The purpose of this project is to design and build a flow-through colorimeter to be used in activation energy experiments.
Leaching is a process for extracting substances from a solid by dissolving them in a liquid. In chemical processing industry, leaching has a variety of commercial applications, from the extraction of copper to the separation of sugar from beetroot. Heterogeneous reactions are chemical reactions in which the reactants are components of two or more phases, like solid and liquid. Studying the kinetics in heterogeneous reactions is important to optimize industrial processes. There are two important characteristics of reactions kinetics: The reaction rate and the effect of operational conditions, such as temperature, concentration and stirring speed, among others. The reaction mechanism. The main objective when studying kinetics of a reaction is to determine the activation energy (Ea). To determine the activation energy it is commonly used a small reactor (~1000ml) in which a solid and a certain amount of distilled water are placed. The solution is heated and the operation temperature is set. Then, the leaching substance is added. Afterwards, the concentration of the solution is periodically measured until it reaches the equilibrium. To measure the concentration, a sample is taken and tested. If the reaction develops a color, samples can be tested with a spectrophotometer or a colorimeter. The Lambert-Beer law relates the concentration of a sample to the absorbance of incident light at a given wavelength.
In activation energy experiments described above, the size of the reactor is quite small. Thus, taking a sample from the tank to measure the concentration changes the conditions of the experiment (i.e. the volume). Furthermore, if the reaction is relatively fast (~60 minutes) you need to take samples very often (once a minute), making the process too laborious.
By means of a flow-through colorimeter with a peristaltic pump you can monitor the experiment continuously and automatically. Moreover, as the solution is flowing continuously from the reactor to the colorimeter and back you avoid the problems associated with changing conditions of the experiment. Additionally, the flow-through colorimeter will include a temperature probe to measure the temperature of the solution and a PID output to control the heater of the reactor. Our plan is to build a flow-through colorimeter with a temperature controller to be used in small chemical reactors. We will base our design in the one of Alex Kutschera.
Week 1:
- Build the repo
- Search for similar proyects
Week 2:
- Define the system design
Week 3:
- Buy the materials
- Sketch of the reactor (3 possible desings).
Week 4:
- Experimets with the false bottom filter
- Waiting for the components we ordered....
Week 5: