DEVELOPMENTS AT NIST Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are working on the following technologies. For further information contact the: National Institute of Standards and Technology, Office of Technology Partnerships, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 2200, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899-2200; Telecopy:301-869-2751. This is not an announcement of a contract action or a grant. NIST DOCKET NUMBER: 00-016PA Title: Method and Apparatus For Entrainment Mixing of Vapor Into Liquids. Description: Mixing of fluids is a central component to innumerable operations in chemical processing on the plant floor and also in many laboratory operations. Most mixing applications simply require the efficient blending of fluids present in a single phase, such as the mixing of the individual components of a liquid. For these applications, magnetic stirrers often provide a convenient and efficient bending without creating ambient air entrainment into the liquid. This is especially true of fluid mixing operations done into the laboratory. There are many other applications, however, in which the entrainment of a vapor phase with a liquid is specifically desired. Examples of these applications include mixing in two-pahse reaction vessels and apparatus to measure vapor liquid equilibrium. These mixing opeartions are difficult to accommodate with magnetic stirrers because the vast majority of such stirrers are designed not to entrain vapor. In this disclosure, we teach a novel design of a mixing rotor that efficently mixes the liquid phase and also achieves entrainment of vapor into the liquid. WEB: NIST Contracts Homepage, http://www.nist.gov/admin/od/contract/contract.htm. E-MAIL: NIST Contracts Office, kemswiler@nist.gov. Posted 05/31/00 (W-SN460264).

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