Membrane-based parallel plate denuder for the collection and removal of soluble atmospheric gases

A continuously wetted cellulose acetate membrane-based parallel plate diffusion denuder is described. This is the first membrane-based denuder that has a small enough internal liquid holdup volume to permit reasonably rapid response time (10 --> 90% rise time of approximately 1.2 min for a transient event at a liquid flow rate of 500 microL/min) while permitting quantitative removal of common soluble atmospheric trace gases at flow rates up to 1.7 L/min. The latter attribute permits the use of the device as the first element in a particle sampling and analysis system for the quantitative removal of potentially interfering soluble trace gases. Particle losses in the denuder range from 0.9 to 2.9% over an aerodynamic diameter range of 0.38-3.48 microm, averaging 1.8%. However, only approximately 0.5% of the particles actually appears in the denuder effluent liquid. The relatively compact (300 mm H x 57 mm W x 26 mm D) wet denuder should be attractive in a number of applications. We show excellent agreement for HONO measurements with a conventional larger parallel plate wetted denuder in field measurements.     

Design of filter bag media with high collection efficiency

The various filter bag media were prepared by a nonwoven pilot plant coupled with the needle punching and thermal bonding combination processes. The prepared filter media were evaluated by the reliability assessment standard for the filter bag media of the environmental cleaning dust collector (RS K 0001). A new filter bag medium was thermal bonded with polyester felt and polyamide nano-sized web. The air permeability of the filter bag media with nano-sized web was largely reduced as compared with the control media. In the evaluation of filtration test, the filter medium with nano-sized web showed more stable filtration behavior and more higher collection efficiency than the others.     

Enhanced collection of fine particles in a cyclone using ultrasonic vapor with surfactants

Using water vapor to improve the efficiency of dust removal in gas cyclones was recently proposed. However, some dust particles are not hydrophilic which can reduce the effectiveness of the vapor. This paper investigates using surfactants to overcome such a difficulty. In particular, surfactants are added to the water solution which is atomized into vapor and added in a cyclone dust collector. The effects of surfactant type and quantity on the removal efficiency of the cyclone are studied by a series of experiments. Three surfactants are used to change the wettability of the two types of fine particles to be collected: molecular sieve dust and white carbon black. The particles in the cyclone are found to form agglomerates, which are measured by using a laser particle size analyzer and scanning electron microscopy. The results show that the addition of surfactants can greatly enhance the agglomeration and thus improve the collection efficiency, especially for particles approximately two microns in size. This indicates that using the atomized vapor with containing surfactants is an effective way to enhance the collection of fine particles in a cyclone separator.     

Ultrasonic collection of small particles by a tapered metal strip

A pi-shaped ultrasonic actuator can collect small particles by its two sharp edges. However, the collection of particles is weak in air and not very stable in water. In this paper, a refinement to the pi-shaped ultrasonic actuator is made for a more efficient collection of small particles in air and water. In the refined structure, an ultrasonic actuator with a metal strip is used to collect small particles. The metal strip is mechanically driven by one corner of a rectangular, sandwich-shaped ultrasonic transducer operating in the thickness mode vibration. The metal strip is tapered along its length and has a strong vibration at its tip. Small particles in air and water can be attracted to the radiation surface near the end of the metal strip. The dependence of the number of collected particles on driving frequency and voltage is investigated for shrimp eggs, mint seeds, and grass seeds. For a given driving voltage and particle type, the number of collected particles reaches a maximum value at some driving frequency. Increasing driving voltage increases this maximum number to some extent; but too large a driving voltage decreases it. The maximum number also depends on the weight per particle. It increases as the weight per particle decreases for the particles with close densities. Furthermore, the relationship between the number of collected particles and vibration amplitude at the end of the metal strip is investigated for shrimp eggs, mint seeds, and grass seeds. The number is approximately linearly proportional to the vibration amplitude when the vibration amplitude is not too large. In addition to the application in which the length of the metal strip is parallel to gravitation, the actuator also can be used with its length perpendicular to gravitation. However, the latter has a weaker capability of collecting small particles. It is also found that the actuator has a stronger capability to collect particles in water than in air.     

