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Our experts investigated new approaches to reduce the unwanted entrainment of droplets in process areas and apparatus as part of the “Teresa” project. The results were published in article form in the trade journal Chemie Ingenieur Technik. Co-author of the article is our expert Dr Florian Merkel.
We hope you enjoy reading it.
Through commencement of the Climate Change Act, the German industrial sector set the goal to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by up to 25% until 2030 following the maximum permitted values of 186 million tons of emitted CO2 equivalents in 2020 [1]. This represents a major challenge
and forces emitters to deal intensively with the issues of energy and resource efficiency. For this very reason, many companies voluntarily participate in associations such as SPIRE [2], which aim to strengthen the European industry by process improvements as well as reduction of energy and resource consumption and waste volumes. The combined goal is a decrease of energy consumption in the process industry by 30% and the primary, non-renewable rawmaterial intensity by 20 %. As a superordinate result, the reduction of the carbon footprint by 40% by 2030 compared
to the period 2008 … 2011 is targeted. [3] The chemical industry is one of the most energy- and emission-intensive sectors in Germany, on the one hand due to high energy and heat requirements and the associated need for fossil raw materials and on the other hand due to the reactants and auxiliary materials likewise based on fossil raw materials such as natural gas and crude oil [4]. Fluid separation processes are some of the central unit operations in the material conversion industry. Vapor/liquid separation operations are usually the most energy-intensive process steps, due to the fact that evaporation and condensation processes are usually performed subsequently several times. In such processes the desired mass transfer can be
promoted through enlargement of the specific interfacial area. A larger phase interface can be achieved through decreased drop or bubble diameters. Subsequently, the two phases must be coalesced again and separated – ideally without carry-over of one phase into the other. The entrainment of droplets in the vapor phase or vapor bubbles in the liquid phase partially nullifies the invested separation expenditures and thus reduces the energy efficiency of the separation. This carry-over may also result in corrosion and/or safety related issues on downstream process areas following the separation, which are often not designed for the entrained fluids.
You can continue reading the article free of charge here.
Hereyou can find a German-language article by our colleagues Britt Michelsen and Dr Florian Merkel, which you can read if you have a subscription to the Wiley Online Library.
Do you have any questions on the topic or are you interested in one of our services? Please feel free to contact us:
Dr. Florian Merkel
weryer gruppe | horst weyer und partner
Tel.: +49 (0) 2421 – 69 09 11 35
E-Mail: f.merkel@weyer-gruppe.com