Aerator design for microbubble generation

Fine bubbles are a key component in improving the performance of gas-liquid reactors, particularly in situations where reactions are mass transfer limited. Many aerator types exist for different reactor applications; however conventional aerators are mostly suited to coarse bubble generation. A new aerator suitable for microbubble generation by fluidic oscillation has been designed and tested with the view of getting a uniform bubble distribution across the aerator. Microbubbles generated from various membrane pore sizes and oscillation frequencies were characterized for this aerator to determine the optimum operating parameters. It was evident that the introduction of a flow distributor plate to the plenum chamber improved gas distribution from the inlet to the porous membrane leading to uniform bubble generation across the entire aerator The resultant average bubble size from this new design under oscillatory flow was found to be approximately 2-3 times the membrane pore size. This outcome has a great potential to promote the efficiency of multiphase reactors where mass transfer plays a key role

Microflotation performance for algal separation

The performance of microflotation, dispersed air flotation with microbubble clouds with bubble size about 50 µm, for algae separation using fluidic oscillation for microbubble generation is investigated. This fluidic oscillator converts continuous air supply into oscillatory flow with a regular frequency to generate bubbles of the scale of the exit pore. Bubble characterization results showed that average bubble size generated under oscillatory air flow state was 86 µm, approximately twice the size of the diffuser pore size of 38 µm. In contrast, continuous air flow at the same rate through the same diffusers yielded an average bubble size of 1,059 µm, 28 times larger than the pore size. Following microbubble generation, the separation of algal cells under fluidic oscillator generated microbubbles was investigated by varying metallic coagulant types, concentration and pH. Best performances were recorded at the highest coagulant dose (150 mg/L) applied under acidic conditions (pH 5). Amongst the three metallic coagulants studied, ferric chloride yielded the overall best result of 99.2% under the optimum conditions followed closely by ferric sulfate (98.1%) and aluminum sulfate with 95.2%. This compares well with conventional dissolved air flotation (DAF) benchmarks, but has a highly turbulent flow, whereas microflotation is laminar with several orders of magnitude lower energy density. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2012; 109:1663–1673. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Evaporation dynamics of microbubbles

Until recently, generating clouds of microbubbles was a relatively expensive proposition, with the smallest bubbles requiring high energy density from either the saturation–nucleation mechanism or Venturi effect. Due to the expense of processing with microbubbles, exploration of the acceleration effects of microbubbles for physico-chemical processes are largely unstudied, particularly those that are combined effects. In this paper, the trade-off between heat transfer and evaporation on the microbubble interface are explored, largely by computational modelling but supported by some experimental evidence. The hypothesis is that both processes are inherently transient, but that during short residence times, vaporization is favoured, while at longer residence times, sensible heat transfer dominates and results in re-condensation of the initially vaporized liquid. The computational model address how thin a layer thickness will result in the maximum absolute vaporization, after which sensible heat transfer condenses the vapour as the bubble cools. This maximum vaporization layer thickness is estimated to be a few hundred microns, on the order of a few microbubble diameters at most. If the maximum vaporization estimate and the contact time necessary to achieve it are accurately estimated, these are engineering design features needed to design a vaporizing system to achieve maximum removal of vapour with minimum heat transfer. The modelling work presented here should be considered in light of the humidification experiments also conducted which showed the exit air at 100% saturation, but increasing gas temperature with decreasing layer height, and decreasing water temperature with decreasing layer height, all of which are consistent with the predictions of the computational model

Electroosmotic flow in free liquid films: Understanding flow in foam plateau borders

Liquid flow in foams mostly proceeds through Plateau borders where liquid content is the highest. A sufficiently thick (~180 µm) free liquid film is a reasonable model for understanding of electrokinetic phenomena in foam Plateau borders. For this purpose, a flow cell with a suspended free liquid film has been designed for measurement of electrokinetic flow under an imposed electric potential difference. The free liquid film was stabilised by either anionic (sodium lauryl sulfate (NaDS)) or cationic (trimethyl(tetradecyl) ammonium bromide (TTAB)) surfactants. Fluid flow profiles in a stabilised free liquid film were measured by micron-resolution particle image velocimetry (µ-PIV) combined with a confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) setup. Numerical simulations of electroosmotic flow in the same system were performed using the Finite Element Method. The computational geometry was generated by CLSM. A reasonably good agreement was found between the computed and experimentally measured velocity profiles. The features of the flow profiles and the velocity magnitude were mainly determined by the type of surfactant used. Irrespective of the surfactants used, electroosmotic flow dominated in the midfilm region, where the film is thinnest, while backflow due to pressure build-up developed near the glass rods, where the film is thickest

