PROPOSAL NUMBER: CTS-0644016 PROPOSAL TYPE: INVESTIGATOR INITIATED PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR: MIGUEL J BAGAJEWICZ AFFILIATION: UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA NORMAN CAMPUS PROPOSAL TITLE: SGER - ACOUSTIC SEPARATION PROCESS
This SGER project proposes to explore theoretically the use of sound to separate mixtures. The mechanism proposed is an analogy to thermo acoustic heat pumps (Prof. S. Garrett at Penn State University, G.W. Swift at Los Alamos Laboratory, J. Braun and L. Mongeau at Purdue University, Naval Postgraduate School). The proposed device consists of a long tube in which an acoustic (pressure) wave resonates. The pressure wave induces temperature and density oscillation. A double membrane placed inside the tube connects two reservoirs containing a lean and a rich mixture, respectively. The concentration of both reservoirs is maintained constant and different, such that a gradient of concentration between them is established. The mixture that one wants to separate is used to maintain the concentration in the reservoirs. At the same time a purge stream from each reservoir constitutes the products. The pressure oscillations inside the resonator induce temperature and density oscillations, such that mass transfer back and forth from the fluid in the resonator to the membrane at different locations allows the transport of mass against the concentration gradient.
This one year project will consists of: a) Investigating the theoretical intricacies of the novel concept proposed, further. b) Identifying mixtures of interest where the device can be competitive with other separation techniques (distillation, absorption, adsorption, etc). c) Determine the dimensions and materials of a prototype mass pump. The device should be useful and cost-effective to separate mixtures of components with close volatility, for which energy intensive separations are needed. The applications could be to separate liquid as well as gaseous mixtures at different temperature ranges.
A postdoc will be hired for 6-8 months to help generate a full proposal. The PI is specialized in process design and reaction-diffusion processes (his PhD Study). He has published studies analyzing the behavior of thermal waves in fixed bed reactors.
Intellectual Merit: No acoustic mass pump has been proposed, analyzed, much less built. The PI has performed a few preliminary calculations to establish feasibility of the process. When applied to particular cases, promising potential was identified. Thus, the research is 100% exploratory. The project proposal has also assessed the thermodynamic efficiency and it is far better than the one of distillation.
Broader Impacts On the industrial front, industry is very active in adopting and adapting new separation processes. Difficult separations like propane-propylene splitting, which takes columns of more than 150 trays, or de-ethanizers can be reduced to small devices, hence the capital reduction. Specialty chemicals industry deals with enantiomer separations, which can benefit from this technology, that can put within reach some separations that looked almost impossible. In addition, the is a potential large variety of applications, like desalination, separations in space exploration, etc. In essence, the broader impact is the improved efficiency and cost reduction of our processing industry.
