JP2007054722A - Method for concentrating liquid and system therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for concentrating a liquid and a system therefor capable of heating a liquid effectively and uniformly for a short time of period without upsizing the system in concentration of the liquid. <P>SOLUTION: The method for concentrating a liquid is a method which enables concentration by evaporation from a liquid surface, and the method comprises heating an air microbubble while supplying it into a liquid in a flow path in a microfluid chip 100, evaporating a volatile component in the air microbubble during moving in the flow path, performing gas-liquid separation in a gas-liquid separation tank 400, and removing a liquid yielded by the gas-liquid separation as a concentrated product. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a liquid concentration method and apparatus for concentration by evaporation from a liquid surface.

  Conventionally, as disclosed in Patent Document 1 below, as a method for concentrating a liquid, there is a method in which a liquid is put into a container having a capacity of several tens of liters to several hundreds of liters and heated, and the inside of the container is decompressed to evaporate the liquid. It is used. Specifically, the volatile component is evaporated by heating under reduced pressure, and the vapor of the volatile component is cooled and collected at a later stage, and the concentrated non-volatile component remains in the container.

JP 2004-344700 A

  In the concentration of liquid, improvement of heating efficiency and shortening of the concentration time are required. However, in the prior art, (1) hot spots near the vessel wall surface where the heater is introduced (regions where the temperature is higher than the surroundings) The inside of the container cannot be heated uniformly and the heating efficiency is poor. (2) The container needs to be small for uniform heating, but then the gas-liquid interface required for the liquid to evaporate However, it is difficult to simultaneously improve the heating efficiency and shorten the concentration time.

  To increase the area of the gas-liquid interface, there is a method called a rotary evaporator, where the flask is rotated to evaporate the part that is attached to the wall surface in a thin liquid film form, but heating becomes difficult because the flask rotates, Not only could the heating efficiency be increased and the concentration time not shortened, but also a space for flask rotation was required.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a liquid concentrating method and apparatus that can heat a liquid efficiently and uniformly in a short time and that does not increase the size of the apparatus.

  The liquid concentration method of the present invention that achieves the above object is characterized in that in the liquid concentration method that performs concentration by evaporation from the liquid surface, microbubbles are supplied to the liquid in the flow path and heated to move the flow path The volatile components are evaporated in the microbubbles, gas-liquid separation is performed in the latter stage, and the liquid obtained by gas-liquid separation is taken out as a concentrated product.

  The liquid concentrating device of the present invention that achieves the above object is characterized in that, in the liquid concentrating device that performs concentration by evaporation from the liquid surface, a first flow path for supplying microbubbles to the moving liquid; A second channel that heats the liquid supplied with microbubbles downstream of the first channel and a gas channel that is downstream of the second channel and performs gas-liquid separation. And a gas-liquid separation unit for taking out the obtained liquid as a concentrated product.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain a concentrated liquid by evaporating a volatile component from a liquid on the surface of a supplied bubble, taking the volatile component into the bubble, and performing gas-liquid separation downstream. it can. The smaller the bubbles and the larger the number of bubbles, the wider the gas-liquid interface, and the smaller the flow path, especially the flat shape, the easier heating will be, while improving heating efficiency and shortening the concentration time at the same time. Achieved. In addition, since the gas-liquid interface becomes wide simply by making the bubbles smaller and increasing the number of bubbles, the apparatus does not increase in size.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment shown in the drawings will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the entire liquid concentrating device.

  In FIG. 1, reference numeral 100 is a microfluidic chip that receives supply of liquid from a supply liquid tank 200 containing liquid to be concentrated and evaporates volatile components in the liquid, 300 is a circulator that supplies hot water to the microfluidic chip 100, 400 Is a gas-liquid separation tank (gas-liquid separation unit) that receives liquid from the microfluidic chip 100 and performs gas-liquid separation, and 500 is a gas-liquid separation tank that receives gas from the gas-liquid separation tank 400 and cools the volatile component below its dew point to liquefy. Thus, a cooling trap (cooling unit) 600 that removes volatile components from the gas is a vacuum pump that depressurizes the communication path from the microfluidic chip 100 to the cooling trap 500 from the downstream side.