Numerical simulation of nanoparticle formation in a co-flow capillary device

Numerical simulation of nanoparticle formation in a co-flow capillary devic

Determining electroosmotic velocity in a free liquid film

The flow field within a free liquid film under an applied external electric field was measured using confocal micro-PIV system. Free liquid films of thickness ∼ 200 μm were formed in a rectangular frame with electrodes in direct contact with the fluid and stabilised by cationic surfactant. The flow field induced by an external electric field of ∼1600 V/m was visualised using 2 μm tracer particles on several depth wise planes. The observed particle velocities were used to determine the fluid velocities within the film by accounting for the electrophoresis of the tracer particles

Electroosmotic flow measurements in a freely suspended liquid film: Experiments and numerical simulations

Fluid flow profiles in free liquid films stabilised by anionic and cationic surfactants under an external electric field were investigated. Depthwise velocity fields were measured at the mid region of the free liquid film by confocal μ-PIV and corresponding numerical simulations were performed using Finite Element Method (FEM) to model the system. Depthwise change in velocity profiles was observed with electroosmotic flow dominating in the vicinity of the gas-liquid and solid-liquid interfaces while backpressure drives fluid in the opposite direction at the core of the film. It was also found that the direction of the flow at various sections of the films depends on the type of surfactant used, but flow features remained the same. Numerical simulations predicted the flow profiles with reasonable accuracy; however, asymmetry of the actual film geometry caused deviations at the top half of the computational domain. Overall, electroosmotic flow profiles within a free liquid film is similar to that of the closed-end solid microchannel. However, the flow direction and features of the velocity profiles can be changed by selecting various types of surfactants. The free liquid films thickness was selected to match dimensions of foam Plateau border. Hence these findings will be useful in developing a separation system based on foam electrokinetics

An integrated microfluidic chip for generation and transfer of reactive species using gas plasma

Reactive species produced by atmospheric pressure plasma (APP) are useful in many applications including disinfection, pretreatment, catalysis, detection and chemical synthesis. Most highly reactive species produced by plasma, such as ·OH, 1O2 and , are short-lived; therefore, in-situ generation is essential to transfer plasma products to the liquid phase efficiently. A novel microfluidic device that generates a dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma at the gas-liquid interface and disperses the reactive species generated using microbubbles of ca. 200 µm in diameter has been developed and tested. As the bubble size affects the mass transfer performance of the device, the effect of operating parameters and plasma discharge on generated bubbles size has been studied. The mass transfer performance of the device was evaluated by transferring the reactive species generated to an aqueous solution containing dye and measuring percentage degradation of the dye. Monodisperse microbubbles (polydispersity index between 2 - 7%) were generated under all examined conditions but for gas flow rate exceeding a critical value, a secondary break-up event occurred after bubble formation leading to multiple monodisperse bubble populations. The generated microbubble size increased by up to ~ 8% when the device was operated with the gas plasma in the dispersed phase compared to the case without the plasma due to thermal expansion of the feed gas. At the optimal operating conditions, initial dye concentration was reduced by ~60% in a single pass with a residence time of 5-10 s. This microfluidic chip has the potential to play a significant role in lab-on-a-chip devices where highly reactive species are essential for the process. </p

A comparison of azimuthal and axial oscillation microfiltration using surface and matrix types of microfilters with a cake-slurry shear plane exhibiting non-Newtonian behaviour

The mode of application of oscillation, axial or azimuthal, did not influence filtration performance, when filtering a calcite mineral with a d32 value of 2.7 µm. The equilibrium flux and deposit thickness correlated with shear stress, regardless of: filter type (metal slotted surface filter or homogeneous sintered filter); and mode of oscillation. Shear stress values up to 240 Pa were used and the particle compact believed to be at, or near, the deposited solids showed non-Newtonian flow behaviour described by the Herschel-Bulkley equation. The shear was computed using Comsol® to model the shear at, and near, the oscillating surface. The peak shear (maximum value) was used in the correlation for flux, which appeared to fit the data well and provide a realistic prediction for sustainable flux using a force balance model. The existence of a yield stress in the compact appeared to limit the internal fouling of the matrix (homogeneous) type of filter, which had a membrane thickness of 8 mm, but did not demonstrate significant internal fouling over time, nor between filtrations. Thus, the results were similar to those obtained for the surface filters, and the resistance to filtration was dominated by the deposit formed

Procedures used in electrokinetic investigations of surfactant-laden interfaces, liquid films and foam system

Electrokinetic phenomena in liquid foam media are at a junction between two well-developed fields. On the one side is the study of liquid foam drainage, which is well documented, and on the other side is electrokinetics of surface driven flow on solid-liquid interfaces, which is equally well understood. However, electrokinetic phenomena in foams with deformable air-liquid interfaces have gained significant attention only recently. In pursuit of understanding electrokinetics of foams, the model systems adopted by investigators can be summarised as: (i) free liquid films; (ii) flow cells (iii) a single bubble sandwiched between two electrodes; (iv) foam column and (v) numerical simulations. A new experimental approach for system monitoring and visualisation is proposed for foam electrokinetics. The results obtained from preliminary experiments are compared with the numerical simulations performed using Finite Element Method. The model predictions closely agree with the experimental data validating the model