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US 5,061,406 AGranted
In-line gas/liquid dispersion
AssigneeUnion Carbide Industrial Gases Technology Corporation
InventorAlan T. Cheng
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The dispersion of a gas in a liquid is enhanced by the use of an adjustable conical mixer to control the flow of a gas/liquid mixture to a venturi device used to accelerate the mixture to a supersonic vclocity with subsequent deacceleration to subsonic velocity to produce sonic shock waves in the mixture.
Claims11
An improved system for the dispersion of a gas in a liquid comprising:
- (a) a flow line in which said gas and liquid are mixed;
- (b) flow means for passing one of the fluids to be mixed through said flow line;
- (c) injection means for injecting the other fluid for the desired mixture of gas and liquid into said flow line to form a gas bubble/liquid mixture;
- (d) a venturi device positioned in said flow line downstream of the point at which said gas bubble/liquid mixture is formed, said venturi device comprising a converging diameter section, a neck section of smallest diameter, and a diverging diameter section expanding in diameter in the downstream direction;
- (e) a conical in-line mixer positioned in said flow line downstream of the point at which said gas bubble/liquid mixture is formed, said conical mixer comprising a first cone portion having its enlarged section positioned in the downstream direction and a second cone portion having its enlarged section adjacent that of the first cone portion and its pointed end section positioned downstream thereof in the converging diameter section of the venturi device, the enlarged sections of said cone portions of the mixer being of essentially the same diameter, said second cone portion being positioned such as to form, together with the walls of the converging diameter section of the venturi device, an annular opening for the passage of the gas bubble/liquid mixture to the neck section of the venturi device, said annular passage being adapted to accelerate a high portion of the flow velocity of said mixture to supersonic velocity, with subsequent deacceleration of the flow velocity to subsonic range in the diverging diameter section and/or the neck section of the venturi device, such acceleration-deacceleration action of the venturi device-conical in-line mixer serving to create a sonic shock wave effect resulting in the fine dispersion of the gas bubbles in the liquid, said conical in-line mixer being adjustable so as to enable said conical mixer to be positioned at any desired distance from its closing position in the venturi device so as to adjust the annular opening between the converging diameter section of the venturi and the second cone portion of the conical mixer;
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- (f) means for adjusting the position of said conical mixer in the flow line, whereby said system can be used to provide enhanced gas bubble/liquid dispersions under a wide range of operating conditions for a wide variety of gas/liquid dispersion operations.
4 more elements
An improved process for the dispersion of a gas in a liquid comprising;
- (a) combining said gas and liquid to form a gas bubble/liquid mixture in a flow line, said mixture having a velocity of less than the velocity of sound in said gas bubble/liquid mixture;
- (b) passing said gas bubble/liquid mixture into contact with a venturi device-conical in-line mixer combination positioned in said flow line, said venturi device comprising a converging diameter section, a neck section of smallest diameter, and a diverging diameter section expanding in diameter in the downstream direction, said conical in-line mixer positioned in the flow line downstream of the point at which said gas bubble/liquid mixture is formed, said conical mixer comprising a first cone portion having an enlarged section positioned in the downstream direction and a second cone portion having its enlarged diameter section adjacent that of the first cone portion and its pointed end section positioned downstream thereof in the converging diameter section of the venturi device, the enlarged section of said cone portions being of essentially the same diameter, said second cone portion being positioned such as to form, together with the walls of the converging diameter section of the venturi device, an annular opening for the passage of the gas bubble/liquid mixture to the neck section of the venturi device, said annular passage being adapted to accelerate a high portion of the flow velocity of said mixture to supersonic velocity, with subsequent deacceleration of the flow velocity to subsonic range in the diverging diameter section and/or the neck section of the venturi device, such acceleration-deacceleration action of the venturi device-conical in-line mixer serving to create a sonic shock wave effect resulting in the fine dispersion of the gas bubbles in the liquid, said conical in-line mixer being adjustable so as to enable said conical mixer to be positioned at any desired distance from its closing position in the venturi device so as to adjust the annular opening between the converging diameter section of the venturi and the second cone portion of the conical mixer;
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- (c) passing the gas bubble/liquid dispersion through the flow line downstream of the diverging diameter section of the venturi device, whereby an enhanced gas bubble/liquid dispersion can be provided under a wide variety of operating conditions for a wide variety of gas/liquid dispersion operations.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.