Performance evaluation of a biotrickling filter degrading mixtures of hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds

The removal of a mixture of painting solvents from waste air using a biofiltration process was evaluated in this project. The pollutants removed included hydrophobic (aromatic hydrocarbons) and hydrophilic (water soluble ketones and esters) compounds. A trickle bed reactor with a defined immobilized mixed culture on polyethylene Pall rings was utilized in this biodegradation study. The removal efficiencies (RE) of the individual groups of pollutants during loading experiments were determined. An increase of the aromatic hydrocarbons loading resulted in a drop of their RE_AROM with no effect on the RE value of ketones. The overloading of ketones caused a rapid drop in RE_AROM and a small drop in RE_KET. To achieve a restoration of the biocatalyst degradation properties after the increase in loading, an addition of phosphate to the aqueous medium was implemented which successfully restored the removal efficiency.     

Development of a double-layered ceramic filter for aerosol filtration at high-temperatures: the filter collection efficiency

The performance of double-layered ceramic filters for aerosol filtration at high temperatures was evaluated in this work. The filtering structure was composed of two layers: a thin granular membrane deposited on a reticulate ceramic support of high porosity. The goal was to minimize the high pressure drop inherent of granular structures, without decreasing their high collection efficiency for small particles. The reticulate support was developed using the technique of ceramic replication of polyurethane foam substrates of 45 and 75 pores per inch (ppi). The filtering membrane was prepared by depositing a thin layer of granular alumina-clay paste on one face of the support. Filters had their permeability and fractional collection efficiency analyzed for filtration of an airborne suspension of phosphatic rock in temperatures ranging from ambient to 700 degrees C. Results revealed that collection efficiency decreased with gas temperature and was enhanced with filtration time. Also, the support layer influenced the collection efficiency: the 75 ppi support was more effective than the 45 ppi. Particle collection efficiency dropped considerably for particles below 2 microm in diameter. The maximum collection occurred for particle diameters of approximately 3 microm, and decreased again for diameters between 4 and 8 microm. Such trend was successfully represented by the proposed correlation, which is based on the classical mechanisms acting on particle collection. Inertial impaction seems to be the predominant collection mechanism, with particle bouncing/re-entrainment acting as detachment mechanisms.     

Calculation of the wetted area of a planing hull with a chine

Summary The extent to which a low-aspect-ratio flat ship with a chined hull is wetted when planing at infinite Froude number is investigated. A numerical method of solution for the wetted area, which is applicable to more general planing problems, is presented. The results obtained by this method are compared with those found by solving the inverse problem of determining the hull shape which produces a given waterplane shape and are shown to be in excellent agreement. Results are also presented which indicate that a vertical chine may be used to fix the shape of the wetted region.     

Selective collection of fine particles by water drops

This study was concerned with the interaction between a gaseous dispersion of fine particles travelling in the horizontal direction and discrete drops of water falling vertically through the dispersion. A simple analytical model of the particle–drop collision was developed to describe the particle recovery by the drops as a function of the water flux, covering two extremes of relative velocity between the particles and drops. The Discrete Element Method was used to validate the analytical model. Further validation of the model and insights were obtained through experimental studies. The physical process of wetting was observed to be important in influencing the tendency of particles to become engulfed by the drops of water, or to either adhere to the drops or by-pass the drops altogether. Hydrophilic particles were readily engulfed while hydrophobic particles, at best, adhered to the surface of the drop, or failed to attach. Moreover, the recovery of the hydrophilic silica particles was significantly higher than the recovery of hydrophobic coal particles, with the selectivity ratio approximately 1.5. Spherical ballotini particles were the most sensitive, with a notable increase in recovery when cleaned, and evidence of increased recovery with increasing particle size. The recovery of irregular shaped silica flour particles, however, was largely independent of the particle size. A similar result was observed for irregular coal particles, though the recoveries were all lower than relatively more hydrophilic ballotini or silica flour.     

Thermophoretic levitation of solid particles at atmospheric pressure

Separation and transportation of powders are important processes in various technological applications. Although mechanical, chemical, or electrical methods can provide possible solutions, operational or environmental constraints may require alternative methods. Spreading and levitation of clusters (aggregates) of fluorinated fumed silica nanoparticles placed under atmospheric pressure on a hot plate is reported. The powder spreading in the chamber continued until the temperature-dependent saturation value of the spot radius, which grew linearly with the temperature. Open space experiments clearly demonstrated levitation of the powder clouds. Qualitative physical analysis of the observed phenomena is suggested. The effect of levitation is explained by the lifting thermo-phoretic force emerging in the Knudsen layer of air. The levitation of the powder under atmospheric pressure becomes possible due to the combination of low adhesion of the fluorinated fumed silica clusters to the substrate, low density of the particles and clusters, and their high specific surface area.     

