Abstract
This paper investigates the separation possibilities of model emulsion oil-in-water using polypropylene fibre bed coalescence. Experiments were carried out over a wide range of physico-chemical characteristics of mineral oils, bed permeability and operating fluid velocities. The aim of this study was to analyse the influence of the dispersed oil phase nature and of the bed geometry on the separation efficiency. From the obtained results, it can be concluded that polypropylene fibres in the broadest studied range of bed permeabilities and fluid velocities, effectively separate oil that is highly polar. On the contrary, for the other two investigated oils at low values of bed permeability a region was detected in which the coalescer is incapable to operate. It has to be emphasized that the polypropylene fibres efficiently separate all three investigated oils at the highest studied bed permeability.
Highlights
This paper investigates the separation possibilities of model emulsion oil-in-water using polypropylene fibre bed coalescence
Analysis of the results from the coalescence filtration was performed based on the 3D plots representing the interdependence of the effluent oil concentration, bed permeability and the fluid velocity
Since the experiments were performed in a wide range of fluid velocity, the effluent oil concentration dependence on velocity was exponential for all operating conditions
Summary
This paper investigates the separation possibilities of model emulsion oil-in-water using polypropylene fibre bed coalescence. It can be concluded that polypropylene fibers in the broadest studied range of bed permeabilities and fluid velocities, effectively separate oil that is highly polar. When the emulsion passes through the filter media, the droplets of the dispersed phase form larger droplets that leave the bed enabling easy separation by gravity settling in the effluent stream. Li and Gu [18] have studied the phenomenon of bed coalescence of the emulsion oil-in-water using polypropylene and nylon. They concluded that the smaller diameter of polypropylene fibres are, the greater the efficiency of the separation is. The authors ignored the influence of other properties of fibres, of the bed and the physical-chemical characteristics of the dispersed oil phase
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