Sheet400 (5) reports that no acute or chronic effects have been observed. 

In industrial equipment, however, it is usually necessary to create a dispersion of drops in order to achieve a large specific interfacial area, a, defined as the interfacial contact area per unit volume of two-phase dispersion. Thus the mass-transfer rate obtainable per unit volume is given as... 

In order to maintain a definite contact area, soHd supports for the solvent membrane can be introduced (85). Those typically consist of hydrophobic polymeric films having pore sizes between 0.02 and 1 p.m. Figure 9c illustrates a hoUow fiber membrane where the feed solution flows around the fiber, the solvent—extractant phase is supported on the fiber wall, and the strip solution flows within the fiber. Supported membranes can also be used in conventional extraction where the supported phase is continuously fed and removed. This technique is known as dispersion-free solvent extraction (86,87). The level of research interest in membrane extraction is reflected by the fact that the 1990 International Solvent Extraction Conference (20) featured over 50 papers on this area, mainly as appHed to metals extraction. Pilot-scale studies of treatment of metal waste streams by Hquid membrane extraction have been reported (88). The developments in membrane technology have been reviewed (89). Despite the research interest and potential, membranes have yet to be appHed at an industrial production scale (90). 

Many substances used in modem processing industries occur in a mixture of components dispersed through a soHd material. To separate the desired solute constituent or to remove an unwanted component from the soHd phase, the soHd is contacted with a Hquid phase in the process called Hquid—soHd extraction, or simply leaching. In leaching, when an undesirable component is removed from a soHd with water, the process is called washing. 

Water-in-OilEmulsions. A water-in-od or invert emulsion consists of a continuous od phase which surrounds finely divided water droplets that are uniformly dispersed throughout the mixture. The invert emulsion ensures that the od is in constant contact with the hydrauHc system s moving parts, so as to minimise wear. 

When the recycle soot in the feedstock is too viscous to be pumped at temperatures below 93°C, the water—carbon slurry is first contacted with naphtha carbon—naphtha agglomerates are removed from the water slurry and mixed with additional naphtha. The resultant carbon—naphtha mixture is combined with the hot gasification feedstock which may be as viscous as deasphalter pitch. The feedstock carbon—naphtha mixture is heated and flashed, and then fed to a naphtha stripper where naphtha is recovered for recycle to the carbon—water separation step. The carbon remains dispersed in the hot feedstock leaving the bottom of the naphtha stripper column and is recycled to the gasification reactor. 

Commercial lecithin is insoluble but infinitely dispersible in water. Treatment with water dissolves small amounts of its decomposition products and adsorbed or coacervated substances, eg, carbohydrates and salts, especially in the presence of ethanol. However, a small percentage of water dissolves or disperses in melted lecithin to form an imbibition. Lecithin forms imbibitions or absorbates with other solvents, eg, alcohols, glycols, esters, ketones, ethers, solutions of almost any organic and inorganic substance, and acetone. It is remarkable that the classic precipitant for phosphoHpids, eg, acetone, dissolves in melted lecithin readily to form a thin, uniform imbibition. Imbibition often is used to bring a reactant in intimate contact with lecithin in the preparation of lecithin derivatives. 

Thermal or Flame Spray Process. The earliest experiments in metal spray used molten metal fed to a spray apparatus, where it was dispersed by a high speed air jet into tiny droplets and simultaneously blown onto the surface of the part to be covered. The metal solidified on contact. Modem processes use a more convenient source than premelted metal. Spray heads using a flame or an electrical arc to melt metal wires or powders directly are much more convenient. These are the only types used on a large scale in the United States. 

In general, methacrylate polymers are considered nontoxic. In fact, various methacrylate polymers are used in food packaging (qv) and handling, in dentures and dental fillings (see Dental materials), and as medicine dispensers and contact lenses. However, care must be exercised because additives or residual monomers present in various types of polymers can display toxicity. For example, some acryHc latex dispersions can be mild skin or eye kritants. This toxicity is usually ascribed to surfactants in the latex and not to the polymer itself. 

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