Chemical Engineering October 2014 - 71

Fractionation Column
Environmental Manager
Learning about spray
technologies
S
pray nozzles are very useful
tools with a simple concept and
sometimes complex design.
Earlier this year, I attended
the 26th Annual ILASS (Institute
for Liquid Atomization and Spray
Systems; www.ilass.org) Conference
in Portland, Ore., which was held
on May 19-21. There were roughly
100 attendees, including representatives
from Canada, Germany and
Mexico, as well as the U.S.
Over 50 presentations were given
by speakers from universities, think
tanks, government agencies and
industry. The variety of topics covered
is illustrated in the following
brief descriptions of some of those
presentations: Spray Systems Co.
(Wheaton, Ill; www.spray.com) used
computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
to model spray columns for wet fluegas
desulfurization (WFGD) units;
they also used a variety of spray
evaluation devices to study the application
of a thin layer of peanut
oil onto a flat surface (regarding
the latter study, a CFD analysis of
the spray did not predict the spray
angle very well).
Kathleen Feigl, of the Michigan
Technological University (Houghton,
Mich.; www.mtu.edu), addressed
small water droplets entering a
crossflowing hydrocarbon stream
using numerical simulations; the
study has relevance to membrane
devices. Anne Geppert (University of
Stuttgart; www.uni-stuttgart.de) employed
a two-perspective high-speed
shadowgraphy imaging system to
show the crown of thin liquid that
is formed when a falling droplet impacts
a horizontal surface; her study
has relevance to the reduction of
droplet footprints in diesel engines.
Barry Scharfman, of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology (MIT;
Cambridge; web.mit.edu), described
a new technique where multiple
cameras are used with light-field
imaging and synthetic-aperture (SA)
refocusing techniques to resolve 3-D
spray fields over time.
FRI gave a presentation regarding
past and near-future
studies of hydrocarbon liquid
sprays, with counter-flowing hydrocarbon
vapor streams. FRI performs
such work in its 4-ft-dia. column
using C4, C6 and C8 hydrocarbon
vapor streams at column pressures
ranging from 75 mm Hga to 400
psia. FRI's colleagues at Oklahoma
State University gave a presentation
regarding the use of low-pressure-drop
spray columns for fluegas
CO2 removal.
The ILASS meeting gave the atWith
38 years of experience, Mike Resetarits
consults on distillation, absorption and extraction
processes. Each month, Mike shares his
first-hand experiences with CE readers
sprays, such as: phase Doppler particle
analyzers (PDPAs); phase Doppler
interferometers (PDIs); laserinduced
fluorescence (LIF); X-ray
computed tomography (CT); particle
image velocimetry (PIV); laser sheet
imaging; and, of course CFD.
I encourage anyone whose job intendees
the opportunity to learn
about a large number of devices and
technologies used for evaluating
cludes the design, use, evaluation,
specification or troubleshooting of
spray nozzles to consider attending
future ILASS meetings. You will
certainly meet everyone that you
need to know.
■
Mike Resetarits
Get Chemical Engineering's Plant Cost
Index to improve plant cost estimates...and
delivered in advance of the print edition!
For more than 40 years, chemical process industries
professionals- engineers, manager and technicians, have used
Chemical Engineering's Plant Cost Index to adjust process plant
construction costs from one period to another.
This database includes all annual archives (1947 to present) and monthly
data archives (1970 to present). Instead of waiting more than two weeks for
the print or online version of Chemical Engineering to arrive, subscribers can
access new data as soon as it's calculated.
Resources included with Chemical Engineering's Plant Cost Index:
* Electronic notifi cation of monthly
updates as soon as they are
available
* All annual data archives
(1947 to present)
Subscribe today at www.chemengonline.com/pci
24688
24688 CE PCI House Ad_ThirdSquare.indd 1
ChemiCal engineering www.Chemengonline.Com oCToBer 2014 69
9/5/14 10:51 AM
* Monthly data archives
(1970 to present)
* Option to download in Excel format
http://www.ilass.org http://www.spray.com http://www.mtu.edu http://www.uni-stuttgart.de http://web.mit.edu http://www.chemengonline.com/pci http://www.Chemengonline.Com
Chemical Engineering October 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Chemical Engineering October 2014
