Tsouris, C., D.W. DePaoli, J.Q. Feng, and T.C. Scott, "Electrostatic Spraying of Gases into Liquids," p. 52-60 in Industrial Mixing Fundamentals with Applications, eds. G. B. Tatterson, R. V. Calabrese, and W. R. Penney, AIChE Symposium Series S-305, AIChE Publications, New York, 1995.

Summary: Until recently, it was believed that electrostatic spraying may be used only in the case of dispersing a fluid into a relatively nonconductive fluid. Successful electrostatic dispersion of a nonconductive fluid into a conductive fluid has recently been reported in the literature. Experiments on electrostatic spraying of (i) gases into insulating and conducting liquids and (ii) liquids into gases are reported in this paper. Measurements of bubble and drop size, pressure, and electric current during electrostatic spraying of gas-liquid systems including air-water, air-trichloroethylene, air-hexane, air-decane, nitrogen-ethanol, and nitrogen-water are obtained. Results show that electrostatic spraying of a gas into a liquid resembles the spraying behavior of a nonconductive fluid into a conductive fluid as described by Tsouris et al., AIChE J. 40, 1920 (1994). As the conductivity of the surrounding fluid decreases, a higher applied voltage is needed for spraying.

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