scholarly journals Review on the Macro-Transport Processes Theory for Irregular Pores able to Perform Catalytic Reactions

Catalysts ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 281 ◽  
Author(s):  
Iván Santamaría-Holek ◽  
Saúl Hernández ◽  
Consuelo García-Alcántara ◽  
Aldo Ledesma-Durán

We review and generalize a recent theoretical framework that provides a sound physicochemical basis to describe how volume and surface diffusion are affected by adsorption and desorption processes, as well as by catalytic conversion within the space defined by the irregular geometry of the pores in a material. The theory is based on two single-dimensional mass conservation equations for irregular domains deduced for the volumetric (bulk) and surface mass concentrations. It offers a powerful tool for analyzing and modeling mass transport across porous media like zeolites or artificially build materials, since it establishes how the microscopic quantities that refer to the internal details of the geometry, the flow and the interactions within the irregular pore can be translated into macroscopic variables that are currently measured in experiments. The use of the theory in mass uptake experiments is explained in terms of breakthrough curves and effective mass diffusion coefficients which are explicitly related to the internal geometry of the pores.

1991 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Teutsch ◽  
K. Herbold-Paschke ◽  
D. Tougianidou ◽  
T. Hahn ◽  
K. Botzenhart

In this paper the major processes governing the persistence and underground transport of viruses and bacteria are reviewed in respect to their importance under naturally occurring conditions. In general, the simulation of the governing processes is based on the macroscopic mass-conservation equation with the addition of some filter and/or retardation factor and a decay coefficient, representing the natural “die-off” of the microorganisms. More advanced concepts try to incorporate growth and decay coefficients together with deposition and declogging factors. At present, none of the reported concepts has been seriously validated. Due to the complexity of natural systems and the pathogenic properties of some of the microorganisms, experiments under controlled laboratory conditions are required. A laboratory setup is presented in which a great variety of natural conditions can be simulated. This comprises a set of 1 metre columns and an 8 metre stainless-steel flume with 24 sampling ports. The columns are easily filled and conditioned and therefore used to study the effects of different soil-microorganism combinations under various environmental conditions. In the artificial flume natural underground conditions are simulated using sand and gravel aquifer material from the river Neckar alluvium. A first set of results from the laboratory experiments is presented together with preliminary model simulations. The large variety of observed breakthrough curves and recovery for the bacteria and viruses under investigation demonstrates the great uncertainty encountered in microbiological risk assessment.


2013 ◽  
Vol 83-84 ◽  
pp. 217-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elke Jacops ◽  
Geert Volckaert ◽  
Norbert Maes ◽  
Eef Weetjens ◽  
Joan Govaerts

2010 ◽  
Vol 133 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amit Halder ◽  
Ashish Dhall ◽  
Ashim K. Datta

Fundamental, physics-based modeling of complex food processes is still in the developmental stages. This lack of development can be attributed to complexities in both the material and transport processes. Society has a critical need for automating food processes (both in industry and at home) while improving quality and making food safe. Product, process, and equipment designs in food manufacturing require a more detailed understanding of food processes that is possible only through physics-based modeling. The objectives of this paper are (1) to develop a general multicomponent and multiphase modeling framework that can be used for different thermal food processes and can be implemented in commercially available software (for wider use) and (2) to apply the model to the simulation of deep-fat frying and hamburger cooking processes and validate the results. Treating food material as a porous medium, heat and mass transfer inside such material during its thermal processing is described using equations for mass and energy conservation that include binary diffusion, capillary and convective modes of transport, and physicochemical changes in the solid matrix that include phase changes such as melting of fat and water and evaporation/condensation of water. Evaporation/condensation is considered to be distributed throughout the domain and is described by a novel nonequilibrium formulation whose parameters have been discussed in detail. Two complex food processes, deep-fat frying and contact heating of a hamburger patty, representing a large group of common food thermal processes with similar physics have been implemented using the modeling framework. The predictions are validated with experimental results from the literature. As the food (a porous hygroscopic material) is heated from the surface, a zone of evaporation moves from the surface to the interior. Mass transfer due to the pressure gradient (from evaporation) is significant. As temperature rises, the properties of the solid matrix change and the phases of frozen water and fat become transportable, thus affecting the transport processes significantly. Because the modeling framework is general and formulated in a manner that makes it implementable in commercial software, it can be very useful in computer-aided food manufacturing. Beyond its immediate applicability in food processing, such a comprehensive model can be useful in medicine (for thermal therapies such as laser surgery), soil remediation, nuclear waste treatment, and other fields where heat and mass transfer takes place in porous media with significant evaporation and other phase changes.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xavier Sanchez-Vila

