Numerical simulation on the effect of combining centrifugation, electric field and temperature on two-phase separation

Abstract

The demulsification and dewatering of emulsion is a considerable aspect for the two-phase separation. Though the centrifugation can realize the separation process, the water-in-oil emulsion with high water content and complex components cannot be effectively treated. Therefore, an enhanced two-phase separation process by combing heating process, centrifugation and electric field was proposed in this study. To understand the separation performance of the enhance process, the coupling unit considered temperature variation was taken as the research object, and the effects of main control parameters (voltage amplitude and heating temperature) on flow field and separation efficiency were investigated by numerical simulation and experimental methods. The results demonstrate that the numerical simulation can effectively predict the separation efficiency; the variation of voltage amplitude and heating temperature has a significant impacts on the inner flow field. And based on the centrifugation, combing electric field and heating process can effectively improve the separation efficiency. Specially, the increase of the maximum reverse flow velocity and diameter of reverse flow core can effectively promote the two-phase separation, and the separation efficiency of the enhanced two-phase separation process can be up to 94 % when the optimal parameters are 11 kV and 70 °C, respectively.