A Low Cost Micro Scale Cyclone Microparticle Separator - Design and CFD Analysis

Abstract

Microparticle separation process has a variety of application varying from application in biological and biomedical industries for analysis and diagnosis, in biogas manufacturing to separate phases as well as in defense sector for detection of biological weapons like anthrax. Available electrical, magnetic, acoustic and various other methods are either very costly or not portable. The proposed design of micro scale cyclone separator is low cost as well as portable and easy to manufacture. Huge cyclone separators are widely used in various industries since decades but due to lack of research in micro scale cyclones no direct and sufficient data is available. This research attempts to develop a microscale cyclone separator and study the effect of parameters like inlet velocity on pressure drop in a micro scale cyclone separator. It further studies the effect of particle size on collection efficiency through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach. CFD analysis has been proved very efficient for calculations in larger cyclones and hence is used as a tool in this study as well, though experimental verification is recommended. Computational experiments were performed using FLUENT. The results obtained are compared with various empirical relations developed for huge cyclone separators and similarities and dissimilarities in trends are analyzed. Finally a multi-cyclone model is proposed to obtain higher collection efficiency.

Performance Characterization of Gas-Solid Cyclone for Separation of Particle from Syngas Produced from Food Waste Gasifier Plant

“…Many studies have been made to characterize cyclone performance as affected by design and operational parameters (Wang et al, 2003). The Lapple model is amongst the earliest of models proposed and is still considered the bench mark for the design of cyclone separators in many industries (Pandya, 2010). It assumes that the particles are evenly distributed across the inlet while entering the cyclone.…”

Performance Characterization of Gas-Solid Cyclone for Separation of Particle from Syngas Produced from Food Waste Gasifier Plant

“…The Lapple model is amongst the earliest of models proposed and is still considered the bench mark for the design of cyclone separators in many industries (Pandya, 2010). It assumes that the particles are evenly distributed across the inlet while entering the cyclone.…”

“…The above equation, when compared with experimental data, exhibits a poor correlation coefficient (NPTEL, 2015). Pandya (2010) lists several empirical models for the pressure drops in cyclone separators. The pressure drop in a cyclone is proportional to velocity head:…”

“…The Lapple model is based on the terminal velocity of particles in the cyclone. Depending on the number of turns for the solid particles within the cyclone, the diameter of each of the solid particle is given by (Pandya, 2010): …”