<p>The more we study flow and transport processes in porous media, the larger the number of questions that arise. Heterogeneity, uncertainty, multidisciplinarity, and interdisciplinarity are key words that make our live as researchers miserable… and interesting. There are many ways of facing complexity; this is equivalent as deciding what colors and textures to consider when being placed in front of a fresh canvas, or what are the sounds to include and combine in a music production. You can try to get as much as you can from one discipline, using very sophisticated state-of-the-art models. On the other hand, you can choose to bring to any given problem a number of disciplines, maybe having to sacrifice deepness in exchange of the better good of yet still sophisticated multifaceted solutions. There are quite a number of examples of the latter approach. In this talk, I will present a few of those, eventually concentrating in managed aquifer recharge (MAR) practices. This technology involves water resources from a myriad of perspectives, covering from climate change to legislation, from social awareness to reactive transport, from toxicological issues to biofilm formation, from circular economy to emerging compounds, from research to pure technological developments, and more. All of these elements deserve our attention as researchers, and we cannot pretend to master all of them. Integration, development of large research groups, open science are words that will appear in this talk. So does mathematics, and physics, and geochemistry, and organic chemistry, and biology. In any given hydrogeological problem you might need to combine equations, statistics, experiments, field work, and modeling; expect all of them in this talk. As groundwater complexity keeps amazing and mesmerizing me, do not expect solutions being provided, just anticipate more and more challenging research questions being asked.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandru Tatomir ◽  
Huhao Gao ◽  
Hiwa Abdullah ◽  
Martin Sauter

<p>Fluid-fluid interfacial area (IFA) in a two-phase flow in porous media is an important parameter for many geoscientific applications involving mass- and energy-transfer processes between the fluid-phases. Schaffer et al. (2013) introduced a new category of reactive tracers termed kinetically interface sensitive (KIS) tracers, able to quantify the size of the fluid-fluid IFA. In our previous experiments (Tatomir et al., 2018) we have demonstrated the application of the KIS tracers in a highly-controlled column experiment filled with a well-characterized porous medium consisting of well-sorted, spherical glass beads.</p><p>In this work we investigate several types of glass-bead materials and natural sands to quantitatively characterize the influence of the porous-medium grain-, pore-size and texture on the mobile interfacial area between an organic liquid and water. The fluid-fluid interfacial area is determined by interpretation of the breakthrough curves (BTCs) of the reaction product of the KIS tracer. When the tracer which is dissolved in the non-wetting phase meets the water, an irreversible hydrolysis process begins leading to the formation of two water-soluble products. For the experiments we use a peristaltic pump and a high precision injection pump to control the injection rate of the organic liquid and tracer.</p><p>A Darcy-scale numerical model is used to simulate the immiscible displacement process coupled with the reactive tracer transport across the fluid-fluid interface. The results show that the current reactive transport model is not always capable to reproduce the breakthrough curves of tracer experiments and that a new theoretical framework may be required.</p><p>Investigations of the role of solid surface area of the grains show that the grain surface roughness has an important influence on the IFA. . Furthermore, a linear relationship between the mobile capillary associated IFA and the inverse mean grain diameter can be established. The results are compared with the data collected from literature measured with high resolution microtomography and partitioning tracer methods. The capillary associated IFA values are consistently smaller because KIS tracers measure the mobile part of the interface. Through this study the applicability range of the KIS tracers is considerably expanded and the confidence in the robustness of the method is improved.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>Schaffer M, Maier F, Licha T, Sauter M (2013) A new generation of tracers for the characterization of interfacial areas during supercritical carbon dioxide injections into deep saline aquifers: Kinetic interface-sensitive tracers (KIS tracer). International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control 14:200–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijggc.2013.01.020</p><p>Tatomir A, Vriendt KD, Zhou D, et al (2018) Kinetic Interface Sensitive Tracers: Experimental Validation in a Two-Phase Flow Column Experiment. A Proof of Concept. Water Resources Research 54:10,223-10,241. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018WR022621</p>


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