  The liquid to be concentrated flows in the communication path from the supply liquid tank 200 to the cooling trap 500 as indicated by a solid line, and air (gas) is bubbled as indicated by a dotted line in the liquid flow in the microfluidic chip 100 as described later. Captured in form. In the microfluidic chip 100, hot water is circulated from the circulator 300 as indicated by a one-dot chain line.

  In the microfluidic chip 100, the pressure is reduced by the vacuum pump 600 and heated with warm water. As a result, a state in which volatile components in the liquid evaporate in the taken-in bubbles at an arbitrary temperature of 100 ° C. or less is formed.

  The microfluidic chip 100 is configured by stacking a plurality of members as described below.

  FIG. 2 is a schematic exploded perspective view of the microfluidic chip 100, and FIG. 3 is a longitudinal sectional view of the microfluidic chip 100.

  2 and 3, the microfluidic chip 100 includes a gas-liquid mixing member 110 that mixes gas and liquid, a flow channel member 120 that performs heat transfer, and a ceiling of the flow channel when performing heat transfer using hot water. The cover members 130a and 130b forming the part, the substrate member 140, the liquid supply member 150 and the cover member 160, and two members 170 and 180 for supplying a gas.

  The gas-liquid mixing member 110 is disposed above the liquid supply member 150, the substrate member 140 is disposed above the gas-liquid mixing member 110, and the lid member 160 is disposed below the liquid supply member 150. Gas supply members 170 and 180 are disposed on both sides of the gas-liquid mixing member 110. The channel member 120 is disposed on one side of the substrate member 140, and the lid members 130 a and 130 b are disposed on the other side of the substrate member 140 and the remaining one side of the channel member 120, respectively.

  An appropriate packing material is sandwiched between the members, and a screw (not shown) is inserted from the lid member 160 side into a through-hole provided in the gas-liquid mixing member 110, the liquid supply member 150, and the lid member 160 as indicated by a dotted line A, A screw is fastened to a screw hole provided on the lower surface of the substrate member 140.

  There are also two through holes in the side surface direction of the gas-liquid mixing member 110. The gas supply member 170 is disposed on one side surface and the gas supply member 180 is disposed on the other side through a packing material. Is inserted into a screw hole of the gas supply member 180 through a screw (not shown) as indicated by a dotted line B, and these three members are fastened with the screw.

  The liquid supply member 150 and the lid member 160 are respectively provided with screw holes and through holes at corresponding positions, and a screw (not shown) is inserted into the screw hole of the liquid supply member 150 from the lid member 160 side via a packing material. As shown by, both members are screwed together.

  The substrate member 140 has an inverted T-shape, and a channel member 120 and a lid member 130b are stacked on one side surface of a leg portion of the T, and a lid member 130a is stacked on the other side via a packing material, and provided on all members. A bolt (not shown) is inserted into a through-hole as indicated by a dotted line D, and the four members are fixed.

  As shown in FIG. 4, the gas-liquid mixing member 110 has a horizontally long rectangular parallelepiped shape, and has a large number of nozzle-like channels 111 arranged in the longitudinal direction from the lower surface to the upper surface. Each nozzle-shaped flow path 111 is provided on both side surfaces with a nozzle portion 112 having a diameter reduced to 0.1 mm in the middle of the flow path, as shown in FIG. An opening 114 is provided horizontally from a recess 113 to the nozzle-shaped channel 111. The apertures 114 have a diameter of 0.1 mm, and three nozzles are arranged vertically in the vertical direction at intervals of 0.75 mm for each nozzle.

  The flow path member 120 is a rectangular flat plate, and as shown in FIG. 6, has a recess 122 between a large number of fins 121 at a depth of 0.1 mm on one main surface side, and a packing material is disposed around the recess 122. Groove 123 is provided. On the back surface, there is a recess 124 (see FIG. 3) that becomes a flow path of hot water for supplying heat, and a groove for arranging a packing material is provided around the recess 124 in the same manner as the front surface. Moreover, the thickness of the partition wall between the recess 122 and the recess 124 is 1 mm.

