AIChE Journal, Vol.40, No.12, 1983-1992, 1994
Strings of Liquid Beads for Gas-Liquid Contact Operations
A novel device for gas-liquid contact operations is proposed to feed a liquid onto wires (or threads) hanging down in a gas stream is proposed. The liquid disintegrates into beads strung on each wire at regular intervals; if the wire is moderately wettable, a thin film forms to sheathe the wire, thereby interconnecting the beads. Since the beads fall down slowly, which possibly renews the film flowing down even more slowly, a sufficient gas-liquid contact time is available even in a contactor with considerably limited height. An approximate calculation method is developed for predicting the variation in the temperature effectiveness for the,liquid (the fractional approach of the liquid exit temperature to the gas inlet temperature) with the falling distance, assuming an applicability of strings-of-beads contactors to thermal energy recovery from hot gas streams.