Study of Air‐Liquid Flow Patterns in Hydrocyclone Enhanced by Air Bubbles

Abstract

In order to improve the oil-water separation efficiency of a hydrocyclone, a new process utilizing air bubbles has been developed to enhance separation performance. Using the two-component phase Doppler particle analyzer (PDPA) technique, the velocities of two phases, air and liquid, and air bubble diameter were measured in a hydrocyclone. The air-liquid mixing pump can produce 15 to 60 lm-diameter air bubbles in water. There is an optimum air-liquid ratio for oil-water separation of a hydrocyclone enhanced by air bubbles. An air core occurs in the hydrocyclone when the air-liquid ratio is more than 1 %. The velocities of air bubbles have a similar flow pattern to the water phase. The axial and tangential velocity differences of the air bubbles at different air-liquid ratio are greater near the wall and near the core of the hydrocyclone. The measured results show that the size distribution of the air bubbles produced by the air-liquid mixing pump is beneficial to the process where air bubbles capture oil droplets in the hydrocyclone. These studies are helpful to understand the separation mechanism of a hydrocyclone enhanced by air bubbles.

Investigation of the simultaneous volumetric 3-component flow field inside a hydrocyclone

“…Up to recent years, worldwide researchers made great progresses on the measurement of hydrocyclone flow field, a summary of these measurements is shown in table 1 [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. But the measurement of the three velocity components inside a hydrocyclone is still limited by the following aspects: a.…”

Chitosan‐Functionalized Recycled Polyethylene Terephthalate Nanofibrous Membrane for Sustainable On‐Demand Oil‐Water Separation

“…[ 2 ] Many solutions have been developed over the years, such as API oil‐water separators, [ 3 ] centrifugal separation, [ 4 ] and hydrocyclones. [ 5,6 ] All these techniques require time and a large amount of energy. For this reason, in the last few years, many studies have focused on developing different membranes to enhance the mechanical filtration of water‐in‐oil and oil‐in‐water emulsions.…”

Performance of a New Geometry of Deoiling Hydrocyclones: Experiments and Numerical Simulations

“…These devices have some advantages when compared to gravity separators, such as a lower applied deck area, higher efficiency, and their immunity to the influence of oscillatory motion in semi-submersible platforms and ships [14][15][16][17][18][19]. In the oil industry, mainly in offshore production, where the price per square meter of deck area for equipment is very high, compact and efficient hydrocyclones are highly attractive.…”