Determination of Induction Time in Phase Separation of Brine and butyric-acid Systems

Phase separation operations play an important role in the petroleum industry such as removing petroleum waste from the environment and desalination. There are several methods for separating the particles from solution phase and in this study, a novel method is introduced for this purpose. In this method, a secondary solvent in which the solubility of the solute is negligible, known as anti-solvent, is added to the solution, and by reducing the solubility of solute, it is removed from the solution, which is similar to the induced crystallization process. By finishing the procedure, three phases of solid (sodium chloride), liquid (water) and liquid (butyric-acid) are stayed individually in the system. The concept of induced crystallization is applied to model the operation of phase separation. Induction time is used to determine the nucleation mechanism and parameters affecting the nucleation. In this research, the induction times of sodium chloride colloidal particles formation is measured, and classical nucleation theory is used to determine the nucleation mechanism. Induced time of colloidal particles formation is determined by visual observation, and it is recorded when turbidity is detected. The results show that in temperature and concentration range of tests, mechanism of nucleation colloidal particles is secondary. In addition, the nucleation order and nucleation constant was calculated 3.56 and 31.72 n/m3, respectively.

کلیدواژه ها:

Phase separation ، Induced Crystallization ، Induced Time ، Sodium Chloride Colloidal particle ، Nucleation Mechanism