Mass Transfer Research Group at UCT Prague

Black body for calibration of the IR camera has been developed and manufactured. This relatively small device will be used inside an apparatus and serve as an internal temperature standard. The thermograms taken through KBr windows are affected by the non ideal KBr transparency and the black body known temperature provides necessary calibration standard. The black body can be heated as well as cooled by the means of a Peltier heat pump, which is in turn cooled by a cooling water. First results show behavior very similar to the commercial, much larger device. Authors of the design: Mařík, Haidl, Rejl. Special thanks to Štěpán Svoboda, SpektraVision.   

What to do when the supervisor is sick with Covid? One have to find all the equipment, prepare the facility and perform the experiments on his/her own. Or… changes into remote controlled object who is carefully navigated and instructed by the online instructor, ressembling orienteering competitor or RC toy car…

The build-up of the so called Apparatus C has started by dismantling of the extraction apparatus. Michal, the responsible person, needs to have four hands to complete some tasks…

We have acquired samples of the new random packing produced by Sulzer. Competing with Raschig SuperRing (Raschig) and Intalox Ultra (Koch Glitsch), the NexRing is nice example of the fourth generation random packing and of that where the development of the packings proceeded throughout the last century. We are currently measuring hydraulic and mass-transfer properties of the packing under absorption and distillation conditions.

We have obtained a fourth generation random packing from Sulzer called NexRing, delivered in two sizes – 0.7 and 1.2.  Putting it into the three meters column can not be just pouring it down from the top as a specified number of the elements in the cubic meter of the packed bed needs to be achieved and the elements tend to accumulate in the center of the column leaving the circumference less densly filled.  Using the sanitary tubes we have achieved the goal….

Sampling of the vapour and liquid phase from the packed bed of the distillation column is far from an easy task. The prototypes of the sampling points are depicted. Each type must be tested and the results compared with the standards. The internal name of the last iteration is “Sputnik 69” 

The work on the hydrogen analyzer progresses into the verification phase – long term stability of the probes is tested. Tomáš carefully records the measured signal – it must be stable for at least 90 days. The hydrogen probes are used for the measurement of the hydrogen fugacity in the primary loop of the nuclear powerplants. The hydrogen reacts with any traces of the oxygen – thus suppressing corrosion.  

We are currently investigating extraction of the acidic catalyst from the organic phase coming from the reactor producing acrylic ester in the Synthomer a.s.

Výstavba ejektoru v místnosti B144 pokračuje obdivuhodným tempem.

Měli jsme možnost účastnit se inspekce kolony C202 pro dělení směsi VCM/EDC a HCl při výrobě PVC. Kromě Tomáše Mouchy je možno vidět Sulzerovy VGM dvouchodá patra.

We have won a grant from Czech Grant Agency “Gas-liquid interface study using thermography”. The project aims to reveal a true value of the effective interfacial area under distillation conditions. 

Milling machine Warco WM-18 and 3D printer Průša Mk3i have been introduced into our inventory.  

The #30 (summer 2019) experimental campaign will collect composition profiles along the packed bed of our i.d. 300 mm (R300) column distilling cyclohexane/n-heptane mixture under the pressures of 33 kPa, 101 kPa and 180 kPa. The packed bed consists of 12 elements of Mellapak 452.Y packing, we have recently increased number of the sampling points from six to ten.

We are proudly awaiting the results, which will be worldwide unique! 

Many thanks to Prof. Dali Šnita for the manufacture of the sampling points parts during his vacation! 

Jenda, Willy, Daniela a Veronika si zkoušeli obhajoby svých diplomových prací.

A cítí se tam jako doma…

Apart our research, we are also involved in teaching of future brilliant students. Here is a little insight into these activities.

The professors and students from our faculty attended again the 24h scooter competition. Thanks to Martin, who got the team together and motivated all of us, we were able to travel 301 rounds (481.6 km), ascend more than 6 km and won third time a row despite the cold and rainy weather. 

Thanks belong to the former student Michal and his friend Štika, newcomer  Jakub and especially to Tomáš for a great job and complete devotion to the victory.

Last week, our students in their time race successfully finished the master theses and now prepare for the final exams in the first week of June.

Congratulations and good luck to Daniela, Eliška, Veronika, Filip, Jan and Willi.