Diffusion Mechanisms for the Occurrence of the Instability of Mechanical Equilibrium of a Ternary Gas Mixture Containing Carbon Dioxide

Abstract

Mixing of carbon dioxide dissolved in a multicomponent gas mixture at different pressures was researched. It was found that the mechanical equilibrium of the ternary gas mixture 0.4163H2 (1) + 0.5837CO2 (2) − N2 (3) is violated at a pressure of p = 0.7 MPa and structured flows appear in the system. The pressure area (from 0.7 to 1.5 MPa) at which the conditions of priority transfer of components with the highest molecular weight in the mixture are realised in the system is fixed. To analyse the effect of pressure on the process of changing “diffusion–convection” modes, a mathematical model, which takes into account the kinetic features of multicomponent mixing, was applied. It was shown that the change in the modes of mass transfer is associated with a significant difference in the diffusion ability of the components. It is noted that the difference in the diffusion coefficients of components results in the nonlinearity of the concentration distribution, which leads to the inversion of the density gradient of the gas mixture, which is the cause of convective flows.