EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF DEPOSITION RATES IN THE PRESENCE OF ALKALI SULFATE VAPOR SCAVENGING BY SUBMICRON PARTICLES IN COMBUSTION GAS BOUNDARY LAYERS†

Abstract

We examine the mass transfer consequences of the nonequilibrium scavenging of condensible vapor (Na₂SO₄) by suspended solid particles (MgO) within combustion gas boundary layers (BLs) using an extension of our 'flash-evaporation' technique (Rosner and Liang, 1986) and laser light scattering methods. In contrast to the result of introducing additives which form miscible condensates with the primary alkali sulfate on a sufficiently cold deposition target—a situation which leads to vapor deposition rate increases (Liang and Rosner, 1986), additives which form nonvolatile, submicron particles in the main-stream, capable of scavenging the alkali vapor(s), reduce total alkali deposition rates at all levels. This result indicates that the thermophoretic diffusivity of such ‘getter’ particles is smaller than the Fick diffusivity of the scavenged alkali sulfate vapor. Both nonequilibrium laminar BL-theory (Castillo and Rosner, 1987) and our flash evaporation-light scattering experiments reveal that the alkali mass transfer rate reduction factor correlates with the product N_pr_p ² —a quantity proportional to the scavenging particle cloud external surface area per unit volume. These results also imply that, in practice, finely divided inorganic sulfur getters, present in the ‘fire-side’ boundary layer at sufficiently high number densities, would also suppress the total deposition rate of alkali compounds on heat exchanger surfaces.

KEYWORDS:

• Convective mass transfer
• Two-phase boundary layers
• Chemical vapor deposition
• Nonequilibrium vapor-scavenging
• Thermophoretic aerosol transport
• Mineral matter deposition

Notes

†This research was supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy (METC) under contract DE-AC21-85MC22075.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

DANIEL E. ROSNER

Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering; Director, HTCRE Laboratory.

BAISHEN LIANG

Graduate Research Assistant. HTCRE Laboratory; Present address: Department of Chemical Engineering, U. California-Berkeley.