FOAM BEHAVIOR OF IONIC AND NON-IONIC SURFACTANTS IN FOAM BED COLUMN
G. A. BATHE *
Department of Chemical Engineering, University Institute of Chemical Technology, India.
N. S. PATIL
Department of Chemical Engineering, University Institute of Chemical Technology, India.
R. M. JOSHI
Department of Chemical Engineering, University Institute of Chemical Technology, India.
B. L. CHAUDHARI
School of Life Sciences, North Maharashtra University, Umavi Nagar, P.O.Box 80, Jalgaon - 425 001, India.
R. S. SIRSAM
Department of Chemical Engineering, University Institute of Chemical Technology, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The purpose of this research work was to investigate dynamic foaming behavior and foaminess of non-ionic Tween-20 surfactant in a foam bed column. Static foaminess and liquid hold up of non-ionic Polyoxyethylene Sorbitan Monolaurate (Tween-20) and anionic Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) surfactants were also studied for three different concentrations. Density and Viscosity of these solutions were also measured. It was found that stability of foam was affected by the surfactant concentration. Among both the surfactants tested for their foamability, SLS exhibited better results due to its lower surface tension than Tween-20. Viscosity measurement showed that as the surfactant concentration increased; the viscosity also increased. The foam volume observations suggested that as the concentration of surfactant increased, the liquid hold up in foam section increased. It was clearly observed that the Foam Bed Column (FBC) offers a large gas–liquid interfacial mass transfer area per unit volume of the column which could be advantageous to carry out gas-liquid reactions which demand more surface area.
Keywords: Foam bed column, surfactant, gas-liquid interfacial area, foaming behavior