Liquefaction

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In materials science, liquefaction [1] is a process that generates a liquid from a solid or a gas [2] or that generates a non-liquid phase which behaves in accordance with fluid dynamics. [3] It occurs both naturally and artificially. As an example of the latter, a "major commercial application of liquefaction is the liquefaction of air to allow separation of the constituents, such as oxygen, nitrogen, and the noble gases." [4] Another is the conversion of solid coal into a liquid form usable as a substitute for liquid fuels. [5]

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Geology

The effects of soil liquefaction, seen after 2011 Canterbury earthquake Liquefaction on roads - North New Brighton centre in Christchurch Feb 2011 quake.jpg
The effects of soil liquefaction, seen after 2011 Canterbury earthquake

In geology, soil liquefaction refers to the process by which water-saturated, unconsolidated sediments are transformed into a substance that acts like a liquid, often in an earthquake. [6] Soil liquefaction was blamed for building collapses in the city of Palu, Indonesia in October 2018. [7]

In a related phenomenon, liquefaction of bulk materials in cargo ships may cause a dangerous shift in the load. [8] [9]

Physics and chemistry

In physics and chemistry, the phase transitions from solid and gas to liquid (melting and condensation, respectively) may be referred to as liquefaction. The melting point (sometimes called liquefaction point) is the temperature and pressure at which a solid becomes a liquid. In commercial and industrial situations, the process of condensing a gas to liquid is sometimes referred to as liquefaction of gases.

Coal

Coal liquefaction is the production of liquid fuels from coal using a variety of industrial processes.

Dissolution

Liquefaction is also used in commercial and industrial settings to refer to mechanical dissolution of a solid by mixing, grinding or blending with a liquid.

Food preparation

In kitchen or laboratory settings, solids may be chopped into smaller parts sometimes in combination with a liquid, for example in food preparation or laboratory use. This may be done with a blender, or liquidiser in British English.

Irradiation

Liquefaction of silica and silicate glasses occurs on electron beam irradiation of nanosized samples in the column of transmission electron microscope. [10] [11]

Biology

In biology, liquefaction often involves organic tissue turning into a more liquid-like state. For example, liquefactive necrosis in pathology, [12] or liquefaction as a parameter in semen analysis. [13]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Argon</span> Chemical element with atomic number 18 (Ar)

Argon is a chemical element; it has symbol Ar and atomic number 18. It is in group 18 of the periodic table and is a noble gas. Argon is the third most abundant gas in Earth's atmosphere, at 0.934%. It is more than twice as abundant as water vapor, 23 times as abundant as carbon dioxide, and more than 500 times as abundant as neon. Argon is the most abundant noble gas in Earth's crust, comprising 0.00015% of the crust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nitrogen</span> Chemical element with atomic number 7 (N)

Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at seventh in total abundance in the Milky Way and the Solar System. At standard temperature and pressure, two atoms of the element bond to form N2, a colorless and odorless diatomic gas. N2 forms about 78% of Earth's atmosphere, making it the most abundant chemical species in air. Because of the volatility of nitrogen compounds, nitrogen is relatively rare in the solid parts of the Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liquid hydrogen</span> Liquid state of the element hydrogen

Liquid hydrogen (H2(l)) is the liquid state of the element hydrogen. Hydrogen is found naturally in the molecular H2 form.

A period 2 element is one of the chemical elements in the second row of the periodic table of the chemical elements. The periodic table is laid out in rows to illustrate recurring (periodic) trends in the chemical behavior of the elements as their atomic number increases; a new row is started when chemical behavior begins to repeat, creating columns of elements with similar properties.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liquid nitrogen</span> Liquid state of nitrogen

Liquid nitrogen (LN2) is nitrogen in a liquid state at low temperature. Liquid nitrogen has a boiling point of about −196 °C (−321 °F; 77 K). It is produced industrially by fractional distillation of liquid air. It is a colorless, mobile liquid whose viscosity is about one-tenth that of acetone (i.e. roughly one-thirtieth that of water at room temperature). Liquid nitrogen is widely used as a coolant.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liquid oxygen</span> One of the physical forms of elemental oxygen

