Liquid-liquid coalescence filtration

Coalescence filtration is very effective for the separation of secondary emulsions that contain water droplets with diameters less than 50 micron. The factors that control the performance of coalescer filter media are fiber size and wettability. High wettability materials for water-in-oil dispersion promote coalescence. In this paper, new experimental results investigating the performance non-woven filter media glass fiber augmented with polymer nanofiber are presented in relation to the relevant parameters (amount of polymer nanofiber, fiber size, and wettability). A number of factors influence the efficiency and the economics of the separation of dispersed liquid drops in an immiscible liquid-liquid mixture.; The first and second objective of this work is to determine the effect of quantity of polymer nanofiber and the effect of fiber diameter in the liquid-liquid coalescence system.; One of the important factors that control the performance of filter media in the separation is the fiber size. As the fiber diameter is decreased, separation efficiency is increased. The experimental results in this work show that adding nanofibers to conventional micron sized fibrous filter media improves the separation efficiency of the filter media but also increases the pressure drop.; The third objective of this work is to determine the effect of the wettability on the coalescence mechanism. Experimental results from tests on coated glass rods are presented. Three different silanes are deposited on the glass rod surfaces to change the surface wettability. Flow of water-in-oil emulsion past the glass rods are observed.