Limited particle flocculation

In summary, polymeric flocculants generally increase peri-kinetic flocculation rates compared with perikinetic coagulation rates. This is not necessarily true for orthokinetic flocculation, and experimental results in the literature are seemingly in conflict. Collision rate theory predicts that the polymer adsorption step may become rate limiting in orthokinetic flocculation. The present study was designed to elucidate the relationship between polymer adsorption rates and particle flocculation rates under orthokinetic conditions. 

Flocculation rate limitation. The adsorption step was rate limiting for the overall flocculation process in this system. Polymer adsorption rate measurements for dispersed systems reported in the literature (2,26) do not lend themselves to direct comparisons with the present work due to lack of information on shear rates, flocculation rates, and particle and polymer sizes. Gregory (12) proposed that the adsorption and coagulation halftimes, tA and t, respectively, should be good indications of whether or not the adsorption step is expected to be rate limiting. The halftimes, tA and t, are defined as the times required to halve the initial concentrations of polymer and particles, respectively. Adsorption should not limit the flocculation rate if... 

Achieving steady-state operation in a continuous tank reactor system can be difficult. Particle nucleation phenomena and the decrease in termination rate caused by high viscosity within the particles (gel effect) can contribute to significant reactor instabilities. Variation in the level of inhibitors in the feed streams can also cause reactor control problems. Conversion oscillations have been observed with many different monomers. These oscillations often result from a limit cycle behavior of the particle nucleation mechanism. Such oscillations are difficult to tolerate in commercial systems. They can cause uneven heat loads and significant transients in free emulsifier concentration thus potentially causing flocculation and the formation of wall polymer. This problem may be one of the most difficult to handle in the development of commercial continuous processes. 

While the model was in general agreement with the limited experimental data published on bulk PVC particle size distribution, there is still no generally applicable theory describing particle growth and flocculation in the presences of mechanical agitation for precipitation polymerizations. 

Flotation is certainly the major separation method based on the surface chemistry of mineral particles. It is, however, not the only method. Selective flocculation and agglomeration may be mentioned as other methods used commercially to a limited extent. The former is for hematite, while the latter is for coal and finely divided metallic oxide minerals. Both processes use the same principles as described for flotation to obtain selectivity. In selective flocculation, polymeric flocculants are used. The flocculants selectively adsorb on the hematite, and the hematite floes form and settle readily. Thereby separation from the sili-... 

Non-Aqueous Colloidal Metal Solutions. It has been difficult to prepare colloidal gold in non-aqueous media due to limitations in preparative methods (low salt solubilities, solvent reactivity, etc.), and the fact that the low dielectric constant of organic solvents has hindered stabilization of the particles. In aqueous solution the gold particles are stabilized by adsorption of innocent ions, such as chloride, and thus stabilized toward flocculation by the formation of a charged double layer, which is dependent on a solvent of high dielectric constant. Thus, it seemed that such electronic stabilization would be poor in organic media. 

Studies on orthokinetic flocculation (shear flow dominating over Brownian motion) show a more ambiguous picture. Both rate increases (9,10) and decreases (11,12) compared with orthokinetic coagulation have been observed. Gregory (12) treated polymer adsorption as a collision process and used Smoluchowski theory to predict that the adsorption step may become rate limiting in orthokinetic flocculation. Qualitative evidence to this effect was found for flocculation of polystyrene latex, particle diameter 1.68 pm, in laminar tube flow. Furthermore, pretreatment of half of the latex with polymer resulted in collision efficiencies that were more than twice as high as for coagulation. 

It is reasonable to assume, at least for oppositely charged polymers and particles, that aA > ag, which means that the adsorption time is always expected to be shorter than the coagulation time under perikinetic conditions. Consequently, perikinetic flocculation rates are very likely not to be adsorption rate limited. The ratio of orthokinetic adsorption time to orthokinetic coagulation time is... 

The polymer radius has to be larger than 80% of the particle radius to avoid adsorption limitation under orthokinetic conditions. As a rule of thumb a particle diameter of about 1 pm marks the transition between perikinetic and orthokinetic coagulation (and flocculation). The effective size of a polymeric flocculant must clearly be very large to avoid adsorption limitation. However, if the polymer is sufficiently small, the Brownian diffusion rate may be fast enough to prevent adsorption limitation. For example, if the particle radius is 0.535 pm and the shear rate is 1800 s-, then tAp due to Brownian motion will be shorter than t 0 for r < 0.001, i.e., for a polymer with a... 

In addition to the deposition mechanisms themselves, methods for preliminary conditioning of aerosols may be used to increase the effectiveness of the deposition mechanisms subsequently applied. One such conditioning method consists of imposing on the gas high-intensity acoustic vibrations to cause collisions and flocculation of the aerosol particles, producing large particles that can be separated by simple inertial devices such as cyclones. This process, termed sonic (or acoustic) agglomeration, has attained only limited commercial acceptance. 

From the above it is concluded that flocculation due solely to electrostatic attraction cannot have too great an effect in increasing the effective particle size because of the limits inherent in such flocculation. 

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