Mass Transfer; Molecular Diffusion

1985 ◽  
Vol 17 (8) ◽  
pp. 1469-1471
Author(s):  
H. Siegrist ◽  
W. Gujer

The diffusion coefficient of three different chemical species in naturally grown, heterotrophic biofilms have been measured. The mechanical structure of the biofilm matrix reduces the molecular diffusion to about 50 to 60 % of the value in pure water. Depending on the roughness of the biofilm surface and the flow conditions eddy diffusion increased the mass transfer into the biofilm near the surface. The influence of the diffusion potential and the donnan potential on the ions have been evaluated by comparing the diffusion coefficients of a positively and negatively charged ion and a neutral molecule in experiments with different background electrolyte concentrations. Mass transfer effects by electrostatic forces are negligible at the ionic strength of waste water and tap water.


2018 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1951-1967
Author(s):  
Hongjian Lin ◽  
Weiwei Liu ◽  
Jing Gan ◽  
Yuchuan Wang ◽  
Bo Hu

Abstract. Human and animal exposure to hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in animal barns has long been a serious issue due to the acute and chronic toxicity of H2S. The H2S concentration in the room air of deep-pit swine barns is usually within hundreds of parts per billion by volume; however, it can sharply increase to hundreds and even thousands of parts per million (ppm) during manure agitation and pump-out. To explore the sudden release and concentration distribution of H2S, this study collected and analyzed samples from varying depths of a normal non-foaming barn and a foaming barn and then mathematically simulated the H2S concentrations and emissions in the pit headspace and room air for both barns during pit agitation. Simulations were conducted for six ventilation scenarios, or six different combinations of pit fan and wall fan ventilation rates. The simulation results suggested that pit ventilation was more effective than wall ventilation in decreasing H2S concentration in room air where pigs may be housed during agitation. A minimal pit ventilation rate of 40 cfm per pig was necessary to lower the peak concentration in room air to less than the permissible exposure limit of 20 ppm. The simulation results also indicated that gas bubble release during agitation accounted for the main part (81%) of H2S emission in the foaming barn, and expedited molecular diffusion contributed the main part (70.2%) of H2S emission in the non-foaming barn. The disturbed air-manure interface during agitation induced a pH decrease and therefore increased the apparent overall mass transfer coefficient of H2S, resulting in a substantially increased mass transfer rate and concentration. The immediately dangerous to life or health (IDLH) concentration of 100 ppm may be reached during pit agitation if pit fan ventilation is not fully provided, and the duration of the exceedance could be more than 30 min. The results provide empirical data for future simulation of spatial and temporal H2S distribution and are beneficial for developing methods to control H2S below hazardous levels so that the health and safety of workers can be better secured. Keywords: Agricultural safety, Deep-pit storage, Hydrogen sulfide concentration, Sulfide distribution, Swine manure.


1975 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1536-1538 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.J. McManamey ◽  
S.K.S. Multani ◽  
J.T. Davies

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 1680
Author(s):  
Kaiyi Zhang ◽  
Fengshuang Du ◽  
Bahareh Nojabaei

In this paper, we investigate the effect of pore size heterogeneity on fluid composition distribution of multicomponent-multiphase hydrocarbons and its subsequent influence on mass transfer in shale nanopores. The change of multi-contact minimum miscibility pressure (MMP) in heterogeneous nanopores was investigated. We used a compositional simulation model with a modified flash calculation, which considers the effect of large gas–oil capillary pressure on phase behavior. Different average pore sizes for different segments of the computational domain were considered and the effect of the resulting heterogeneity on phase change, composition distributions, and production was investigated. A two-dimensional formulation was considered here for the application of matrix–fracture cross-mass transfer and the rock matrix can also consist of different segments with different average pore sizes. Both convection and molecular diffusion terms were included in the mass balance equations, and different reservoir fluids such as ternary mixture syntactic oil, Bakken oil, and Marcellus shale condensate were considered. The simulation results indicate that oil and gas phase compositions vary in different pore sizes, resulting in a concentration gradient between the two adjacent pores of different sizes. Given that shale permeability is extremely small, we expect the mass transfer between the two sections of the reservoir/core with two distinct average pore sizes to be diffusion-dominated. This observation implies that there can be a selective matrix–fracture component mass transfer as a result of confinement-dependent phase behavior. Therefore, the molecular diffusion term should be always included in the mass transfer equations, for both primary and gas injection enhanced oil recovery (EOR) simulation of heterogeneous shale reservoirs.


