Effects Of Temperature And Gas Distributor Pore On Foam Separation And The Preliminary Study Of Gas Utilization

The improvements of adsorption behavior and foam drainage can play an importantrole for enhancing the performances of foam fractionation. A polymer membrane materialwas developed as a novel gas distributor. Based on the mechanisms of surface adsorptionand the hydrodynamics of rising foam, the effects of temperatur and pore size of gasdistributor on surface excess, mass flux, bubble size, superficial liquid velocity of thefoamate, foam drainage velocity and the performances of foam separation were investigated.Then, foam drainage behaviours of SDS foams were simulated using the dimensionlessmodel, and the model parameters were modified under the different temperature condition.Finally, the processes of changing airflow rate and redistributing airflow were investigatedfor achieving the preliminary study of gas utilization.The experimental results showed that surface excess, superficial liquid velocity of thefoamate and foam drainage velocity were all decreased with the increase of temperaturefrom15℃to50℃; bubble size increased by50%. Finally, the enrichment ratio increasedand the recovery rate decreased. The fitting result of the foam drainage data was betterusing the dimensionless model and the model parameters m, n were both decreased with theincrease of temperature. With the increase of the pore size from23μm to165μm, the effectof the pore size on surface excess was weak, but its effect on mass flux was significant.Therefore, the gas distributor with small pore size had greatly effect on the change ofbubble size on the axial of foam layer. The superficial liquid velocity of the foamate andfoam drainage velocity were both decreased，so the enrichment ratio increased and therecovery rate decreased. The effect that the pore size on the modification of modelparameters was weaken, which was fitted with the conclusion of Neethling et al. Comparedto the conventional process, the recovery rate and the enrichment ratio were increased usingthe processes of changing airflow rate and redistributing airflow, respectively.All above considered, it were effective for decreasing temperature and using smallpore size distributor to enhance adsorption behavior, resulting in the improvement of thesuperficial liquid velocity of the foamate and the velocity of foam drainage. Theexperimental results indicated that the processes of changing airflow rate and redistributingairflow were effective for the gas utilization.