Oxygen absorption in polymer + surfactant aqueous solutions
Introduction
Mass transfer processes in gas–liquid systems can play a very important role in different industrial operations such as in reaction products separation (e.g. formaldehyde production), pollutant gases capture (e.g. carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide abatement) or improving oxygen transfer in bioreactors. Mainly, this last process has been the aim of numerous research studies performed by different researchers [1], [2], [3] that analyzed the influence of several variables. One of them is the effect caused by the complexity of the liquid phase composition due to the high number of solutes involved in this phase and the effect over physical properties, hydrodynamics and oxygen transfer rate (OTR).
Several studies [4], [5], [6] were based on the analysis of the influence of the liquid phase viscous character and non-Newtonian behavior over the oxygen transfer rate and volumetric mass transfer coefficient (kL⋅a). The main conclusions reached in this kind of studies are related with the negative influence of viscosity over mass transfer rate. These studies have not taken into account the presence of other kind of solutes which can cause important changes on liquid physical properties and over the behavior of gas–liquid reactors/contactors (hydrodynamics and mass transfer). For instance, the surface active substances produce important changes over liquid surface tension value and this physical property has shown a great effect over bubbles size, producing an increase on gas–liquid interfacial area [7], [8]. This kind of substances tend to accumulate molecules in gas–liquid interface (due their amphyphylic character) causing an additional resistance for mass transfer from gas to liquid phase [9], [10]. Then both physical properties (viscosity and surface tension) must be taken into account when certain kind of solutes is present in the liquid phase, for instance in biosurfactant production in bioreactors [11], [12]. A previous study [13] based on this kind of processes has concluded the existence of synergic effects produced for these physical properties over gas–liquid interfacial area in a bubble contactor. From this starting point, the present work analyses the joint effect of both physical properties over oxygen transfer rate and mass transfer coefficient removing the influence of these physical properties upon interfacial area and then analyzing only the behavior of mass transfer coefficient.
Section snippets
Materials and methods
Two different types of solutes have been used in this work: a surfactant (Tween80 supplied by Sigma–Aldrich) and a polymer (κ-carrageenan supplied by Sigma–Aldrich), to modify the surface tension and viscosity of the liquid phase simultaneously and to simulate the oxygen transfer in a bioreactor for biosurfactant production. Distilled water has been used to prepare the different solutions used in the present work.
Oxygen mass transfer studies from an air stream to different liquid phases
Surfactant + water system
The oxygen absorption in surfactant aqueous solutions has been carried out recording the oxygen concentration in the liquid phase throughout the experiment time. Fig. 2 shows examples of the experimental data of oxygen concentration using aqueous solutions of surfactant. This figure shows absorption kinetic data at two different gas flow-rates fed to bubble column. These data indicate that an increase in gas flow-rate produces also an increase in oxygen transfer reaching the oxygen solubility
Conclusions
Present work analyses the joint effect of two solutes, which can modify different physical properties (viscosity and surface tension), over oxygen absorption on the basis of mass transfer coefficient values. These solutes and the influence caused upon liquid phase properties allow to simulate oxygen transfer in bioreactors. The first step in this study consisted in the evaluation of the influence of each solute over mass transfer rate: the presence of surfactant causes a decrease in mass
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