Chemical and Process Engineering: New Frontiers

This article presents the results of scientific investigations on the thermal regeneration process of a sorbent of mineral origin sorbent using a retort burner. Diesel oil, a petroleum liquid, most often pervades the environment during different catastrophes. The investigated sorbent of mineral origin was used in the standard way that the Fire Service removes such petroleum liquids from the environment during disasters. For research purposes, a regeneration chamber with a retort burner was constructed. The first phase of the investigation was aimed at defining the physico-chemical features of the sorbent after subsequent cycles of the regeneration process. The second phase involved an analysis of the energy and ecological effects of the regeneration process. The results showed that the first three cycles of the regeneration process occurred under low emission conditions. The proposed regeneration method achieved a positive energetic effect with a functional heat stream with an average value of 12.4 kW (average efficiency of the regeneration chamber was 68 %). The method is very efficient, with regeneration rates between 7.2 kg/h and 8.4 kg/h. It requires only a short amount of time for the start-up and extinction of the regeneration chamber, and it is also flexible to changes in the process conditions.

Whereas the use of biofuels has attracted increasing attention, the aim of this paper is to investigate the possibility of using sewage sludge as biofuel. Preparation of untreated and stabilised sludge with natural additives is described, as well as combusting method applied and experimental results of combusting are presented based on the assessment of composition of emitted pollutants and their concentrations in the exhaust gas. NOx formation in the exhaust gas has been analysed in depth. The results of investigations have shown that the use of dried sewage sludge possesses a positive energy balance. Therefore, the sludge may be used as fuel. The obtained experimental results demonstrate that during combustion, pollutant concentrations vary depending on oxygen content (O2), while formation of nitrogen oxides is strongly influenced by fuel-bound nitrogen. Also, a generalized equation of calculating fuel bound nitrogen conversion into NOx is presented.

The aim of the paper is a comparative study of co-firing high shares of wooden and agro-biomass with hard coal under oxy-fuel and air conditions in the laboratory scale reactor for pulverised fuels. The investigations of co-combustion behaviour NOx and SO2 emission and burnout were carried out for selected blends. Detailed investigations were concentrated on determining the effect of dosing oxygen method into the burner on NOx emission. The paper presents the results of co-firing blends with 20 and 50% share of biomass by mass in air and oxy-combustion condition. Biomass oxy-cofiring integrated with CCS (CO2 capture) technology could be a carbon negative technology. The reduction of NOx emissions in the conditions of oxy-co-firing is dependent on the concentration of oxygen in the primary stream of oxidiser. A significant reduction of NOx was achieved in the case of low oxygen concentration in the primary stream for each investigated blends. Co-firing of biomass with coal in an oxygen enriched atmosphere enhances combustion behaviour, lowers fuel burnout and as a result increases of the boiler efficiency.

This paper presents the results of research regarding measurements of the values of pressure drops during horizontal flow of gas-liquid and gas-liquid-liquid mixture through 180o pipe bends. The conducted insightful analysis and assessment during multi-phase flow in pipe bends has enabled to develop a new method for determination of their values. This new method for determining pressure drops ensures higher precision of calculation in comparison to other methods presented in literature and can be applied for calculation of these parameters during multi-phase flows in pipe bends with various geometries.

The study presents the possible use of optoelectronic system for the measurement of values specific for hydrodynamics of two-phase gas very-high-viscosity liquid flow in vertical pipes. An experimental method was provided, and the findings were presented and analysed for selected values which characterise the two-phase flow.

Scaling and corrosion associated with the use of natural hard water in cooling towers during recirculation pose great problems from both economical and technical points of view, such as decreased system efficiency and increased frequency of chemical cleaning. Treated municipal wastewater (MWW) is a promising alternative to freshwater as power plant cooling system makeup water, especially in arid regions. In this work, hybrid systems of salt precipitation (SP), nanofiltration (NF) and reverse osmosis (RO) were investigated, as potential pretreatment processes for wastewater reuse as cooling water in the planned Jordan nuclear power plants. The As-Samra wastewater was used to calculate the potential of carbonate and sulfate scale formation. The results were compared to scale potentials from Palo Verde wastewater. Four cases were investigated; SP, NF, SP-RO and NF-RO. The SP pretreatment cases showed the highest monovalent to divalent ratio because of a high removal of Ca and Mg and addition of Na from the chemicals of the SP step. The NF pretreatment cases, showed the lowest calcium sulfate scale potential and this potential decreases with the % pretreatment. The scale amount increases very slightly with concentration times when the SP and NF product is desalinated by RO step.

The paper deals with numerical modelling of carbon dioxide capture by amine solvent from flue gases in post-combustion technology. A complex flow system including a countercurrent two-phase flow in a porous region, chemical reaction and heat transfer is considered to resolve CO2 absorption. In order to approach the hydrodynamics of the process a two-fluid Eulerian model was applied. At the present stage of model development only the first part of the cycle, i.e. CO2 absorption was included. A series of parametric simulations has shown that carbon dioxide capture efficiency is mostly influenced by the ratio of liquid (aqueous amine solution) to gas (flue gases) mass fluxes. Good consistency of numerical results with experimental data acquired at a small-scale laboratory CO2 capture installation (at the Institute for Chemical Processing of Coal, Zabrze, Poland) has proved the reliability of the model.

The article reports the results of measurements of the acoustic pressure of acoustic waves generated by acoustic dust cleaners mounted in the convection pass of the 670MWth Circulating Fluidised Bed boiler. Based on measurements carried out and the spectral analysis of recorded signals it was found that the level of acoustic pressure generated by acoustic cleaners for the frequency of 100 Hz was too low for the efficient cleaning of the heated surfaces of the reheater RH2 and superheater SH3.

Knowledge of the fluid dynamic characteristics in a stirred vessel is essential for reliable design and scale-up of a mixing system. In this paper, 3D hydrodynamics in a vessel agitated by a Rushton turbine were numerically studied (with the help of a CFD computer program (CFX 13.0)). The study was carried out covering a wide Reynolds number range: 104 - 105. Computations, based on control volume method, were made using the k-ε model. Our main purpose was to investigate the effect of vessel configuration and agitation rates on the flow structure and power consumption. Three types of vessels were used: unbaffled, baffled and a vessel with slots placed at the external perimeter of its vertical wall. The effect of slot length has been investigated. The comparison of our predicted results with available experimental data shows a satisfactory agreement.