2019 ◽  
Vol 876 ◽  
pp. 818-829 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florence Raynal ◽  
Romain Volk

We study the joint mixing of colloids and salt released together in a stagnation point or in a globally chaotic flow. In the presence of salt inhomogeneities, the mixing time is strongly modified depending on the sign of the diffusiophoretic coefficient $D_{dp}$. Mixing is delayed when $D_{dp}>0$ (salt-attracting configuration), or faster when $D_{dp}<0$ (salt-repelling configuration). In both configurations, as for molecular diffusion alone, large scales are barely affected in the dilating direction while the Batchelor scale for the colloids, $\ell _{c,diff}$, is strongly modified by diffusiophoresis. We propose here to measure a global effect of diffusiophoresis in the mixing process through an effective Péclet number built on this modified Batchelor scale. Whilst this small scale is obtained analytically for the stagnation point, in the case of chaotic advection, we derive it using the equation of gradients of concentration, following Raynal & Gence (Intl J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 40 (14), 1997, pp. 3267–3273). Comparing to numerical simulations, we show that the mixing time can be predicted by using the same function as in absence of salt, but as a function of the effective Péclet numbers computed for each configuration. The approach is shown to be valid when the ratio $D_{dp}^{2}/D_{s}D_{c}\gg 1$, where $D_{c}$ and $D_{s}$ are the diffusivities of the colloids and salt.


Author(s):  
Timothy D. Myles ◽  
Kyle N. Grew ◽  
Aldo A. Peracchio ◽  
Wilson K. S. Chiu

Water transport in fuel cells is of interest since the hydration state of the electrolyte is strong related to its conductivity. This study focuses on one part of water transport in fuel cell membranes, namely diffusion. In order to study diffusion processes in a fuel cell membrane a computer model has been developed. It is validated using information reported for the electrolyte membrane material Nafion. When the model is compared to experimental data from the literature a maximum error of 24.7% is observed. Two effects in addition to molecular diffusion have been studied; interfacial absorption and desorption of water at the membrane surface, and convective mass transfer. The effect of convective mass transfer is shown to be negligible while the effects of absorption and desorption are significant. By completing this validation it allows for the additional studies in the future of diffusion in other types of proton exchange membranes and the improvement of fuel cell performance.


1973 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 1061-1069 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.J. McManamey ◽  
J.T. Davies ◽  
J.M. Woollen ◽  
J.R. Coe

Author(s):  
Ratchaneekorn Thanedgunbaworn ◽  
Ratana Jiraratananon ◽  
Minh H Nguyen

Osmotic distillation experiments were carried out using pure water as feed in order to investigate the mass transfer mechanism in the membrane. In the experiment, the hollow fibre modules with packing density of 30.6 and 61.2% were employed. The Dusty gas model was used to estimate the transport of vapour through the membrane. The results revealed that the water vapour transport in the membrane pores in this study followed the Knudsen-molecular diffusion transition model. The value of membrane mass transfer coefficient evaluated by the transition model was found to be 0.863 kg/m2.h.Pa which was in good agreement with the experimental value. The packing density of the module did not affect the membrane mass transfer coefficient. On the other hand, the membrane mass transfer coefficient depended on the temperature.


1999 ◽  
Vol 125 (9) ◽  
pp. 852-860 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Jeffrey Yang ◽  
Todd M. Gates ◽  
Stuart Edwards

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document