Optimisation of vortex tubes and the potential for use in atmospheric separation
File(s)Agarwal_2020_J._Phys._D__Appl._Phys._54_015502.pdf (1.83 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Agarwal, Gautam
McConkey, Zack
Hassard, John
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Climate change requires us to extract hundreds of Gigatonnes of CO2 from the atmosphere over the next few decades. This requires we develop and scale up viable technologies to sequester CO2 from the highly dilute atmospheric concentrations. CO2 gas freezes at –78.5°C and thus, in principle, can be separated from air, the nitrogen in which begins to freeze at –210°C. Vortex Tubes were investigated as a potential method of carbon capture through a series of geometrical and procedural optimisations. Ambient air is compressed and then separated by temperature due to the action of the Vortex Tube. These optimisations determined an increase in system pressure and length at cold mass fraction of 40% led to increased cooling. The heat profile of pipes suggested radiative cooling as the vortex propagated. An optimised single tube reached a maximum cooling of 39.9±0.2°C. Vortex Tubes thus present a method of separating and capturing components of the atmosphere. With further work, such as the successful combination of tubes in series, it is hoped that Vortex Tubes may prove to be a scalable solution capable of contributing to the reduction in atmospheric CO2 using the Solar Cyclone Tower to provide the energy and air flows required for this task.
Date Issued
2020-10-15
Date Acceptance
2020-09-17
Citation
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 2020, 54 (1), pp.1-9
ISSN
0022-3727
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Start Page
1
End Page
9
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics
Volume
54
Issue
1
Copyright Statement
© 2020 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd. As the Version of Record of this article is going to be / has been published on a gold open access basis under a CC BY 3.0 licence, this AcceptedManuscript is available for reuse under a CC BY 3.0 licence immediately (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
License URL
Sponsor
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Imperial Innovations Ltd
Imperial Innovations Ltd
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Engineering & Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC)
Identifier
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-6463/abb977
Grant Number
GR/R67750/01
N/A
24/05/04 IC INNOVATIONS
GR/R67750/01
PP/E000509/1
EP/E002102/1
ST/H000992/1
ST/K001604/1
Subjects
Science & Technology
Physical Sciences
Physics, Applied
Physics
climate change mitigation
Ranque Hilsch
vortex tube
carbon capture
solar cyclone tower
TEMPERATURE
02 Physical Sciences
09 Engineering
Applied Physics
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-10-15