  An ellipse 126 and a circle 127 indicated by dotted lines indicate positions corresponding to openings of a lateral hole 142 and a lateral hole 143 of the board member 140, which will be described later, respectively.

  The lid members 130a and 130b are rectangular flat plates of the same size as the flow path member 120, and have two through holes 131 and 132, 133 and 134 that serve as inlets and outlets of hot water, respectively, as shown in FIG. A fitting is formed or attached.

  2 and 3, as described above, a depression 145 serving as a flow path for hot water is provided on one side of the T-shaped leg portion of the inverted T-shaped substrate member 140. The thickness of the bottom portion and the back surface of the recess 145 is 1 mm. Further, a groove for arranging the packing material is provided around the recess 145.

  By overlapping the lid member 130a, the substrate member 140, the flow path member 120, and the lid member 130b via a packing material, the through hole 131 reaches the through hole 132 from the through hole 131 between the lid member 130a and the substrate member 140. The hot water channel 103, the liquid channel 102 between the substrate member 140 and the channel member 120 through the recess 122 from the lateral hole 142 to the lateral hole 143, and the recess 124 from the through hole 133 between the channel member 120 and the lid member 130b. The hot water flow paths 104 reaching the through-holes 134 are formed respectively. Since the liquid flow path 102 formed by the depression 122 has a very shallow depth, the portion surrounded by the alternate long and short dash line in FIG. 3 is enlarged and shown in FIG.

  In the T-shaped head portion of the substrate member 140, elongated holes 141 are provided in the vertical direction at positions corresponding to the outlets of a large number of nozzle-shaped flow paths 111 arranged on the upper surface of the gas-liquid mixing section 110, as will be described later. All the liquid flowing out from the nozzle-shaped flow path 111 is introduced into the long hole 141. The elongated hole 141 intersects the lateral hole 142 at a right angle inside the substrate member 140.

  The lateral hole 142 communicates with the liquid channel 102 formed by the recess 121 of the channel member 120 and the substrate member 140. Further, the horizontal hole 143 (provided at the position corresponding to the uppermost portion of the liquid flow path 102) of the substrate member 140 intersects the vertical hole 144 at right angles inside the substrate member 140, and the vertical hole 144 is the lower surface of the T-shaped leg. A joint is formed or attached to communicate with the part and to drain the liquid.

  The liquid supply member 150 is a rectangular flat plate. A vertical slot 153 is provided at a position corresponding to the inlet of the nozzle-shaped channel 111 of the gas-liquid mixing member 110 on the upper surface, and a recess 154 is formed on the lower surface. 153 communicates with the recess 154. A groove for arranging the packing material is provided on the outer periphery of the recess 154.

  The lid member 160 is provided with a through hole 163 for introducing a liquid, and a joint is formed or attached thereto. When the liquid supply member 150 and the lid member 160 are fastened, the through hole 163 and the recess 154 of the liquid supply member 150 communicate with each other to form the liquid channel 101.

  Accordingly, the liquid flowing in from the liquid channel 101 passes through the elongated channel 153, the nozzle-shaped channel 111 of the gas-liquid mixing member 110, the vertical hole 141 and the horizontal hole 142 of the substrate member 140, the liquid channel 102, and the substrate. It flows out through the horizontal hole 143 and the vertical hole 144 of the member 140.

  The gas supply member 170 has a shape in which two rectangular parallelepipeds are connected. One rectangular parallelepiped portion is horizontally long, and the other rectangular parallelepiped portion is longer in the vertical direction than the horizontally long rectangular parallelepiped portion and short in the horizontal direction. A long hole 171 serving as a gas flow path is provided on a side surface of the horizontally long rectangular parallelepiped portion, and the long hole 171 communicates with a depression 113 on one side of the gas-liquid mixing member 110. The long hole 171 communicates with a through hole 172 provided in the other rectangular parallelepiped portion. A joint is formed or attached to the outlet portion of the through hole 172.

