ming Xiao

Dimethyl carbonate synthesis from carbon dioxide and methanol over Ni-CufMoSiO(VSiO) catalysts

The surface structures, chemisorption properties and catalytic behaviors of Ni-Cu/MoSiO and Ni-Cu/VSiO catalysts have been investigated by using the techniques of XRD, TPR, IR, TPD and micro-reactor. Three types of active sites, metallic site M (Ni-Cu alloy), Lewis acid site M n+ (Mo 6+ or V 5+ ) and Lewis base site M=O (Mo=O or V=O), have been found on the surface of the reduced catalysts. With the cooperation effects of these active sites, CO 2 can be chemisorbed on the metallic site M and Lewis acid site M n+ to form a new type of CO 2 horizontal adsorption state, M—(CO)—O→M n+ , and CH3OH can be dissociated on the Lewis base site M=O and Lewis acid site to form a dissociative adsorption state, M n+ OCH 3 and HO—M. The selectivity of dimethyl carbonate synthesized from these adsorption species is over 85% and a surface reaction mechanism of this catalytic reaction is proposed based on the experimental results.

Separations of Different Binary Hydrocarbon Mixtures Using Pressure Swing Thermally Coupled Distillation Process

This paper presents a novel distillation and separation process: Pressure Swing Thermally Coupled Distillation, and investigates the performance of the process by separating 24 different kinds of binary hydrocarbon mixtures with different boiling point differences by this process, and calculates their cost-saving efficiency in comparison with conventional distillation column, respectively. This work focuses on the comparison of cost-saving efficiency, and adopts the comparison methods of standard coal equivalent and total annul cost calculation. Based on the comparison results, this process is optimized and confirmed that it is more cost-saving than conventional distillation and even heat-pump distillation for the separation of binary systems; therefore, this process will increase distillation efficiency greatly and save much energy for all the world, and thus it is worth considering the practical application and this paper will supply valuable guidelines and simulation calculation basis for industrial application.

Novel Protic Ionic Liquid Composite Membranes with Fast and Selective Gas Transport Nanochannels for Ethylene/Ethane Separation

Protic ionic liquids (PILs) were utilized for the fabrication of composite membranes containing silver salt as the C2H4 transport carrier to perform C2H4/C2H6 separation for the first time. The intrinsic nanostructures of PILs were adopted to construct fast and selective C2H4 transport nanochannels. The investigation of structure-performance relationships of composite membranes suggested that transport nanochannels (polar domains of PILs) could be tuned by the sizes of cations, which greatly manipulated activity of the carrier and determined the separation performances of membranes. The role of different carriers in the facilitated transport was studied, which revealed that the PILs were good solvents for dissolution and activation of the carrier due to their hydrogen bond networks and waterlike properties. The operating conditions of separation process were investigated systemically and optimized, confirming C2H4/C2H6 selectivity was enhanced with the increase of silver salt concentration, the flow rate of sweep gas, and the feed ratio of C2H4 to C2H6, as well as the decrease of the transmembrane pressure and operating temperature. Furthermore, the composite membranes exhibited long-term stability and obtained very competitive separation performances compared with other results. In summary, PIL composite membranes, which possess good long-term stability, high C2H4/C2H6 selectivity, and excellent C2H4 permeability, may have a good perspective in industrial C2H4/C2H6 separation.

Preparation of poly(L-lactic acid) membrane from solvent mixture via immersion precipitation

ABSTRACT Poly (L-lactic acid) (PLLA) membranes were fabricated through immersion precipitation method. 1, 4-dioxane (DX), N-methyl-2-pyrrolidone (NMP), N, N-dimethylformamide (DMF), N, N-dimethyl-acetamide (DMAc), and DX/NMP, DX/DMF and DX/DMAc were used as solvents severally. With a focus on the PLLA/DX/NMP/H2O system, the effect of solvent mixture on PLLA membrane was investigated by altering the ratio of DX/NMP. Various membrane morphologies were obtained, which were further correlated by mean of solubility parameter and viscosity of casting solution. It was found that the membrane cast with DX/NMP (1/1) exhibited ideal structure and better performance compared with membranes cast with same concentration of PLLA.

Hydrodynamics Analysis of a Folding Sieve Tray by Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation

In this reported work, a new type of tray, a folding sieve tray (FST), consisting of duplicated perforated oblique planes folding at a specific angle was designed. A three-dimensional two-fluid CFD model was employed to predict the hydrodynamics performance of a 0.6 m FST at different folding angles (48° and 90°) and opening ratios (10.2%, 12.5%, and 15.0%), compared with a 0° unfolding-structure sieve tray (ST). The models used in this study were within the two-phase Eulerian framework to ensure that the gas and liquid phases were an interpenetrating continuum. To verify the reliability of the models, the simulation results were compared with experimental results and were found to be in good agreement, and the relative error was less than 10%. The backmixing, pressure drop, clear liquid height, froth height, entrainment and the details of the gas–liquid distributions on the tray were investigated. Better operational stability was found in FST that resulted from the better liquid distribution, a lower pressure drop across the tray, and a relatively smaller clear liquid height. It was shown that gas in the FST had a higher horizontal velocity near the holes to guide the liquid phase. About 90% of backmixing, 50% of clear liquid height, and 30%of wet tray pressure drop were reduced in the FST.