Continuous reactor system of monosized colloidal particles

A reactor system, which continuously hydrolysed the metal alkoxide in an alcohol solution, was designed using an electromagnetic stirrer and an ageing tube. Several monosized colloidal particles were produced by this reactor system, which had high reproducibility and reliability for long-term production. The relation between powder characteristics and experimental parameters such as reagent concentration, mixing rate, ageing time, temperature, was investigated. These parameters had an effect on the particle size, size distribution, morphology and state of agglomeration. It is possible to control the particle size to between 0.1 and 1.0 μm by varying the experimental conditions. A narrower size distribution of powders was obtained by using an electromagnetic stirrer with greater flow rate. Physical and chemical properties of monosized colloidal particles obtained by this reactor were comparable to those of monosized colloidal particles obtained by the batch process.     

Lidar inversion of atmospheric backscatter and extinction-to-backscatter ratios by use of a Kalman filter

A first inversion of the backscatter profile and extinction-to-backscatter ratio from pulsed elastic-backscatter lidar returns is treated by means of an extended Kalman filter (EKF). The EKF approach enables one to overcome the intrinsic limitations of standard straightforward nonmemory procedures such as the slope method, exponential curve fitting, and the backward inversion algorithm. Whereas those procedures are inherently not adaptable because independent inversions are performed for each return signal and neither the statistics of the signals nor a priori uncertainties (e.g., boundary calibrations) are taken into account, in the case of the Kalman filter the filter updates itself because it is weighted by the imbalance between the a priori estimates of the optical parameters (i.e., past inversions) and the new estimates based on a minimum-variance criterion, as long as there are different lidar returns. Calibration errors and initialization uncertainties can be assimilated also. The study begins with the formulation of the inversion problem and an appropriate atmospheric stochastic model. Based on extensive simulation and realistic conditions, it is shown that the EKF approach enables one to retrieve the optical parameters as time-range-dependent functions and hence to track the atmospheric evolution; the performance of this approach is limited only by the quality and availability of the a priori information and the accuracy of the atmospheric model used. The study ends with an encouraging practical inversion of a live scene measured at the Nd:YAG elastic-backscatter lidar station at our premises at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona.     

Fluidized Bed Medium Separation (FBMS) using the particles with different hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties

Three kinds of particles with different hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties were used as fluidized particles of Fluidized Bed Medium Separation (FBMS). A minimum fluidization velocity, an apparent specific gravity of fluidized bed and floating-sinking behaviors of dry and wet coals were measured in the range of relative humidity from 50% to 80%. In a hydrophilic particle, the fluidization became unstable with increasing relative humidity because particle aggregation took place at a high humidity, and hence floating-sinking behaviors depend on changes in a relative humidity. On the other hand, in a highly hydrophobic particle, the fluidization was stable and floating-sinking behaviors based on the specific gravity difference were obtained even for wet coals and at a high relative humidity. Therefore, the FBMS using a highly hydrophobic particle is applicable at a high relative humidity without a control device of relative humidity.     

Thermophoretic collection and analysis of submicrometer ag particles emitted from a graphite tube-type electrothermal vaporizer

Using thermophoretic collection with a cooled Cu probe, particles generated in an electrothermal vaporizer (ETV) from a AgNO(3) solution sample have been collected and analyzed using transmission electron microscopy and high-energy electron diffraction (HEED). Ag particles are spherical and, interestingly, have diameters falling into one of four size regimes, <5, 15, 25, and >40 nm. An extremely large number (estimated at >10(8)) of particles with diameters of <100 nm are collected. For an aqueous AgNO(3) solution deposited in the ETV, the HEED pattern of the collected aerosol particles exiting the pulse heated ETV matched body centered cubic Ag((s)), and the large number of diffraction spots suggests that particles are composed of microcrystalline domains. The features of the particles confirm earlier predictions of homonucleation as the primary particle formation mechanism. "Groupings" of apparently disconnected particles were a unique feature seen from the pulse-heated vaporization of the dried sample. This morphology is unique and does not appear like any other clustering or aggregation of particles reported elsewhere. It is not clear what causes this particle grouping, although the absence of these groupings when a 700 °C thermal pretreatment step was introduced suggests that the AgNO(3) decomposition plays a role in their formation. It is suggested that the particles formed from homonucleation are created very near the graphite surface and are cooled quite rapidly to form the solid silver particles. A mechanism is presented to explain the appearance of silver in the gas phase at temperatures below the vaporization temperature for silver metal.     