  The gas supply unit 180 has a rectangular flat plate shape. Similar to the gas supply unit 170, a long hole 181 serving as a gas flow path is provided on the side surface in the longitudinal direction. Further, the end portion on the one main surface side of the flat plate is thick, and an opening 182 communicating with the elongated hole 181 is provided above the portion, and a joint is formed or attached. The long hole 181 communicates with the recess 113 on the other side surface of the gas-liquid mixing member 110.

  The joint formed or attached to the through hole 172 of the gas supply member 170 and the opening 182 of the gas supply unit 180 is supplied with air (gas). As a method of supplying this air, supply from a compressor or self-priming by outlet side decompression described later may be used.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the liquid supplied from the supply liquid tank 200 is introduced into the microfluidic chip 100 through the through hole 163 of the lid member 160. The liquid passes from the liquid channel 101 in the liquid supply member 150 through the elongated hole 153 of the liquid supply member 150 and is supplied from below to the nozzle-like channel 111 of the gas-liquid mixing member 110 shown in FIGS. At this time, as a method for supplying the liquid, pressurized liquid feeding by an appropriate pump, outlet side decompression described later, or a combination thereof is used.

  When air is supplied to the gas supply members 170 and 180 in accordance with the introduction of the liquid into the microfluidic chip 100, the supplied air passes from the recess 113 in the gas-liquid mixing member 110 through the respective openings 114 to the nozzle-like flow path ( 1st flow path) 111 flows into the moving liquid and microbubbles are supplied to form a gas-liquid mixed phase flow. The air that flows into the liquid flowing through the nozzle-shaped flow path 111 through the respective openings 114 becomes a large number of fine bubbles because the diameter of the openings 114 is small and a plurality of air is provided.

  When the gas-liquid mixed phase flow passes through the nozzle portion (narrow width portion) 112 in the gas-liquid mixing member 110, the pressure increases due to a rapid change in the flow path diameter, and thereby the bubbles in the mixed phase flow are sheared more finely. . As the bubbles are sheared finely, the gas-liquid interface area per volume increases.

  When the liquid is heated in the liquid flow path (second flow path) 102 formed by the recess 122 in the flow path member 120, the evaporation of the liquid occurs at the gas-liquid interface, so that the gas-liquid interface area increases. As a result, the evaporation efficiency is dramatically improved.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the gas-liquid mixed phase flow that has passed through the gas-liquid mixing member 110 is formed by the substrate member 140 and the flow path member 120 through the vertical long holes 141 and the horizontal holes 142 provided in the substrate member 140. It is introduced into the liquid channel 102. When the gas-liquid mixed phase flow passes through the liquid flow path 102, heat is supplied from the hot water. The hot water is heated and temperature-adjusted by the circulator 300 and introduced into the hot water flow paths 103 and 104 from the through holes (inlets) 131 and 133. After exchanging heat with the liquid in the liquid flow path 102 in the hot water flow paths 103 and 104, the hot water flow paths 103 and 104 return to the circulator 300 from the through holes (exit ports) 132 and 134.

  The partition walls between the liquid flow path 102 and the hot water flow paths 103 and 104 are very thin, and the liquid flow path 102 has a flat shape and has fins 121. Is transmitted to.

  If the amount of heat supplied is sufficient for the liquid to reach the boiling point, the liquid will boil and the vaporized liquid bubbles will grow with the refined bubbles as nuclei. By making the bubbles finer, the contact area between the liquid and the gas is further increased, and the evaporation and vaporization of the liquid efficiently proceeds into the bubbles. Vaporization occurs preferentially in the solvent (volatile component) that occupies most of the liquid, and the solute (non-volatile component) stays in the liquid that does not vaporize, so the concentration of the solute in the liquid increases and concentration is performed. .

  When the liquid is boiled, if it is normal pressure, a high temperature such as 100 ° C. is required in the case of water, for example, which may lead to denaturation of the supply liquid. Therefore, it is effective to reduce the boiling point by reducing the pressure by the vacuum pump 600 on the outlet side.

