PERFORMANCE OF ABSORPTION AND DISTILLATION COLUMNS IN A LUNAR ENVIRONMENT

The establishment of a permanent lunar base will employ separation processes that may be conducive to column operation. Reclamation of precious bodily fluids and products from chemical manufacture will be a part of routine necessity. The lunar environment, with reduced gravity and pressure, will off...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical engineering communications 1986-01, Vol.46 (1-3), p.111-122
Main Author: PETTIT, DONALD R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Absorption
Absorption, stripping
Applied sciences
Chemical engineering
Columns
Distillation
Exact sciences and technology
Lunar
Reduced gravity
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The establishment of a permanent lunar base will employ separation processes that may be conducive to column operation. Reclamation of precious bodily fluids and products from chemical manufacture will be a part of routine necessity. The lunar environment, with reduced gravity and pressure, will offer some intriguing possibilities for operation such as vacuum distillation. The area for plate and packed columns will need to be increased in order to compensate for the reduction of gravitational forces responsible for moving the fluids. Plate efficiencies, hence column height, can increase or decrease, depending on the choice of scaling criteria applied to the plate geometry. Packed column height remains almost independent of gravity.
ISSN:0098-6445
1563-5201
DOI:10.1080/00986448608911400