Development of hydrocyclones for aluminum/air battery applications
Abstract
An aluminum air battery consists of three main components: a galvanic cell stack fueled by aluminum and water, a crystallizer (a fluidized bed), and a hydro-cyclone, to separate electrolyte from aluminum trihydroxide. The crystallizer stabilizes the electrolyte by extracting excess aluminum trihydroxide. A separator (the hydrocyclone) is necessary to divert heavy particles to the crystallizer while recycling fine particles to the cells. A hydrocyclone suited to this application was developed based on the design of a commercially available unit, the PC-1, manufactured by Krebs Engineers of Menlo Park. Information supplied by Krebs indicated that a cut point of 15 micrometers could be achieved. At time intervals of 120, 240 and 360 minutes of testing, the particle size cut point remained constant at 20.2-25.4 micrometers. The separation coefficient was .47, .48 and .51, respectively. The discrepancy between the actual and the anticipated results is most likely due to variance from suggested sizing and the use of a tangential feed instead of the involuted feed of the Krebs design.
- Publication:
-
NASA STI/Recon Technical Report N
- Pub Date:
- April 1984
- Bibcode:
- 1984STIN...8430197N
- Keywords:
-
- Aluminum;
- Centrifuges;
- Metal Air Batteries;
- Separators;
- Coefficients;
- Design Analysis;
- Electrolytes;
- Performance Tests;
- Specifications;
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering