Investigating liquid-liquid mixing by electrical capacitance tomography

Electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) provides information on the flow regime and concentration distribution in process vessels and pipelines containing two-phase mixtures. A small stirred tank was fitted with twelve capacitance electrodes and was used to investigate the mixing of an aqueous-organic liquid system. The results, in the form of tomograms, clearly show the distribution of the two phases within a horizontal cross-section of the vessel for uniform dispersions of water in kerosene. In addition a sequence of images show the mixing/dispersion process from the moment agitation is started through to the complete dispersion of water in kerosene.