Liquid oxygen, sometimes abbreviated as LOX or LOXygen, is a clear light sky-blue liquid form of dioxygen O2. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an application which has continued to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Soil liquefaction</span> Soil material that is ordinarily a solid behaving like a liquid

Soil liquefaction occurs when a cohesionless saturated or partially saturated soil substantially loses strength and stiffness in response to an applied stress such as shaking during an earthquake or other sudden change in stress condition, in which material that is ordinarily a solid behaves like a liquid. In soil mechanics, the term "liquefied" was first used by Allen Hazen in reference to the 1918 failure of the Calaveras Dam in California. He described the mechanism of flow liquefaction of the embankment dam as:

If the pressure of the water in the pores is great enough to carry all the load, it will have the effect of holding the particles apart and of producing a condition that is practically equivalent to that of quicksand... the initial movement of some part of the material might result in accumulating pressure, first on one point, and then on another, successively, as the early points of concentration were liquefied.

A supercritical fluid (SCF) is any substance at a temperature and pressure above its critical point, where distinct liquid and gas phases do not exist, but below the pressure required to compress it into a solid. It can effuse through porous solids like a gas, overcoming the mass transfer limitations that slow liquid transport through such materials. SCFs are superior to gases in their ability to dissolve materials like liquids or solids. Also, near the critical point, small changes in pressure or temperature result in large changes in density, allowing many properties of a supercritical fluid to be "fine-tuned".

Cryogenic fuels are fuels that require storage at extremely low temperatures in order to maintain them in a liquid state. These fuels are used in machinery that operates in space where ordinary fuel cannot be used, due to the very low temperatures often encountered in space, and the absence of an environment that supports combustion. Cryogenic fuels most often constitute liquefied gases such as liquid hydrogen.

Liquid air is air that has been cooled to very low temperatures, so that it has condensed into a pale blue mobile liquid. It is stored in specialized containers, such as vacuum flasks, to insulate it from room temperature. Liquid air can absorb heat rapidly and revert to its gaseous state. It is often used for condensing other substances into liquid and/or solidifying them, and as an industrial source of nitrogen, oxygen, argon, and other inert gases through a process called air separation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carl von Linde</span> German engineer and scientist

Carl Paul Gottfried von Linde was a German scientist, engineer, and businessman. He discovered the refrigeration cycle and invented the first industrial-scale air separation and gas liquefaction processes, which led to the first reliable and efficient compressed-ammonia refrigerator in 1876.

Coal liquefaction is a process of converting coal into liquid hydrocarbons: liquid fuels and petrochemicals. This process is often known as "Coal to X" or "Carbon to X", where X can be many different hydrocarbon-based products. However, the most common process chain is "Coal to Liquid Fuels" (CTL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Synthetic fuel</span> Fuel from carbon monoxide and hydrogen

Synthetic fuel or synfuel is a liquid fuel, or sometimes gaseous fuel, obtained from syngas, a mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, in which the syngas was derived from gasification of solid feedstocks such as coal or biomass or by reforming of natural gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pressure swing adsorption</span> Method of gases separation using selective adsorption under pressure

Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a technique used to separate some gas species from a mixture of gases under pressure according to the species' molecular characteristics and affinity for an adsorbent material. It operates at near-ambient temperature and significantly differs from the cryogenic distillation commonly used to separate gases. Selective adsorbent materials are used as trapping material, preferentially adsorbing the target gas species at high pressure. The process then swings to low pressure to desorb the adsorbed gas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liquefaction of gases</span>

Liquefaction of gases is physical conversion of a gas into a liquid state (condensation). The liquefaction of gases is a complicated process that uses various compressions and expansions to achieve high pressures and very low temperatures, using, for example, turboexpanders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial gas</span> Gaseous materials produced for use in industry

Industrial gases are the gaseous materials that are manufactured for use in industry. The principal gases provided are nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, argon, hydrogen, helium and acetylene, although many other gases and mixtures are also available in gas cylinders. The industry producing these gases is also known as industrial gas, which is seen as also encompassing the supply of equipment and technology to produce and use the gases. Their production is a part of the wider chemical Industry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nitrogen generator</span>

Nitrogen generators and stations are stationary or mobile air-to-nitrogen production complexes.

