Article
Investigation of the Process of Simple Distillation in Irrigated
Pipe Elements
Artem Sergeevich Ponikarov *, Sergey Ivanovich Ponikarov and Eduard Vladislavovich Osipov
Citation: Ponikarov, A.S.; Ponikarov,
S.I.; Osipov, E.V. Investigation of the
Process of Simple Distillation in
Irrigated Pipe Elements. Processes
2021, 9, 2047. https://doi.org/
10.3390/pr9112047
Academic Editors: Arkadiusz Gola,
Izabela Nielsen and Patrik Grznár
Received: 28 September 2021
Accepted: 11 November 2021
Published: 16 November 2021
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Department Mechanical Engineering for Chemical Industry, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Kazan National
Research Technological University, 420015 Kazan, Russia; ponikarov1956@mail.ru (S.I.P.);
eduardvosipov@gmail.com (E.V.O.)
* Correspondence: ponikarov_artem@mail.ru; Tel.: +7-917-266-50-02
Abstract: In modern chemical and oil refining complexes, separation processes are among the most
popular and energy-intensive. Installations for their implementation should be equipped with nodes
for creating vapor (evaporators) and liquid (deflegmators) irrigation. Evaporators of any type (film,
thermosiphon, gas lift, cubic) belong to this class of devices. For example, in cubic evaporators, the
gas flow is completely formed from flux bubbles that originate on the heat-conducting surface and
float in the volume of the cubic liquid located in the apparatus. Due to the accompanying mass
exchange, the bubbles are enriched with volatile components during ascent and noticeably increase
in volume, and the growth of the bubble is determined, among other things, by the total flow. At the
same time, in real bubbling-type equipment, the total mass transfer surface exceeds the cross-section
of the device itself by more than two orders of magnitude. Thus, according to, the ratio of the
internal cross-sectional area of the apparatus to the developed mass transfer surface is 0.0015–0.002.
Based on the analysis of the integral equation of the diffusion boundary layer, it is shown that
the presence of a resultant flow of substance through the phase interface (non-equimolarity of the
process) in a two-phase gas (vapor)–liquid system leads to the transformation of the structure of the
traditional mass transfer equation itself. The use of a new structure obtained for both binary and
multicomponent mixtures makes it possible to significantly simplify the approach to the description
and generalization of arbitrary mass transfer processes. The innovativeness of the proposed approach
lies in its universality for non-equimolar processes. This simplifies the creation of models of any
mass transfer devices and entire production lines. In addition, the proposed approach is a good
auxiliary tool for various researchers and experimenters. It should also be noted that the separation
processes of many products of organic origin during heating are characterized by the appearance of
undesirable side reactions (thermal decomposition, condensation, polycondensation, formation of
harmful impurities, etc.), which occur most intensively in the heating zones. At the same time, the
evaporation and distillation units are subject to requirements for the minimum hydraulic resistance
of the structure, the maximum separation capacity (efficiency), and the minimum residence time of
the product in the apparatus (equivalent to the minimum holding capacity of the structure). It was
noted that the specified requirements are most fully met by film-type devices.
Keywords:
mass transfer; mass streams; velocity profiles; non-equimolarity; distillation; evaporator
1. Introduction
In view of the obvious influence of the velocity of the total phase flow flowing around
the interface on the diffusive mass transfer between the core of the flow and the interface,
the description of non-equimolar mass transfer becomes more complicated, starting from
the very structure of the mass transfer equation [
1
–
4
]. This circumstance is explained by the
transformation of velocity profiles and concentrations of the main flow under the influence
of the transverse velocity component, which can occur under the influence of the diffusion
stream, and under the influence of the transverse velocity component on the hydrodynamic
Processes 2021, 9, 2047. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9112047 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/processes
