Study on the effect of Cetyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactant on static holdup and mother drops’ size in rotating disc columns

Abstract

Local and average static holdup and also mother drops’ size of dispersed phase in rotating disc column (RDC) and rotating sieved disc column (RSDC) have been investigated experimentally for water-kerosene chemical system. Experiments consist of five different CTAB concentrations in continuous phase and for each concentration five different rotor speeds. The presence of used surfactant in continuous phase not only reduced amounts of local and average static holdup in both columns, but it also greatly affected the variation process of local static holdup in the columns. Besides, CTAB reduced mother drops’ size in both columns. As rotor speed went up in RDC, local and average static holdup decreased. In RSDC column, enhancement of rotor speed from zero to 150 rpm caused increase of static holdup but when the speed of rotors went up more, this hydrodynamic parameter decreased