Influence of polyethylene oxide on the rheological properties of semidilute, wormlike micellar solutions of hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride and sodium salicylate

The influence of polyethylene oxide (PEO) on the rheological properties of equimolar wormlike micellar solutions of hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (HTAC) and sodium salicylate (NaSal) is investigated, above the concentration where a micellar entanglement network is formed. PEO is known to have a temperature-dependent binding affinity for HTAC micelles. The influence of temperature, PEO concentration, and HTAC concentration is explored. Within the concentration and temperature range examined (25-100 mM HTAC and 25-50 degrees C), HTAC/NaSal solutions exhibit rheological characteristics of an entanglement network. Application of transient network theory provides information in the form of the plateau modulus, G(infinity)', the terminal viscoelastic relaxation time, tau(R), the reptation time, tau(rep), the micellar breaking time, tau(br), the mean micellar length, L , and the entanglement length, l(e). Consistent with literature data, increase of HTAC concentration results in an evolution from slow-breaking to fast-breaking behavior, accompanied by an increase in G(infinity)' and tau(rep), and decreases in tau(R), and tau(br), l(e) and L . Addition of PEO results in a substantial decrease in G(infinity)' (increase in l(e)), and corresponding increases in tau(R) and L . These observations are consistent with the idea that binding of HTAC micelles to PEO in aqueous solution decreases the number of surfactant molecules available to contribute to the entanglement network of wormlike micelles.     

Polymer-surfactant complex formation and its effect on turbulent wall shear stress

Turbulent drag reduction in Couette flow was investigated in terms of a decrease in wall shear stress for aqueous solutions of a nonionic polymer, poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO), a cationic surfactant, hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride (HTAC), and their mixtures. Consistent with literature data, drag reduction was observed for PEO solutions above a critical molecular weight, 0.91 x 10(5) < Mc < 3.04 x 10(5) g/mol. Maximum drag reduction occurred at an optimum concentration, c(PEO)*, which scales inversely with molecular weight, and the % maximum drag reduction increases with molecular weight. For aqueous HTAC solutions, wall shear stress decreased with increasing HTAC concentration and leveled off at an optimum concentration, c(HTAC)*, comparable to the critical micelle concentration. For HTAC/PEO mixtures, the critical PEO molecular weight for drag reduction decreases, interpreted as due to an increase in hydrodynamic volume because of binding of HTAC micelles to PEO. Consistent with this interpretation, at fixed PEO concentration, maximum drag reduction was observed at an optimum HTAC concentration, c(HTAC/PEO)*, comparable to the maximum binding concentration, MBC. Also, with HTAC concentration fixed at the MBC, the optimum PEO concentration for drag reduction, c(PEO/HTAC)*, decreases relative to that, c(PEO)*, in the absence of HTAC.     

Conversion enhancement of tubular fixed-bed reactor for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis using static mixer

Recently,Fischer-Tropsch synthesis(FTS) has become an interesting technology because of its potential role in producing biofuels via Biomassto-Liquids(BTL) processes.In Fischer-Tropsch(FT) section,biomass-derived syngas,mainly composed of a mixture of carbon monoxide(CO) and hydrogen(H2),is converted into various forms of hydrocarbon products over a catalyst at specified temperature and pressure.Fixed-bed reactors are typically used for these processes as conventional FT reactors.The fixed-bed or packed-bed type reactor has its drawbacks,which are heat transfer limitation,i.e.a hot spot problem involved highly exothermic characteristics of FT reaction,and mass transfer limitation due to the condensation of liquid hydrocarbon products occurred on catalyst surface.This work is initiated to develop a new chemical reactor design in which a better distribution of gaseous reactants and hydrocarbon products could be achieved,and led to higher throughput and conversion.The main goal of the research is the enhancement of a fixed-bed reactor,focusing on the application of KenicsTM static mixer insertion in the tubular packed-bed reactor.Two FTS experiments were carried out using two reactors i.e.,with and without static mixer insertion within catalytic beds.The modeled syngas used was a mixed gas composed of H2/CO in 2:1 molar ratio that was fed at the rate of 30mL(STP)min1(GHSV≈136mL g1 cat h1) into the fixed Ru supported aluminum catalyst bed of weight 13.3g.The reaction was carried out at 180℃ and atmospheric pressure continuously for 36h for both experiments.Both transient and steady-state conversions(in terms of time on stream) were reported.The results revealed that the steady-state CO conversion for the case using the static mixer was approximately 3.5 times higher than that of the case without static mixer.In both cases,the values of chain growth probability of hydrocarbon products(α) for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis were 0.92 and 0.89 for the case with and without static mixer,respectively.