  The gas-liquid mixed phase flow that has passed through the liquid flow path 102 is discharged from the vertical hole passage 144 above the substrate member 140 and is introduced into the gas-liquid separation tank (gas-liquid separation unit) 400. A portion of the gas-liquid mixed phase flow that remains liquid without vaporization (evaporation) remains in the gas-liquid separation tank 400.

  The vaporized (evaporated) material is further conveyed to the subsequent stage by the pressure reduction by the vacuum pump 600. A cooling trap 500 is installed in front of the vacuum pump 600, and the vaporized material is cooled to a temperature below the dew point and liquefied and collected so that the vaporized material does not attack the vacuum pump 600.

  The portion that remains in the gas-liquid separation tank 400 and remains as a liquid without vaporization is subjected to gas-liquid separation, and the liquid obtained by gas-liquid separation is appropriately taken out as a concentrated product.

  The liquid to be concentrated may be a liquid mixture of liquids having different boiling points. In this case, a liquid having a low boiling point is a volatile component, and a liquid having a high boiling point is a non-volatile component.

  In the above embodiment, gas-liquid mixing and liquid concentration are performed in the microfluidic chip 100. However, the gas-liquid mixing unit and the liquid concentrating unit may be separated from each other. Air bubbles are supplied into the liquid by using an air intake port in the upstream piping of the vortex pump. The air taken in the vortex pump is dissolved under pressure, and the pressure is reduced on the downstream side. It is good also as a structure generated inside.

  Finer bubbles in the liquid may be performed using an orifice or capillary instead of the nozzle. In addition to air (atmosphere), an inert gas may be supplied to the liquid according to the type of liquid to be concentrated in addition to air (atmosphere).

It is a block diagram which shows the whole liquid concentration apparatus which becomes one Embodiment of this invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic exploded perspective view of a microfluidic chip used in the liquid concentrating device in FIG. 1. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the microfluidic chip used with the liquid concentration apparatus of FIG. It is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the gas-liquid mixing member of the microfluidic chip shown in FIG. It is the figure which expanded and showed the part enclosed with the dashed-dotted line in FIG. It is a front view which shows the flow-path member of the microfluidic chip shown in FIG. It is the figure which expanded and showed a part of part enclosed with the dashed-dotted line in FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Microfluidic chip 200 ... Supply liquid tank 300 ... Circulator 400 ... Gas-liquid separation tank 500 ... Cooling trap 600 ... Vacuum pump

Claims (7)

In a liquid concentration method in which concentration is performed by evaporation from the liquid surface,
The microbubbles are supplied to the liquid in the flow channel and heated to evaporate volatile components in the microbubbles while moving through the flow channel, and gas-liquid separation is performed in the subsequent stage, and the liquid obtained by gas-liquid separation is concentrated. A liquid concentration method, wherein the liquid is extracted as a result.   2. The liquid concentration method according to claim 1, wherein the flow path in which the heating is performed has a flat shape.   2. The liquid concentration method according to claim 1, wherein the liquid supplied with the microbubbles is allowed to pass through a narrow portion of the channel provided on the upstream side of the channel to be heated. In a liquid concentrator that concentrates by evaporation from the liquid surface,
A first channel that supplies microbubbles to the moving liquid, a second channel that is downstream of the first channel and that heats the liquid supplied with the microbubbles, and the second channel A liquid concentrating apparatus comprising a gas-liquid separation unit that is downstream of a flow path and performs gas-liquid separation and takes out a liquid obtained by gas-liquid separation as a concentrated product.   5. The liquid concentrator according to claim 4, wherein the second flow path has a flat shape.   5. The liquid concentrating device according to claim 4, further comprising a third channel having a narrow portion between the first channel and the second channel. 5. The liquid concentrating apparatus according to claim 4, wherein a cooling unit for cooling the volatile component contained in the gas obtained by gas-liquid separation below its dew point to liquefy the volatile component downstream of the gas-liquid separation unit. A liquid concentrating device comprising:

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