A project study on the design and development of chemical engineering laboratory equipment from local available materials

• Main Author: Locsin, Ma. Gladys
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 1989
• Subjects: Laboratories > Equipment; Cooling towers; Fluidized bed; Chemical Engineering
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/441
• Institution: De La Salle University

The theory of humidification is illustrated in the study by utilizing the cross flow cooling tower as a contacting medium between water and air, wherein bamboos were used as the packing material to increase the contact area. For a fixed water flow rate and inlet water temperature, the terminal stream conditions were measured for every value of air velocity. These terminal stream conditions are: dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures of both entering and outgoing air, and the outlet water temperature. Similarly for a fixed air velocity, the same parameters were measured for every value of water flowrate. Based on this data, the performance of the cooling tower was evaluated. The use of bamboo as distribution decks is justified in the sense that it is locally available and costs less that other packing material. Furthermore, the height and the number of packings need not be optimized since the equipment is used only for the purpose of illustration. The second part of the study involves the flow of fluids through a bed of solids with uniform sizes. Water at certain velocity is allowed to flow through a vertical column packed with steel bearings. The porosity of the bed is determined and the pressure drop generated by the solid materials is measured. The water velocity is then increased and the same parameters are measured until a maximum bed height is reached. The pressure drop that was directly measured using a mercury-over-water manometer is now compared to the theoretical value solved using the equations in McCabe and Smith. In the decision set up, two vertical columns of different diameters were used to study the effect of the weight of the packings.