Current knowledge and potential applications of cavitation technologies for the petroleum industry.

Technologies based on cavitation, produced by either ultrasound or hydrodynamic means, are part of growing literature for individual refinery unit processes. In this review, we have explained the mechanism through which these cavitation technologies intensify individual unit processes such as enhanced oil recovery, demulsification of water in oil emulsions during desalting stage, crude oil viscosity reduction, oxidative desulphurisation/demetallization, and crude oil upgrading. Apart from these refinery processes, applications of this technology are also mentioned for other potential crude oil sources such as oil shale and oil sand extraction. The relative advantages and current situation of each application/process at commercial scale is explained.

Oscillating bubble concentration and its size distribution using acoustic emission spectra.

New method has been proposed for the estimation of size and number density distribution of oscillating bubbles in a sonochemical reactor using acoustic emission spectra measurements. Bubble size distribution has been determined using Minnaert's equation [M. Minnaert, On musical air bubbles and sound of running water, Philanthr. Mag. 16 (1933) 235], i.e., size of oscillating bubble is inversely related to the frequency of its volume oscillations. Decomposition of the pressure signal measured by the hydrophone in frequency domain of FFT spectrum and then inverse FFT reconstruction of the signal at each frequency level has been carried out to get the information about each of the bubble/cavity oscillation event. The number mean radius of the bubble size is calculated to be in the range of 50-80 microm and it was not found to vary much with the spatial distribution of acoustic field strength of the ultrasound processor used in the work. However, the number density of the oscillating bubbles and the nature of the distribution were found to vary in different horizontal planes away from the driving transducer surface in the ultrasonic bath. A separate set of experiments on erosion assessment studies were carried out using a thin aluminium foil, revealing a phenomena of active region of oscillating bubbles at antinodal points of the stationary waves, identical to the information provided by the acoustic emission spectra at the same location in the ultrasonic bath.

Experimental investigation of cavitational bubble dynamics under multi-frequency system.

Acoustic emission spectra measurements have been carried out under mono and multi-frequency acoustic sources to understand the fundamental difference in bubble/cavity dynamics. The effect of introducing the dual and triple frequency acoustic waves of different frequency on the sono-chemical yield has also been investigated experimentally. The introduction of a second wave has increased the number of cavitating bubbles and as well as the collapsing intensity of cavities resulting into higher sono-chemical yield, and better effective utilization of reactor volume with a large number of resonating cavitating bubbles. To get the information about the intensity of each of the cavity oscillating events, decomposition of the pressure signal measured by the hydrophone in the frequency domain of the FFT power spectrum has been carried out. Inverse fourier reconstruction technique, has been used to elaborate the dynamics of the cavitating bubbles in the multi-frequency system.

Ultrasonic atomization: effect of liquid phase properties.

Experiments have been conducted to understand the mechanism by which the ultrasonic vibration at the gas liquid interface causes the atomization of liquid. For this purpose, aqueous solutions having different viscosities and liquids showing Newtonian (aqueous solution of glycerin) and non-Newtonian behavior (aqueous solution of sodium salt of carboxy methyl cellulose) were employed. It has been found that the average droplet size produced by the pseudo-plastic liquid is less than that produced by the viscous Newtonian liquid having viscosity equal to zero-shear rate viscosity of the shear thinning liquid. The droplet size was found to increase initially with an increase in the viscosity up to a certain threshold viscosity after which the droplet size was found to decrease again. Also droplet size distribution is found to be more compact (uniform sizes) with an increasing viscosity of the atomizing liquid. The presence of the cavitation and its effect on the atomization has been semi quantitatively confirmed using energy balance and by the measurement of the droplet ejection velocities and validated on the basis of the decomposition of the aqueous KI solution. A correlation has been proposed for the prediction of droplet size for aqueous Newtonian fluids and fluids showing non-Newtonian behavior based on the dimensionless numbers incorporating the operating parameters of the ultrasonic atomizer and the liquid phase physico-chemical properties.