An air separation plant separates atmospheric air into its primary components, typically nitrogen and oxygen, and sometimes also argon and other rare inert gases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cryogenic gas plant</span> Industrial facility that creates cryogenic liquid at relatively high purity

A cryogenic gas plant is an industrial facility that creates molecular oxygen, molecular nitrogen, argon, krypton, helium, and xenon at relatively high purity. As air is made up of nitrogen, the most common gas in the atmosphere, at 78%, with oxygen at 19%, and argon at 1%, with trace gasses making up the rest, cryogenic gas plants separate air inside a distillation column at cryogenic temperatures to produce high purity gasses such as argon, nitrogen, oxygen, and many more with 1 ppm or less impurities. The process is based on the general theory of the Hampson-Linde cycle of air separation, which was invented by Carl von Linde in 1895.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liquefied natural gas terminal</span> Facility for processing shipments of the fossil fuel

A liquefied natural gas terminal is a facility for managing the import and/or export of liquefied natural gas (LNG). It comprises equipment for loading and unloading of LNG cargo to/from ocean-going tankers, for transfer across the site, liquefaction, re-gasification, processing, storage, pumping, compression, and metering of LNG. LNG as a liquid is the most efficient way to transport natural gas over long distances, usually by sea.

References

  1. Some authors contend that there is a distinction between liquefaction and liquification (which is more commonly considered a misspelling), with the latter term applying only to processes involving heat. Knox, Ray; Stewart, David (1995). "3. Recognizing Seismic Landforms". The New Madrid Fault Finders Guide. Marble Hill, MO: Gutenberg-Richter Publications. p. 36. ISBN   978-0-934426-42-8. LCCN   91-91374.
  2. "Pharmaceutical Processes: Processes of Liquefaction". The Pharmaceutical Era. No. 21. 20 April 1899. p. 503. [by] a process of liquefaction is meant any process the effect of which is to cause a solid or gaseous body to assume or pass into the liquid state.
  3. Pickett, Joseph P., ed. (2005). "Liquefaction". The American Heritage Science Dictionary. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 363. ISBN   978-0-618-45504-1. LCCN   2004019696.
  4. Mavrikis, Peter; Horobin, Wendy, eds. (2003). "Liquefaction". How It Works: Science and Technology. Vol. 20 (3rd ed.). Tarrytown, NY: Marshall Cavendish. p. 64. ISBN   0-7614-7314-9. LCCN   2001028771.
  5. Speight, James G. (2013). The Chemistry and Technology of Coal. Chemical Industries. Vol. 132 (3rd ed.). Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press. pp. 545–607. ISBN   9781138199224.
  6. USGS. "About Liquefaction". Archived from the original on 2013-04-12.
  7. Davis, Nicola. "Indonesia earthquake: soil liquefaction blamed for building collapses". The Guardian.
  8. Gourvenec, Susan (2 September 2018). "Mystery of the cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies". Ars Technica . Retrieved 6 September 2018.
  9. Marcolini, Barbara; Koettl, Christoph (2 October 2018). "How the Indonesia Earthquake Made Soil Flow Like Water". NYT. No. International.
  10. Möbus, Günter; Ojovan, Michael; Cook, Stuart; Tsai, Jim; Yang, Guang (January 2010). "Nano-scale quasi-melting of alkali-borosilicate glasses under electron irradiation". Journal of Nuclear Materials. 396 (2–3): 264–271. Bibcode:2010JNuM..396..264M. doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2009.11.020.
  11. Zheng, Kun; Wang, Chengcai; Cheng, Yong-Qiang; Yue, Yonghai; Han, Xiaodong; Zhang, Ze; Shan, Zhiwei; Mao, Scott X; Ye, Miaomiao; Yin, Yadong; Ma, Evan (December 2010). "Electron-beam-assisted superplastic shaping of nanoscale amorphous silica". Nature Communications. 1 (1): 24. Bibcode:2010NatCo...1...24Z. doi:10.1038/ncomms1021. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   3047011 . PMID   20975693.
  12. Robbins and Cotran: Pathologic Basis of Disease, 8th Ed. 2010. Pg. 15
  13. Gardner, Kavid (2001). Textbook of Assisted Reproductive Technology Laboratory and Clinical Perspectives. Taylor and Francis. p. 63. ISBN   9780415448949. Archived from the original on 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2013-11-03.