Simplified design of axial-flow cyclone mist eliminators

Mist eliminators have widespread application in many processes, and a large number of different types of mist eliminators are available on the market. Wire-mesh mist eliminators, vane-type eliminators, and cyclones are used extensively in many industrial plants. Unfortunately, these separators present some significant drawbacks when they are used in high-pressure applications or in any application in which a reduction in the diameter of the vessel containing the separator is necessary and high separation efficiency is required. Therefore, over the last several years some important suppliers have developed new axial flow separators (such as Axiflow, Swirl Tube, or Vico-Spin). Despite the broad range of entrainment removal applications, open literature on this topic is scarce. So far, design of these axial-flow separators can only be performed by suppliers using proprietary design criteria or using semiempirical equations with an uncertain range of applicability. This work presents new experimental data obtained at atmospheric conditions on three different axial separators and a new design model.