| Summary: | Sonochemistry is a relatively new field of chemistry which uses intense sound
energy to influence chemical reactions. Laboratory investigations have indicated
that a number of commercially important chemical processes can be improved by
sonochemistry techniques. However, there does not appear to be any sonochemical
reactor designs which are feasible for use at the industrial scale. All the reactor
designs proposed thus far utilize piezoelectric or magnetostrictive transducers for
generating the sound energy. These transducers are widely used for other sound
applications, but their properties make construction of an industrial-scale
sonochemical reactor complex and expensive. A new sonochemical reactor design
based on electrostatic film transducers is introduced here which may present a
breakthrough in the economic feasibility of industrial sonochemical processing. A
working prototype of this reactor was not achieved because the maximum sound
pressure which could be obtained from simple electrostatic film transducer prototypes
was only a fraction of that required for cavitation. An acoustic model of the reactor
was developed and experimentally confirmed which showed that the reactor sound
pressure was limited primarily by excessive damping in the transducer.
Commercialization of this technology will first require the construction of a
high-pressure electrostatic film transducer with minimal damping. This could then be
followed by lab-scale reactor manufacture, pilot plant evaluations, and finally
industrial-scale implementation. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Mechanical Engineering, Department of === Graduate
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