Characterization of atmospheric particles in Seoul, Korea using SEM-EDX

Atmospheric particles in Seoul, Korea were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Particles were identified and characterized by their morphology and elemental compositions. The morphology of particles was closely coupled with elemental compositions, which provided information on sources and transport processes of aerosols. There were various types of combustion-derived particles identified such as fly ashes, soot, organic matters, tar balls, chars, and sulfur-containing particles. These anthropogenic particles mainly have spherical shape with nano- to micro-meter size. Char was, however, distinguished by irregular shape with varying size up to several micrometers. The sulfur-containing aggregates show a wide range of size, shape, and elemental composition. In addition, bioaerosol and mineral dust were the most abundant particles from natural sources.     

Evaporation of a picoliter droplet on a wetted substrate at reduced pressure

The results of theoretical and experimental investigation of the evaporation of picoliter water droplets on a substrate at reduced pressure (20–80 Torr) have been given. The substrate temperature varied in the range 25–40°C. The calculations have been carried out in a free-molecular approximation. It has been shown that the evaporation time sharply decreases if the average droplet height is less than 10 μm and is a few milliseconds for a 5-μm-high droplet. It has been experimentally and theoretically shown that for droplets higher than 10 μm, the evaporation time is a few seconds in the investigated pressure range.     

Continuous grinding kinetics of ethenzamide particles by fluidized-bed jet-milling

Continuous grinding kinetics of Ethenzamide powder, as a model active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) was investigated by fluidized-bed jet-milling. Because the oversize fractions after the classification were well fitted by a modified Rosin-Rammler distribution function, an equation of grade efficiency curve was obtained, which was also characteristic of API. A continuous grinding model was developed on the basis of a batch model by using 1st Kapur function relating grinding rate, the grade efficiency curve, and the overall process flow model consisting of grinding, classification, and mixing zones. The residual ratio obtained was well fitted to the experimental results except for the particle size range smaller than 4 microm and larger than 100 microm. Furthermore, because the volume of the active grinding zone adopted as the fitting parameter was found to be 5 cm3 in all experiments and the value was considered to be appropriate dimensionally, this result supports the reliability of the model.     

Simulation of dispersion and collection process of agglomerated particles in collision with fibers using discrete element method

The behavior of agglomerates in collision with fibers was simulated using the three-dimensional modified discrete element method and the influences of several factors on the fraction of collected particles were examined. Furthermore the single fiber collection efficiency for agglomerated particles was also investigated. In the case where gas velocity is quite low, agglomerates are only deformed but barely dispersed and thus collected as a single deformable particle. By contrast above some critical gas velocity, constituent particles are dispersed and at the same time partly collected on fibers. The fraction of collected particles first increases then decreases as the van der Waals attractive force between particle and fiber increases. The reason for the decrease in fraction of collected particles in strong adhesion region is that the smooth deformation of agglomerates along the fiber surface is inhibited by too strong adhesion. It was also suggested that there exists an optimum size ratio between the agglomerate size and fiber radius for the collection fraction. This is also closely related to the deformation of agglomerate along the fiber surface. In case of non-agglomerated particle collision, all the particles entering within the collision region are collected by fiber. By contrast in case of agglomerate collision, the dispersion of agglomerates as well as collection occurs in the same process and all the particles colliding with the fiber are not necessarily collected. Consequently the single fiber collection efficiency considerably decreases comparing to that for non-agglomerated particle collision.     

Size of the active zone in a wetted fluidized bed with the evolution of reaction heat

A scheme is developed for the determination, by a numerical method, of the height of the active zones, saturated by moisture h _az ^Z and heated by gas \], in a wetted fluidized bed. The dependence of these quantities on the basic parameters of the process is shown.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol.31, No.1, pp.36–41, July, 1976.