A Study of Oil-Water Dispersion in a Pulsed Baffled Reactor

Abstract

The preliminary results of studies on oil–water dispersion in a pulsed baffled reactor are reported in this paper. The effects of baffle design, oil-phase fraction, and the addition of surfactants and colloid on the dispersion were investigated, and the minimum oscillation frequencies to achieve a complete dispersion at different oscillation amplitudes were obtained and used for the interpretation of the state of dispersion. The results show that the orifice baffles with smaller orifice diameters are better suited for this type of dispersion than the other orifice baffles and disk baffles tested. The results have also shown that the complete dispersion characteristics in such a reactor were insensitive to oil-phase fractions but sensitive to the addition of surfactants and colloid.