Page 11 - 81Sulfonation-Sulfation Processing Technology for Anionic Surfactant Manufacture_opt

278 Advances in Chemical Engineering

Fig. 9. Schematic representation of velocity profiles in laminar and turbulent regimes for
both liquid and gas phase

predominantly laminar, while SO 3 flow is clearly turbulent and consequently the SO 3 is
absorbed at the gas/liquid interface. In equation 10 for co-currents systems J is +1 and for
counter current systems J is -1.

 L g  y  2  G y
v  z y     J (10)
 L  2     L
For high gas flow where the shear force predominates over the gravitational force, the linear
velocity distribution is:
 y
v  G (11)
z

L
Calculation of G based on the relations proposed by Riazi & Faghri (1986) shows that when
the gas flow is turbulent, the effects of the interfacial drag cannot be neglected; G can also be
verified by means of experimental pressure drop data. In this way a set of parameters can be
introduced and adjusted to minimize the deviation from a data set for sulfonation:

 g 3  2
  L  G   (12)
3 L 2 L

 G C   f G u 2 (13)

1    5.02   13   
2   4Log   Log     (Talens, 1999) (14)
C f   3,7d Re G  3,7d Re G   

ln(φ) = 3,59 – 5,14 v iL (if v iL < 0,175 ms –1 ) or ln(φ) = 20,55 v iL – 0,93 (if v iL ≥ 0,175 ms –1 ) (15)
The initial value of the film thickness δ can be obtained through equation 16, after this value
is calculated by iteration:

1
 3  3  
    (16)
 g L 

www.intechopen.com