Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan, Vol.35, No.1, 94-99, 2002
Mass transfer rate of hydrocarbon permeation through an (O/W)/O emulsion liquid membrane in a packed column
It is essential to know the mechanism and mass transfer rate of hydrocarbon permeation in the column type apparatus, which will be used as a permeator in a practical stage, for the permeator design, the selections of operating conditions, and, furthermore, the process design. The objective of this paper was to obtain the information on this mass transfer rate in the packed column selected among various column type permeators by authors in the previous study. The permeation of hydrocarbon in the packed column was simulated by the multi-layer liquid membrane model. In the first, the results of this simulation were compared with those of the previous experiments. The dimensionless overall permeation coefficients estimated by the model agreed roughly with the experimental results. This revealed that this simple model could be used to study the mass transfer rate in the column. Secondly, further calculations by the model were carried out under wider ranges of operation factors. These calculations could clarify the effects of these factors on the rate. The information acquired in these calculations can be useful for the permeator design, selections of operating conditions, and the design of other operations accompanying the permeator in the liquid membrane process, e.g., the emulsifier.
Keywords:mass transfer rate;hydrocarbon permeation;emulsion liquid membrane;packed column;simulation