Moving Mesh Screen Coalescer for Ionic Liquid Recovery
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing hydrocarbon conversion processes face challenges in efficiently separating fine droplets of ionic liquids from hydrocarbon phases, leading to economic losses and equipment fouling due to the difficulty in recovering these droplets using traditional coalescing media, which are prone to plugging.
Innovation Solution
A process utilizing a mesh screen with a periodic sweeping motion to capture and coalesce fine droplets of ionic liquids, featuring larger openings to prevent plugging and optimize contact with the droplets, allowing for effective separation and recovery of the ionic liquid from the hydrocarbon phase.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional coalescing media with small openings are used to capture fine droplets, then droplet capture efficiency is improved, but the media are prone to plugging
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies the dynamics principle by implementing a moving mesh screen that periodically sweeps back and forth across the vessel cross-section. This motion allows the mesh to capture fine droplets effectively while preventing plugging, as the movement prevents material from settling and blocking the openings. The mesh screen's periodic motion creates continuous clearance that maintains both high capture efficiency and plugging resistance.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies the dimensionality change principle by transitioning from static coalescing media to a dynamically moving mesh screen. The periodic back-and-forth motion adds a temporal dimension to the separation process, allowing the same mesh structure to serve multiple functions: capturing droplets during forward motion and clearing potential blockages during reverse motion. This dimensional approach resolves the contradiction between capture efficiency and plugging resistance.
2Device complexity
If gravity settling is used to separate ionic liquid droplets, then the process is simple, but fine droplets remain dispersed and cannot be effectively separated
Solution Approach 1:
The patent enhances the simple gravity settling process by adding a moving mesh screen component. The mesh screen periodically sweeps through the liquid phase, actively capturing fine droplets that gravity settling alone cannot separate. This dynamic addition maintains relative process simplicity while dramatically improving separation efficiency for fine droplets.
Solution Approach 2:
The moving mesh screen acts as an intermediary between gravity settling and fine droplet capture. While gravity provides the basic separation mechanism, the mesh screen serves as an active mediator that intercepts and coalesces fine droplets, bridging the gap between simple settling and efficient fine droplet removal.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If ionic liquids are used as catalysts, then environmental safety is improved, but recovery of dispersed droplets becomes difficult and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The moving mesh screen provides an efficient, low-cost method for recovering ionic liquid catalysts from hydrocarbon streams. The periodic motion of the mesh actively captures fine dispersed droplets, enabling high recovery efficiency that protects the economic value of the expensive ionic liquid catalyst while maintaining environmental safety benefits.
Solution Approach 2:
The ionic liquid catalyst essentially serves itself through the moving mesh screen recovery system. The mesh screen's periodic motion automatically captures and coalesces dispersed catalyst droplets, enabling self-recovery without requiring complex external intervention or additional expensive processing steps.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The moving mesh screen design significantly increases the chances of capturing fine droplets, reducing their concentration in the hydrocarbon stream by up to several orders of magnitude, minimizing equipment fouling and enabling efficient recycling of the ionic liquid, thus addressing the economic and environmental concerns of traditional methods.
Implementation Method 1
The mesh screen is periodically slightly rotated back and forth so that the wires of the mesh screen contact the dispersed droplets of the first liquid and at least a portion of the dispersed droplets of the first liquid coalesce on the wires
Implementation Method 2
Some recovery of the droplets of ionic liquid can be accomplished by gravity settling due to the density difference between the ionic liquid and the hydrocarbon
Data Source
AI summary
Separation processes and separation apparatus are described. The process includes introducing a stream of liquid containing dispersed droplets of another liquid into a separation apparatus comprising a vessel having at least one mesh screen covering substantially all of the cross-section of the vessel. The mesh screen is periodically slightly moved so that the wires of the mesh screen contact the dispersed droplets and some of the dispersed droplets coalesce on the wires. The coalesced droplets rise or fall from the wires through the stream of the second liquid. The coalesced droplets are collected in a portion of the vessel. A stream of the second liquid having a reduced level of dispersed droplets is recovered.