Chemical engineering applications of electrical process tomography

Electrical tomographic imaging has been applied to a broad range of chemical engineering processes, including: bubble columns, fluidised beds, pneumatic transport, liquid mixing, cyclonic separation, pressure filtration, liquid pipe-flow, polymerisation, emergency depressurisation, and paste extrusion. Two imaging approaches are described, electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) and electrical impedance tomography (EIT). To date, these have primarily been used as low-cost research tools for studying process dynamics, although they potentially may also act as sensors permitting on-line monitoring and control. Various aspects of design, operation and data processing are described, along with a review of applications in the literature. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.