{"title":"Investigation on the gas dissolving and microbubble generation characteristics of a jet conical air saturator for use in compact flotation unit","authors":"Guodong Ding , Jiaqing Chen , Yiqing Zhang , Zixia Feng , Ziyang Li","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.022","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.022","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Generating high-quality microbubbles is critical for efficiently operating dissolved air flotation devices. To address the limitations of conventional dissolved air systems, this paper introduces a jet conical air saturator (JCAS) that integrates a jet nozzle with a conical vertical tank. A comparative study of gas-phase volume distribution and dissolved gas performance was conducted by combing the Volume of Fluid (VOF) multiphase flow model with experimental analysis. The online measurement results indicate that the JCAS achieves a gas dissolution efficiency 42.4 % higher than that of the vertical empty vessel and 29.5 % higher than conventional jet-type vertical dissolved air vessels. The gas dissolution efficiency exhibits an exponential relationship with the gas-liquid volume ratio, liquid height ratio, and the dissolved gas pressure. The discrepancy between the theoretical prediction model and experimental results is within 15 %. The dissolved gas water is released through a TS-type dissolved gas releaser to generate high-quality microbubbles. The Sauter mean diameter of the microbubbles increases with the gas-liquid volume ratio, while it decreases with the rising liquid height ratio and dissolved gas pressure. Comparative experiments show that the oil removal efficiency of a compact flotation unit equipped with the jet conical pressurized microbubble generator outperforms that of a microporous tubular microbubble generator. Even with average oil droplet diameters as small as 13.2 μm, the system achieves an oil removal efficiency of 77.4 %, highlighting the advanced performance and high efficiency of the jet conical dissolved gas system.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"217 ","pages":"Pages 514-525"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143848423","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Xinran Hou, Jiankai Ji, Yanze Xiong, Yujie Song, Han Zhang, Mifeng Gou
{"title":"Preparation of halloysite nanotube-reinforced silica aerogels with thermal insulation and oil/water separation by ambient pressure drying","authors":"Xinran Hou, Jiankai Ji, Yanze Xiong, Yujie Song, Han Zhang, Mifeng Gou","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.021","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.021","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Silica aerogels with low thermal conductivity demonstrate potential as energy-saving materials. In this study, the methyltriethoxysilane (MTES) and vinyltrimethoxysilane (VTMS) act as co-precursors in the preparation of modified halloysite nanotubes-reinforced silica aerogels (OMVSA) with varying modified halloysite nanotubes (OHNTs) content via the sol-gel process and ambient pressure drying. The OHNTs result in a reduction of shrinkage and adsorption efficiency of the resulting silica aerogel by 8.18 % and 113.67 %, respectively. Furthermore, the silica aerogels exhibit a low density of 0.143 g/cm³ , a low thermal conductivity of 0.055 W/m·K, commendable thermal stability up to 490℃, and hydrophobic properties, evidenced by a water contact angle of 129°. Additionally, the silica aerogel displays excellent oil/water separation capabilities and cyclic adsorption, enabling the rapid separation of oil-water mixtures. The reinforced silica aerogel shows immense potential for applications in building energy conservation, thermal insulation, and oil/water separation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"217 ","pages":"Pages 387-398"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143835218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Cost-optimized design of front-end acetylene hydrogenation using artificial neural networks","authors":"Amirhossein Hosseinzadeh , Mansooreh Soleimani , Maryam Takht Ravanchi","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.018","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.018","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given that acetylene is a poison to ethylene polymerization catalysts, this research studied the design for a cost-effective optimization of the front-end acetylene hydrogenation unit. The design capacity is 0.6 million ton/annum (for a commercial petrochemical plant) to reduce the acetylene concentration to five ppm while maintaining the unit’s controllability. The study started by modeling an adiabatic fixed-bed pseudo-homogeneous reactor with Pd-Ag/Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> catalyst. The hydrogenation plant was designed using the validated model and literature. It was also possible to do sensitivity analysis on the important operational parameters, like temperature, pressure, the number of catalytic beds, and volumes, in order to get 12467 samples ready for training the artificial neural network (ANN) model. In the next step, the economic potential of the artificial neural network model was optimized with the genetic algorithm (GA). In this optimization problem, economic potential was the fitness function, and utility consumption in heat exchangers, feed pressure, bed volumes, and presence of the third bed were the optimization variables. Optimization using GA-ANN model, GA for numerical model, and Bayesian for ANN revealed that the GA-ANN approach significantly reduced function evaluations (27,900 vs. 51,900 in GA-Numerical) and achieved the highest economic potential (1.997 million USD annually). The optimization led to a reduction in normal operating temperature and inlet pressure.