Estudio de un separador líquido-vapor para concentrar una corriente con nanopartículas a escala de laboratorio

Abstract

In this project, a flash drum is going to be studied as a method to concentrate a stream with nanoparticles continuously at bench scale. Several aspects are going to be analysed, such as the removal of water produced in the flash, the dragging of product that is carried by the vapour and the hydrodynamic size of the nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were synthesized by a hydrothermal method at high pressure in a counter-current nozzle reactor, patented by the University of Nottingham [1]. Afterward, the pressure was released and the stream was concentrated using a flash drum and separating the vapour from the liquid. Several designs of the flash drum have been tested, for example providing the rig with more insulation or adding a band heater, obtaining better results in the separation of the liquid and vapour. In some cases, the amount of solids carried by the vapour was measured as well in order to know the amount of product that is not possible to recover.