Three-phase technology

Olive oil is nowadays produced by either two or three-phase extraction systems. The three phase method in which a solid fraction (wet pomace or alperujo), a liquid residue ( alpechin ), and the olive oil are obtained. Two phase method in which a solid fraction, wet pomace and a liquid one, the olive oil, are obtained. The main advantage of the two-phase system is the reduction of the olive mill wastewater amoimts compared to that originated from the three phase technology, in which 0.6-1.31 water/kg olives are used at the centrifugation step, by eliminating the production of alpechin thus avoiding its consequences environmental... 

Chappelear, J.E., and Nolen, J.S., "Second Comparative Project A Three Phase Coning Study", Journal of Petroleum Technology, 345-353, March (1986). 

Tan, T.B. and N. Kalogerakis, "A Three-dimensional Three-phase Automatic History Matching Model Reliability of Parameter Estimates", J. Can Petr. Technology, 31(3), 34-41 (1992). 

When the SVE technology is applied in a contaminated site, the NAPL is gradually removed. Towards the end of the remediation and when NAPL is no longer present, a three-phase model should be considered to calculate the phase distribution of contaminants (see Table 14.3). In this case, the vapor concentration in pore air (Ca) is calculating using the Henry s Law equation (Equation 14.5), which describes the equilibrium established between gas and aqueous phases ... 

The feasibility study (FS) utilizes the data on site characterization and remedial technology screening to establish remedial alternatives, in turn, to select the cost-effective remedial actions. The FS may be viewed as occurring in three phases ... 

The present economic and environmental incentives for the development of a viable one-step process for MIBK production provide an excellent opportunity for the application of catalytic distillation (CD) technology. Here, the use of CD technology for the synthesis of MIBK from acetone is described and recent progress on this process development is reported. Specifically, the results of a study on the liquid phase kinetics of the liquid phase hydrogenation of mesityl oxide (MO) in acetone are presented. Our preliminary spectroscopic results suggest that MO exists as a diadsorbed species with both the carbonyl and olefin groups coordinated to the catalyst. An empirical kinetic model was developed which will be incorporated into our three-phase non-equilibrium rate-based model for the simulation of yield and selectivity for the one step synthesis of MIBK via CD. 

The development of three-phase reactor technologies in the 1970 s saw renewed interest in the synthetic fuel area due to the energy crisis of 1973. Several processes were developed for direct coal liquefaction using both slurry bubble column reactors (Exxon Donor Solvent process and Solvent Refined Coal process) and three-phase fluidized bed reactors (H-Coal process). These processes were again shelved in the early 1980 s due to the low price of petroleum crudes. 

The 1980 s and the early 1990 s have seen the blossoming development of the biotechnology field. Three-phase fluidized bed bioreactors have become an essential element in the commercialization of processes to yield products and treat wastewater via biological mechanisms. Fluidized bed bioreactors have been applied in the areas of wastewater treatment, discussed previously, fermentation, and cell culture. The large scale application of three-phase fluidized bed or slurry bubble column fermen-tors are represented by ethanol production in a 10,000 liter fermentor (Samejima et al., 1984), penicillin production in a 200 liter fermentor (Endo et al., 1986), and the production of monoclonal antibodies in a 1,000 liter slurry bubble column bioreactor (Birch et al., 1985). Fan (1989) provides a complete review of biological applications of three-phase fluidized beds up to 1989. Part II of this chapter covers the recent developments in three-phase fluidized bed bioreactor technology. 

This section covers recent advances in the application of three-phase fluidization systems in the petroleum and chemical process industries. These areas encompass many of the important commercial applications of three-phase fluidized beds. The technology for such applications as petroleum resid processing and Fischer-Tropsch synthesis have been successfully demonstrated in plants throughout the world. Overviews and operational considerations for recent improvements in the hydrotreating of petroleum resids, applications in the hydrotreating of light gas-oil, and improvements and new applications in hydrocarbon synthesis will be discussed. 

Another current development in the use of F-T chemistry in a three-phase slurry reactor is Exxon s Advanced Gas Conversion or AGC-21 technology (Eidt et al., 1994 Everett et al., 1995). The slurry reactor is the second stage of a three-step process to convert natural gas into a highly paraffinic water-clear hydrocarbon liquid. The AGC-21 technology, as in the Sasol process, is being developed to utilize the large reserves of natural gas that are too remote for economical transportation via pipelines. The converted liquid from the three-step process, which is free of sulfur, nitrogen, nickel, vanadium, asphaltenes, polycyclic aromatics, and salt, can be shipped in conventional oil tankers and utilized by most refineries or petrochemical facilities. 

The combination of three-phase fluidization and cell culture may represent an ideal union of new technology and immediate application because the high-value products of mammalian cell culture require relatively small production scales (on the order of 100 liters rather than 100,000 liters), it is possible to investigate the usefulness of three-phase fluidization in what would otherwise be considered a pilot scale set up without having to build an expensive, large scale unit. 

Stone, H. L., 1973, Estimation of Three-Phase Relative Permeability and Residual Oil Data Journal of Canadian Petroleum Technology, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 53-61. 

In MCFCs, which operate at relatively high temperature, no materials are known that wet-proof a porous structure against ingress by molten carbonates. Consequently, the technology used to obtain a stable three-phase interface in MCFC porous electrodes is different from that used in PAFCs. In the MCFC, the stable interface is achieved in the electrodes by carefully tailoring the pore structures of the electrodes and the electrolyte matrix (LiA102) so that the capillary forces establish a dynamic equilibrium in the different porous structures. Pigeaud et al. (4) provide a discussion of porous electrodes for MCFCs. 

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