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"218 ","pages":"Pages 147-156"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877616","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Investigation of the energy efficiency of the process using photocatalyst-containing droplets","authors":"Shoma Kato , Yuka Sakai , Guoqing Guan , Yasuki Kansha","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.009","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.009","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Photocatalytic water treatment processes have been studied because of their strong oxidizing ability and ability to harness sunlight as an energy source. Recent studies have aimed to improve the efficiency of photocatalytic reactions by using droplets containing photocatalysts. However, the energy consumption of the process has not been considered. In this study, we investigated the relationship between the reaction efficiency and energy consumption of the degradation of phenol, as a model compound, using photocatalyst (TiO<sub>2</sub>)-containing droplets through variation of the droplet size. First, experiments were conducted to determine the relationship between the degradation of phenol and the droplet diameter. As the droplet diameter decreased, the removal ratio of phenol dramatically increased. Second, the specific energy consumption was calculated using the experimental data and a model of a stationary droplet. The results suggested that there is a minimum specific energy consumption value depending on the balance of the irradiation energy and droplet generation energy.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"217 ","pages":"Pages 483-489"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143844178","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Itziar A. Escanciano, Emilio Gómez, Félix García-Ochoa, Victoria E. Santos
{"title":"Carbon dioxide transport rate in a stirred and sparged tank: Stirring speed and gas flow rate influences","authors":"Itziar A. Escanciano, Emilio Gómez, Félix García-Ochoa, Victoria E. Santos","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.013","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.013","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Gas-liquid transport rate of CO<sub>2</sub> in a stirred and sparged tank reactor has been studied. The volumetric mass transfer coefficient <em>k</em><sub>L</sub><em>a</em> has been determined by a dynamic method of both CO<sub>2</sub> absorption and desorption. The <em>k</em><sub>L</sub><em>a</em> values obtained by both techniques, absorption and desorption, present small differences, although the data obtained by desorption are more reliable and less error. The influences of the stirring speed (values from 100 to 700 rpm) and the gas flow rate (value of 0.1, 0.5 and 1 L/min) have been analyzed. The measurements were carried out by controlling the pH value or by letting its value evolve with the CO<sub>2</sub> absorption. For the calculations of the volumetric carbon dioxide mass transfer coefficient, the concentrations of the different species formed when CO<sub>2</sub> is dissolved in water were taken into account. Experimental values of the volumetric mass transfer coefficient for CO<sub>2</sub> as a function of stirring speed and gas flow rate were fitted and an empirical equation for <em>k</em><sub>L</sub><em>a</em> prediction is proposed. Moreover, values of the volumetric mass transfer coefficient for O<sub>2</sub> have been determined in the same reactor under the identical conditions, obtaining also an empirical equation. The comparison of the volumetric mass transfer coefficients for both CO<sub>2</sub> and O<sub>2</sub> is discussed. In general, the results achieved are in agreement with the few data previously published.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"218 ","pages":"Pages 157-167"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143877620","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Daokuan Cheng , Hanlu Xu , Bai Wang , Liang Zhao , Hui Dong , Zhijun Zhang
{"title":"Kinetic study of magnesite decomposition under different CO2 pressure conditions and its application in CFD modeling","authors":"Daokuan Cheng , Hanlu Xu , Bai Wang , Liang Zhao , Hui Dong , Zhijun Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>By systematically investigating the effect of CO<sub>2</sub> on magnesite decomposition, it can provide a more accurate reference for the equipment design of magnesite calcination. In this work, thermogravimetric experiments of magnesite pyrolysis in atmospheres with varying CO<sub>2</sub> pressures, <em>P</em>(CO<sub>2</sub>), were performed, and the behavior and kinetic parameters were investigated. A CFD model of the magnesite flash calciner coupled with the kinetic result was then developed. The results of iso-conversional analysis show that the apparent activation energy, <em>E</em>, is significantly increased from 194.49 kJ/mol in N<sub>2</sub> to 305.42 kJ/mol in the atmosphere with <em>P</em>(CO<sub>2</sub>)= 50 kPa, demonstrating the inhibition effect of CO<sub>2</sub>. The variation in <em>E</em> also suggests that the conventional method struggles to provide a universal kinetic description across different <em>P</em>(CO<sub>2</sub>). Therefore, an accommodation function should be introduced to parameterize the effect of the pressure term. The modified kinetic analysis yields a universal kinetic equation with <em>E</em> = 255.77 kJ/mol, kinetic model function <em>f</em>(<em>α</em>)= 1-<em>α</em>, and pressure term <em>h</em>(<em>P</em>)= (<em>P</em><sub>0</sub>/<em>P</em>)<sup>0.355</sup>·[1-(<em>P</em>/<em>P</em><sub>eq</sub>)<sup>1.849</sup>]. The parameters obtained from thermogravimetric (TG) and micro fluidized bed reaction analyzer (MFBRA) were integrated into the CFD model, yielding accurate results. This study is expected to provide tools and scientific reference for design and optimization of magnesite calcining equipment.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"217 ","pages":"Pages 440-452"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143838969","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Bin Wei , Zhuoxuan Wang , Yihua Ye , Liming Che , Hua Zhou
