Bio-Foam Internals for Potential Water Treatment Units Adapted to Marine Applications: Hydrodynamic Study

Abstract

Reliance on harmless and renewable resources to mitigate process environmental footprint has become increasingly important for the design and operation of sustainable processes. One challenge that is prevalent in marine water surface contamination concerns treatment and recovery from oil spills where efforts are needed to design emergency units adapted to marine conditions. Potential candidates are naturally-grown porous loofa (bio-foam) materials which can be integrated in floating units transportable to the contamination area. For this purpose, a hexapod platform motion simulator was employed to emulate sea-driven floating movements of a column packed with two loofa bio-foam packings (dense and open-cell samples) and operated in cocurrent gas-liquid upflow mode. The column hydrodynamic behaviour was monitored by means of capacitance wire mesh sensors and electrical capacitance tomography for various inclination and rolling parameters. In the case of dense bio-foam packing, the relatively even distribution of gas and liquid in the vertical bed tended to degrade as the bed tilted up to 15°. Column rolling prompted fluid displacements in bed crosswise planes inducing notable amplitude oscillations of the local liquid saturation. Kerosene exhibited a strong foaming behavior with promotion of earlier inception of pulsing flow as a function of column inclination as compared to water.