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Abstract: The doctoral thesis presents the design of several high-pressure processes involving »green solvents« so-called supercritical fluids for the eco-friendly and sustainable production of new products with special characteristics, fewer toxic residues, and low energy consumption. The thesis is divided into three main parts: polymer processing and formulation of active drugs, measurements of transport properties form pendant drop geometry, and study of heat transfer under supercritical conditions. In the first part, special attention is given to using biodegradable polymers in particle size reduction processes that are related to pharmaceutical applications for controlled drug release. The PGSSTM micronization process was applied to the biodegradable carrier materials polyoxyethylene stearyl ether (Brij 100 and Brij 50) and polyethylene glycol (PEG 4000) for the incorporation of the insoluble drugs nimodipine, fenofibrate, o-vanillin, and esomeprazole with the purpose of improving their bioavailability and dissolution rate. In order to optimize and design micronization process, preliminary transfer and thermodynamic experiments of water-soluble carriers (Brij and PEG)/ SCFs system were carried out. It was observed that a combination of process parameters, including particle size reduction and interactions between drugs and hydrophilic carriers, contributed to enhancing the dissolution rates of precipitated solid particles. In the second part, a new optimized experimental setup based on pendant drop tensiometry was developed and a mathematical model designed to fit the experimental data was used to determine the diffusion coefficients of binary systems at elevated pressures and temperatures. Droplet geometry was examined by using a precise computer algorithm that fits the Young–Laplace equation to the axisymmetric shape of a drop. The experimental procedure was validated by a comparison of the experimental data for the water-CO2 mixture with data from the literature. For the first time, interfacial tension of CO2 saturated solution with propylene glycol and diffusion coefficients of propylene glycol in supercritical CO2 at temperatures of 120°C and 150°C in a pressure range from 5 MPa, up to 17.5 MPa were measured. Additionally, the drop tensiometry method was applied for measuring systems that are of great importance in carbon sequestration related applications. The effect of argon as a co-contaminant in a CO2 stream on the interfacial tension, diffusion coefficients, and storage capacity was studied. In the third part, comprehensive investigation into the heat transfer performance of CO2, ethane and their azeotropic mixture at high pressures and temperatures was studied. A double pipe heat exchanger was developed and set up to study the effects of different operating parameters on heat transfer performance over a wide range of temperatures (25 °C to 90 °C) and pressures (5 MPa to 30 MPa). Heat flux of supercritical fluids was measured in the inner pipe in the counter-current with water in the outer pipe. For the first time, the heat transfer coefficients (HTC) of supercritical CO2, ethane and their azeotropic mixture in water loop have been measured and compared. A brief evaluation is provided of the effect of mass flux, heat flux, pressure, temperature and buoyancy force on heat transfer coefficients. Additionally, to properly evaluate the potential and the performance of azeotropic mixture CO2-ethane, the coefficients of performance (COP) were calculated for the heat pump working cycle and compared to a system containing exclusively CO2.
Keywords: supercritical fluids, PGSSTM, formulation of active drugs, biodegradable polymers, transport and thermodynamic data, pendant drop method, carbon sequestration, heat transfer coefficients
Published in DKUM: 28.05.2018; Views: 1312; Downloads: 191
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Abstract: The article presents an engineering approach to the development of an alternative production with the existing equipment. Zeolite production is becoming an alternative to the old »Bayer« process for aluminum hydrate production. By applying appropriate know-how old equipment was used for an economically as well as ecologically acceptable production. In this equipment adaptation among other production steps the multistage evaporation battery was the most critical part of the process. We applied semi empirical approach on the basis of Z. Rant ideas to find heat transfer coefficients and to determine which equipment elements are more relevant for efficient performance and need serious maintenance.
Keywords: chemical engineering, evaporation in silicate technology, bauxite alumina production, evaporators, process optimization, heat transfer, heat flow, empirical equations, heat transfer coefficients, zeolites
Published in DKUM: 24.08.2017; Views: 1143; Downloads: 93
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Abstract: The present work deals with the natural convection in a square cavity filled with the water-based Au nanofluid. The cavity is heated on the vertical and cooled from the adjacent wall, while the other two horizontal walls are adiabatic. The governing differential equations have been solved by the standard finite volume method and the hydrodynamic and thermal fields were coupled together using the Boussinesq approximation. The main objective of this study is to investigate the influence of the nanoparticles' volume fraction on the heat transfer characteristics of Au nanofluids at the given base fluid's (i.e. water) Rayleigh number. Accurate results are presented over a wide range of the base fluid Rayleigh number and the volume fraction of Au nanoparticles. It is shown that adding nanoparticles in a base fluid delays the onset of convection. Contrary to what is argued by many authors, we show by numerical simulations that the use of nanofluids can reduce the heat transfer rate instead of increasing it.
Keywords: natural convection, heat transfer, nanofluid, Nusselt number
Published in DKUM: 07.07.2017; Views: 960; Downloads: 347
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Abstract: A numerical analysis is performed to examine the heat transfer of colloidal dispersions of Au nanoparticles in water (Au nanofluids). The analysis used a two-dimensional enclosure under natural convection heat-transfer conditions and has been carried out for the Rayleigh number in the range of 103 < Ra < 105, and for the Au nanoparticles' volume-fraction range of 0 < j < 0.10. We report highly accurate numerical results indicating clearly that the mean Nusselt number is an increasing function of both Rayleigh number and volume fraction of Au nanoparticles. The results also indicate that a heat-transfer enhancement is possible using nanofluids in comparison to conventional fluids. However, low Rayleigh numbers show more enhancement compared to high Rayleigh numbers.
Keywords: natural convection, nanofluid, heat transfer, numerical modelling
Published in DKUM: 10.07.2015; Views: 1066; Downloads: 128
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Abstract: The main goal of this study was to build a model for a numerical simulation of hot-dip galvanizing of a 20-ft ISO shipping container. For that purpose, the basic transient thermo-mechanical problem of a steel structure under the influence of the temperature characteristic for a zinc hot-dip galvanizing bath was analyzed. Numerical calculations were performed for a simple part and for the complex substructure of the container. Calculations were carried out on the Salome-Meca platform using a Netgen mesh generator and a Code_Asterfinite-element solver.
Keywords: shipping container, structural steel, zinc hot-dip galvanizing, transient heat transfer, distortion
Published in DKUM: 10.07.2015; Views: 1006; Downloads: 100
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