Analysis of energy efficiency of a box type sono-reactor at resonance

The acoustic cavitation effect has huge potential applications in a number of industrial fields. Nevertheless, the traditional sono-reactors cannot completely satisfy the industrial processing demands nowadays. One reason for this is the operational cost due to the electric energy consumption. Aiming to overcome the disadvantage, based on a box type sono-reactor (inner size 125.4×40×47 mm³) with one PZT ceramic vibrator and 0.19 L processed solution, the whole system´s energy utilization efficiencies at two resonance frequencies, 12.13 kHz and 57.05 kHz, have been investigated. Using calorimetric method and titration, the radiated acoustic energy, total energy efficiency, cavitation efficiency, and electroacoustic efficiency have been measured, respectively. It is found that the more the input volume power is, the less the total energy efficiency would be, both at 12.13 kHz and 57.05 kHz; the total energy efficiency of 12.13 kHz is greater than that of 57.05 kHz, because the micro bubbles caused by the acoustic cavitation absorb acoustic energy. To obtain good energy efficiency and cavitation effect, the input electric power per unit volume should be proper.