APPLICATIONS OF NUCLEAR-MAGNETIC-RESONANCE IMAGING IN-PROCESS ENGINEERING

During the past decade, the application of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging techniques to problems of relevance to the process indus tries has been identified. The particular strengths of NMR techniques are their ability to distinguish between different chemical species an d to yield information simultaneously on the structure, concentration distribution and flow processes occurring within a given process unit. In this paper, examples of specific applications in the areas of mate rials and food processing, transport in reactors and two-phase flow ar e discussed. One specific study, that of the internal structure of a p acked column, is considered in detail. This example is reported to ill ustrate the extent of new, quantitative information of generic importa nce to many processing operations that can be obtained using NMR imagi ng in combination with image analysis.