THE INFLUENCE OF ELECTRIC-FIELDS ON THE INTENSITY OF RECTIFICATION

The rectification of binary mixtures of ethanol-water and acetone-water was studied for the case of static, alternating and pulsed electric fields. It was found out that as electric discharge occured in a gas region the increase of mass transfer could be mainly due to electric wind turbulizing of the vapour phase. In this case the intensity of rectification mass transfer was to 1.7 times higher than under free condition. For the first time the rectification in the regime of electrohydrodynamical (EHD) spraying of liquids was investigated. To do this, the conditions of atomization by an electric field of conductive liquids with high surface tension are determined and realized in the rectifying column. The regime of EHD spraying of liquid was the most efficient one for the rectification in imposed electric fields. The mechanism of electric fields effects on mass transfer and the role of process parameters in these effects are discussed in detail. The new methods and equipment for the realization of mass transfer processes in gas-liquid systems were developed and investigated. It was shown that the EHD mass transfer apparatus has better diffusive and hydrodynamic characteristics compared with packed, pipe and cascade tray fractionating columns.