Numerical research of stream analysis on helical baffles heat exchangers

In this paper, the numerical simulations for a helical baffles heat exchanger and a segmental baffles heat exchanger with component clearance are performed to reveal the features of leakage streams and their effect on heat exchanger performance. Helical baffles heat exchanger models with four different angles and segmental baffles heat exchanger model were established and calculated via Gambit and Fluent software. The results reveal that the heat exchanger with a 40° helix angle shows the best comprehensive heat transfer performance in turbulent state, and the heat exchanger with a 50° helix angle shows better comprehensive heat transfer performance in laminar flow state. The leakage streams proportion of the helical baffles heat exchanger varies from 5.5% to 6.1%, compared with the leakage streams proportion changes from 16.6% to 21.0% in the segmental baffles heat exchanger. In both turbulent flow state and laminar flow state, with the rise of shell-side Reynolds number, the main spiral stream B proportion decreases and the leakage streams proportion increases in the segmental baffles heat exchanger, while the stream B proportion increases and the leakage streams proportion decreases in helical baffles heat exchanger. The proportion of stream B increases with the increase of the helix angle β and the proportions of leakage streams decrease with the increase of β. The proportion of the tube-baffle leakage stream A increases in radial direction. Both the proportion of stream A and that of the baffle-shell leakage stream E fluctuate in the intermediate zone in axial direction; the stream A proportion decreases at the inlet and outlet zone, while the stream E proportion increases at the inlet and decreases at the outlet zone. The results of this paper could be of great significance in the optimal design and manufacture of the helical baffles heat exchanger.

Fluid-Elastic Instability Tests on Parallel Triangular Tube Bundles with Different Mass Ratio Values under Increasing and Decreasing Flow Velocities

To study the effects of increasing and decreasing flow velocities on the fluid-elastic instability of tube bundles, the responses of an elastically mounted tube in a rigid parallel triangular tube bundle with a pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.67 were tested in a water tunnel subjected to crossflow. Aluminum and stainless steel tubes were tested, respectively. In the in-line and transverse directions, the amplitudes, power spectrum density functions, response frequencies, added mass coefficients, and other results were obtained and compared. Results show that the nonlinear hysteresis phenomenon occurred in both tube bundle vibrations. When the flow velocity is decreasing, the tubes which have been in the state of fluid-elastic instability can keep on this state for a certain flow velocity range. During this process, the response frequencies of the tubes will decrease. Furthermore, the response frequencies of the aluminum tube can decrease much more than those of the stainless steel tube. The fluid-elastic instability constants fitted for these experiments were obtained from experimental data. A deeper insight into the fluid-elastic instability of tube bundles was also obtained by synthesizing the results. This study is beneficial for designing and operating equipment with tube bundles inside, as well as for further research on the fluid-elastic instability of tube bundles.

Novel multi-tubular fixed-bed reactors’ shell structural analysis based on numerical simulation method

In the present contribution, a numerical study of fluid flow and heat transfer performance in a pilot-scale multi-tubular fixed-bed reactor with a novel configuration for propylene-to-acrolein oxidation reaction is presented using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics method (CFD) to ensure the uniformity condition using molten salt as a heat carrier medium on shell side. The effects of multiscale structural parameters including the number of baffles, baffles cut, central nontube region and the number of flow channels on pressure drop and heat transfer are considered. The simulations suggest that heat transfer coefficient per pressure drop is reduced with increasing number of baffles. By the single factor sensitivity analysis it was shown that the central region is the key factor in the structural design of a multi-tubular fixed-bed reactor.

Vortex-induced vibration of a tube array with a large pitch-to-diameter ratio value

To study the vortex-induced vibration behaviors of tube arrays with large pitch-to-diameter ratio values, an experiment has been conducted by testing the responses of an elastically mounted tube in a fixed normal triangular tube array with five rows and a pitch-to-diameter ratio value of 2.5 in a water tunnel subjected to cross-flow. The amplitude curves, power spectral density, and response frequencies were obtained in both in-line and transverse directions through the experiment. The results show that the responses obtained from the in-line direction are quite different from those obtained from the transverse direction. In the in-line vibration, there were two excitation regions, yet in the transverse vibration, there was only one excitation region. Moreover, in the in-line vibration, two obvious prominent peaks can be observed in the power spectral density of the vibration signal. The second prominent peak is a subharmonic peak. The frequency corresponding to the subharmonic peak was nearly twice as high as that corresponding to the first peak. However, in the transverse vibration, only a single broad peak existed in the power spectral density of the vibration signal. The hysteresis and the “lock-in” phenomena appeared in both the in-line and transverse vibrations. The results of study are beneficial for designing and operating devices mounted with large pitch-to-diameter ratio tube arrays, and for further research on the vortex-induced vibration of tube arrays.