Laser capillary spectrophotometric acquisition of bivariate drop size and concentration data for liquid-liquid dispersion

A method of measuring, in real time or near real time, drop size and concentration in liquid-liquid dispersions within a reactor vessel, wherein the dispersion is formed of two immiscible liquids with mass transfer occurring across a boundary between the two liquids with or without reaction in either or both liquids, comprising the steps of

• continuously withdrawing a fraction of the dispersion within said reactor vessel and supplying same to a capillary tube having a bore of a predetermined inner diameter, and drawing the dispersion through the capillary tube;
• transmitting a beam of coherent light of a predetermined wavelength across the bore of said capillary tube at each of the first and second locations along said tube which are separated by a predetermined known distance;
• detecting amplitude of said light beam through the capillary tube at each of said first and second locations, and providing first and second signals that represent amplitudes of the light beam after passing through the capillary tube;
• and
• on the basis of relative timing of said first and second signals, producing drop size data for at least selected drops in said dispersion, and on the basis of the detected amplitudes of said light beam passing across said capillary tube at said predetermined wavelength, producing concentration data for each of said selected drops, including calculating velocity of said dispersion through said capillary tube by finding the difference in times of production of pulses in said first and second signals and arithmetically operating on said difference in time and said predetermined distance, including matching at least three successive pulses from said first and second signals.

A method of measuring in real time or near real time the drop size in a reactive liquid-liquid dispersion within a reactor vessel, wherein said dispersion is formed of two immiscible liquids with mass transfer occurring across a boundary between the two liquids with or without reactions occurring in either or both liquids, comprising the steps of continuously withdrawing a fraction of the dispersion within said reactor vessel and supplying same to a capillary tube having a bore of a predetermined diameter, and drawing the dispersions through the capillary tube;

• transmitting a beam of coherent light across the bore of said capillary tube at each of first and second locations along said tube which are separated by a predetermined known distance;
• detecting amplitudes of said light beam across the capillary tube at each of said first and second locations, and providing first and second signals that represent amplitudes of the light beam after passing across the capillary tube;
• calculating velocity of said dispersion through said capillary tube by finding the difference in times of production of pulses in said first and second signals and arithmetically operating on said difference in time and said predetermined distance, including matching at least three successive pulses from said first and second signals;
• and
• on the basis of said velocity and the width of said first and second signals, producing drop size data for at least selected drops in said dispersion.

A method of measuring in real time or near real time drop concentration in a liquid-liquid dispersion within a reactor vessel, wherein said dispersion is formed of two immiscible liquids with mass transfer occurring across a boundary between the two liquids with or without reactions occurring in either or both liquids comprising the steps of

• continuously withdrawing a fraction of the dispersion within said reactor vessel and supplying same to a capillary tube having a bore of a predetermined diameter, and drawing the dispersion through the capillary tube at a selected rate;
• transmitting a beam of coherent light of a predetermined wavelength across the bore of a said capillary tube at a first location and a second location on said tube;
• detecting amplitude of said light beam across the capillary tube at said first location and said second location, and providing a respective first signal and second signal that represents the amplitude of the light beam after passing across the capillary tube;
• on the basis of the detected amplitude of said light beam passing through said capillary tube at said predetermined wavelength, producing concentration data for at least selected drops in said dispersion;
• and
• calculating velocity of said dispersion through said capillary tube by finding the difference in times of production of occurrences of said first and second signals and arithmetically operating on said differences in time and said predetermined distance, including matching at least three successive occurrences of said first and second signals.