{"title":"Novel flexible model predictive control strategy to improve the yield of light products in fluid catalytic cracking unit","authors":"Bin Wei , Zhuoxuan Wang , Yihua Ye , Liming Che , Hua Zhou","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.007","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.007","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Due to the dynamic characteristics of the fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) reactor-regenerator system, the yield of light products would decrease with the conventional reaction temperature control strategy when the regenerator temperature increases. To mitigate this issue, a novel flexible model predictive control (MPC) strategy is proposed. Precisely, this MPC strategy integrates innovative reaction heat control, reaction temperature control, and a decision-making switch to ensure safe operation. In addition, the Conv_Transformer algorithm is employed to capture the dynamic behavior of the reactor-regenerator system in a noisy environment, facilitating the construction of a predictive model for MPC. The effectiveness of proposed MPC strategy is validated through simulations based on a dynamic model of the FCC reactor-regenerator system. Simulation results indicate that this approach achieves a higher yield of light products compared to conventional temperature control strategy when perturbations occur, demonstrating its potential to enhance the unit’s profit.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"217 ","pages":"Pages 467-482"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143838970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Liangguo Lyu , Shengping Zhang , Luxuan Liu , Fei Dai , Jun Sui , Hongguang Jin
{"title":"Coal char-CO2 gasification reactivity and kinetics characteristics for varying char particle sizes","authors":"Liangguo Lyu , Shengping Zhang , Luxuan Liu , Fei Dai , Jun Sui , Hongguang Jin","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.015","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.015","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Research on the reactivity and kinetics of the gasification reaction between coal char and CO<sub>2</sub> is fundamental for designing and optimizing gasification reactors. This paper focuses on investigating the low rank coal char-CO<sub>2</sub> gasification performance and the dynamic evolution of char’s physical and chemical structures for various char particle sizes (0.8–1, 2–2.5, and 4–10 mm), during the char samples were prepared through the Ordos coal pyrolysis under 1123 K. The smaller the coal char particle size, the higher the initial gasification reaction rate and carbon conversion rate, while the coal char gasification reaction speed with big particle size exhibits the trend that was initially ascending and then descending. The dimension of the coal char particles affects the mass and heat transfer between CO<sub>2</sub> molecule and solid surface of char. Subsequently, combined characterization approaches, including X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy, N<sub>2</sub> isothermal adsorption, and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), are employed to analyze the morphological variations of the coal char carbon matrix under various gasification reaction times. The graphene-like structure in the coal char is gradually strengthened as the size of the char decreases. The reason is that the amorphous carbon in the small-sized coal char structure is rapidly consumed and causes the stacking and fusion of aromatic layers, which enlarging the graphite stacking height and forming a more orderly structure. In addition, this paper also studies the coal char-CO<sub>2</sub> gasification reaction kinetic based on four distinct models, the mixture model (MM) could relatively well predict the characteristics of Ordos coal-CO<sub>2</sub> gasification reaction for a broad range of particle sizes. This investigation offers support for the application of the coal char-CO<sub>2</sub> gasification technology.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"217 ","pages":"Pages 453-466"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143838971","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Dynamics and global optimization of an integrated PEM fuel cell unit: Cost, efficiency and power generation perspective","authors":"Pradip Sugriv Nande, Amiya K. Jana","doi":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.017","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.cherd.2025.04.017","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This work aims at exploring the techno-economic feasibility of an optimal polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cell integrated with key auxiliary components, including a compressor, and supply and return manifolds. For this, the first-principles PEM fuel cell model is developed by the application of conservation principle and then coupled with cell electrochemistry along with the model of auxiliary modules. Validating the dynamic theoretical framework with experimental data, it is extended to formulate the non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II) embedded with Taguchi method along with the technique for order of preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) for global optimization. Three conflicting objectives, namely minimization of cost, and maximization of efficiency and power generation of the cell, are framed to identify the four design and operating parameters. The PEM fuel cell delivers an average output power of 6909 W (57.81 % efficiency) under lower heating value condition and 6896 W (48.70 % efficiency) under higher heating value condition. At a hydrogen purchase price of 5 $/kg, the power production cost remains consistent at 0.307 $/kWh, comparable to reported values of 0.30 – 0.31 $/kWh for a hydrogen price of 4.55 – 4.62 $/kg.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":10019,"journal":{"name":"Chemical Engineering Research & Design","volume":"217 ","pages":"Pages 342-360"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-04-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143825439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}