Sharif Digital Repository

The separation of xylene isomers is an important application in separation processes that is based on their adsorption properties on different adsorbents. In this work, the Price and Danner method was employed with a neural network to investigate the adsorption behavior of binary systems of p-xylene/m-xylene, p-diethyl benzene/m-xylene, and p-diethyl benzene/p-xylene and the ternary system of p-diethyl benzene/m-xylene/p-xylene at 130 and 175°C. The Redlich-Kister, Wilson, and NRTL models were used to determine the activity coefficients in the adsorbed phase. Comparison with experimental data from the literature indicated that the proposed thermodynamic model would best determine surface... 

The studies surrounding the concept of microdroplets have seen a dramatic increase in recent years. Microdroplets have applications in different fields such as chemical synthesis, biology, separation processes and micro-pumps. This study numerically investigates the effect of different parameters such as Capillary number, Length of droplets, and Magnetic Bond number on the splitting process of ferrofluid microdroplets in symmetric T-junctions using an asymmetric magnetic field. The use of said field that is applied asymmetrically to the T-junction center helps us control the splitting of ferrofluid microdroplets. During the process of numerical simulation, a magnetic field with various... 

Separation of particles or cells has various applications in biotechnology, pharmaceutical and chemical industry. Inertial cell separation, in particular, has been gaining a great attention in the recent years since it has exhibited a label-free, high-throughput and efficient performance. In this work, first, an inertial contraction–expansion array microchannel device, capable of passively separating two particles with diameters of 4 and 10 μm, was numerically studied. Then, the validated model was combined with curved geometries in order to investigate the effect of curve features on the separation process. The overall purpose was to investigate the interaction between the two different... 

Growing needs for energy and the essential role of fossil fuels in energy market require attempts such as carbon dioxide (CO2) sequestration in saline aquifers to stabilize and mitigate atmospheric carbon concentrations. The possibility of co-injection of impurities along with CO2 allows for the direct disposal of flue gas and hence a significant reduction in the cost of CO2 sequestration projects by eliminating the separation process. In this study, the results of series of novel experiments in a high-pressure visual porous cell are reported, which allow for visually and quantitatively examining the dynamics of convective dissolution in brine-saturated porous media in the presence of an... 

Supersonic separators are used in gas separation processes such as dehumidification of humid air due to high performance and its good pressure recovery. In the present study, a comprehensive numerical and experimental investigation on the hydrodynamic behavior of air as working fluid and dehumidification performance of supersonic separator have been accomplished. The effect of the operational parameters on shockwave's position are examined. The outcomes show that by increasing the pressure level of supersonic separator, relative error between numerical and experimental results decreases from 20% to less than 10%. The effect of the operational parameters and humidity of inlet air on the... 

Supersonic separators (3Ss) are applied in gas separation processes. Two-dimensional simulation is employed to investigate the effect of operational and thermophysical parameters on the shockwave position. In addition, the impact of the cyclonic part and wet outlet geometry is evaluated by proposing four cases. Increasing the length of the cyclonic part exerts positive and negative influences on the performance of the 3S and the pressure recovery coefficient, respectively. The optimum length is determined between 10 and 15 cm. To demonstrate negative effects of wasted air from the wet outlet, its flow has been increased from 3.6 to 8.1 % of the inlet flow. Improved performance of the 3S is... 

Industrial-scale production of aromatic materials is confronted by the problem of removal of impurities such as olefins. Their removal is an essential requirement in marketability. Catalytic adsorbent clay is the most common material used for the removal of olefins from aromatic streams. The current study is focused on increasing the lifetime of a commercial type of clay by identifying the effective parameters in reducing the adsorbent lifetime. An analysis of 3 years of data from a petrochemical complex showed that water, morpholine, and N-formyl morpholine (NFM) contents in the feed stream are the factors reducing the clay lifetime. Various experiments have been performed to determine the... 

BACKGROUND: The clay treatment widely utilized to reduce unsaturated components in aromatic stream has a detrimental effect on catalyst lifetime. Due to the short lifetime of commercial clay, a huge number of studies have been carried out to address this problem over the last decade. This study aims to optimize the temperature for longer serviceability of clay by removal of unsaturated aliphatic components from aromatic streams through the adsorption and catalytic properties of clay. A novel process arrangement is introduced by scheduling the reuse of deactivated clay that is discarded after deactivation. RESULTS: Results showed that the suitable range of temperature for olefin removal is... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

Alkalis, surfactants and/or polymers are usually injected in the injector wells so that the injection fluids can sweep through the reservoir and mobilize/recover more oil. However, the formation of stable emulsion due to the residual chemicals in the recovered crude oil poses problems in the primary separation process. This study focuses on the effect of Alkali-Surfactant-Polymer injection on creaming and coalescence of crude oil and water emulsion produced in the primary gravity separator. In addition, a model is developed in this work to predict the separation effectiveness of oil and water emulsion containing ASP. In this work, the effect of ASP on the stability and the separation of... 

BACKGROUND: Hybrid distillation–membrane setups have attracted attention in recent years due to their lower energy usage for ethanol purification. Membrane separation processes operate without heating that reduces energy demand. However, it is somewhat challenging to select the optimal material and process for a membrane purifying ethanol, especially to get an ethanol purity of 99.99% with maximum recovery. RESULTS: In this study, three different configurations of hybrid distillation–membrane setups are proposed consisting of distillation–pervaporation/vapor permeation processes by considering ceramic, polymeric and composite membranes. The design of hybrid processes is performed by coupling... 

BACKGROUND: The clay treatment widely utilized to reduce unsaturated components in aromatic stream has a detrimental effect on catalyst lifetime. Due to the short lifetime of commercial clay, a huge number of studies have been carried out to address this problem over the last decade. This study aims to optimize the temperature for longer serviceability of clay by removal of unsaturated aliphatic components from aromatic streams through the adsorption and catalytic properties of clay. A novel process arrangement is introduced by scheduling the reuse of deactivated clay that is discarded after deactivation. RESULTS: Results showed that the suitable range of temperature for olefin removal is... 

Cell separation microfluidic devices have evolved into a multitude of biomedical and clinical research. Nonetheless, many critical issues remain in the way of achieving an excellent separation of target cells from a heterogeneous sample. Parallel to the abundant experimental studies related to the hybrid microfluidic methods, it is easy to perceive the lack of numerical investigations in order to optimize the separation process and its accuracy. In this study, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a hybrid system by integrating acoustophoresis and pinched-flow fractionation (PFF) is proposed to achieve a viable system for a wide-range, precise separation. Employing the ultrasound...