Welty et al.: Chpt 24 p.

407-425
Lecture 13 Additional lecture notes

CEMI 321
Transport principles II:
Heat and mass transfer
 Outcomes

Understand the nature of mass diffusivity

Calculate diffusion coefficients for:
Gas mixtures
Liquid mixtures
Understand modes of transport in porous solids
Solid mass diffusivity
Important in catalysis and membrane
processes
Different modes of transport in porous
solids:
◦ Viscous flow (dpore > 20 nm)
◦ Normal diffusion (dpore > 10 nm)
◦ Knudsen flow (dpore = 2 – 100 nm)
◦ Surface flow (dpore < 1.5 nm)
 Gas solid reaction proceeding with formation of a
shrinking unreacted core
Particle radius Unreacted core

Rp Ash
Unreacted or
solid product
De

Ash or product

Effective diffusivity Ddif includes two sequential processes:

Diffusion in pores Dpore and diffusion through product layer Dpl which are
combined as follows: Vol pore  Vol pl Vol pl Vol pore
 
Ddif D pl D pore
Diffusion inside a partly converted particle
composed of pores, solid product layer and
unreacted solid

Unreacted solid
Pore

Dmol Dpore

Dpl

Gas film
Reaction surface
Product layer
Knudsen diffusion
(Dominant mode of transport in most processes)
Absolute temperature (K)
1/ 2
 T 
D A, K  97 r  
 MA  Molecular mass of
Knudsen diffusion component A (kg/kmol)
Pore diameter (m)
coefficient (m2/s)

2 2 VP S = Surface area of the porous solid, m 2/kg

r  B = Bulk density of solid, kg/m3
S B S VP = Specific pore volume of the solid particle, m 3/kg
 = Porosity of the solid
Porosity of solid


D A ,K .e  D A ,K Equimolar counter-diffusion:

Tortuosity of solid 1 1 1
 
 D A ,e D A ,K ,e D AB ,e
D AB .e  D AB

Exercise 1

Calculate the effective mass diffusivity of

sulphur dioxide in activated carbon at 20°C.
The activated carbon has a surface area of
700103 m2.kg-1, a porosity of 0.5, a particle
density of 1.2103 kg.m-3 and a tortuosity of 2.
Your Work
No reading assignment or Tutorial.
Re-do Class test 1 for better
understanding + watch video that explains
Q4 procedure on eFundi.
Do Incropera’s chapter 14 examples.
Read up on Heat Exchanger design and
TEMA standards in preparation for
FAMO Project.