High Pressure Nucleation Experiments in Binary and Ternary Mixtures

Abstract

New experimental high-pressure nucleation results of n-nonane in methane and first nucleation rate data of water in methane are presented. The nucleation behavior of the ternary system water and n-nonane in methane is investigated experimentally. For this purpose, a new dedicated mixture preparation device was designed, rendering more accurate and controllable vapor fractions. This has eliminated the large scatter in the nucleation rates of n-nonane in methane at 40 bar and 240 K, previously measured. These experiments also show that nucleation theories are unable to predict the rates (even qualitatively) at these extreme conditions. The composition of the critical cluster is determined for all of the binary systems investigated, by applying the nucleation theorem. Furthermore, a criterion for the application of one component theories to binary gasvapor systems is applied. The nucleation data for the ternary mixtures are analyzed using the experimental results for the binary mixtures. From this, it can be concluded that water and n-nonane nucleate independently in mixtures of water, n-nonane, and methane. † Part of the special issue "Howard Reiss Festschrift".

The nucleation behavior of supercooled water vapor in helium

“…13,14 The improved procedure of mixture preparation has been described in the paper by Peeters et al 1 The nucleation rates are measured using the nucleation pulse method. The method is based on the fact that the nucleation rate is a very steep function of the supersaturation.…”

“…1,4 For analyzing our experimental results we will use an expression inspired by classical nucleation theory,…”

“…1 Apart from the main component methane, natural gas contains many other ͑vapor͒ components. These other vapor components can roughly be separated into two different categories, being water and hydrocarbons.…”

Nonisothermal Droplet Growth in the Free Molecular Regime

“…The spontaneous condensation of water and n-alkanes in high speed flows is relevant to a broad range of engineering applications from the expansion of steam in low-pressure turbines (Moheban and Young 1985;White et al 1996;Bohn et al 2003;Bakhtar et al 2007;Dykas et al 2007;Gerber and Mousavi 2007) to the removal of condensible materials from raw natural gas (Rijkers et al 1992;Muitjens et al 1994;Looijmans 1995;Luijten et al 1998;Okimoto and Betting 2001;Peeters et al 2001). The initial fragments of the new phase arise via homogeneous nucleation, and as these nanodroplets grow they rapidly deplete the vapor phase and add energy to the flow.…”

Gradient theory computation of the radius-dependent surface tension and nucleation rate for n-nonane clusters

“…In this study, pure n-nonane is considered as an initial point for the analysis of nucleation in mixtures of n-nonane and methane at high pressures where a peculiar behavior was observed. 18,19 The properties of n-nonane are well suited for nucleation experiments. Nucleation rate data are available and are obtained using expansion cloud chambers, [20][21][22] static diffusion cloud chambers, [23][24][25][26][27] and an expansion wave tube.…”