CFD and experimental investigations on the micromixing performance of single countercurrent-flow microchannel reactor

Microchannel reactors are widely used in different fields due to their intensive micromixing and, thus, high masstransfer efficiency. In this work, a single countercurrent-flow microchannel reactor(S-CFMCR) at the size of ~1 mm was developed by steel micro-capillary and laser drilling technology. Utilizing the Villermaux/Dushman parallel competing reaction, numerical and experimental studies were carried out to investigate the micromixing performance(expressed as the segregation index XS) of liquids inside S-CFMCR at the low flow velocity regime.The effects of various operating conditions and design parameters of S-CFMCR, e.g., inlet Reynolds number(Re),volumetric flow ratio(R), inlet diameter(d) and outlet length(L), on the quality of micromixing were studied qualitatively. It was found that the micromixing efficiency was enhanced with increasing Re, but weakened with the increase of R. Moreover, d and L also have a significant influence on micromixing. CFD results were in good agreement with experimental data. In addition, the visualization of velocity magnitude, turbulent kinetic energy and concentration distributions of various ions inside S-CFMCR was illustrated as well. Based on the incorporation model, the estimated minimum micromixing time tmof S-CFMCR is ~2 × 10-4s.

Comparison of Mass Transfer Characteristics between Countercurrent-Flow and Crosscurrent-Flow Rotating Packed Bed

The rotating packed bed(RPB), mainly including the countercurrent-flow RPB(Counter-RPB) and the crosscurrentflow RPB(Cross-RPB) that are classified from the perspective of gas-liquid contact style, is a novel process intensification device. A significant measurement standard for evaluating the performance of RPB is the mass transfer effect. In order to compare the mass transfer characteristics of Counter-RPB and Cross-RPB with the same size, the liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient(k_La_e) and effective interfacial area(a_e) were measured under identical operating conditions. Meanwhile, the comparison of comprehensive mass transfer performance was conducted using the ratio of ΔP(pressure drop) to kLae as the standard. Experimental results indicated that kLae and ae increased with the increase in liquid spray density q, gas velocity u, and high gravity factor β. Furthermore, compared with the Cross-RPB, the Counter-RPB has higher liquid volumetric mass transfer coefficient and slightly larger effective interfacial area. The experimental results of comprehensive mass transfer performance showed that the Counter-RPB had higher ΔP/k_La_e than the Cross-RPB with changes in liquid spray density and high gravity factor, and there exists a turning point at 0.71 m/s accompanied by a variation with gas velocity. Moreover, the relative error of experimental value to calculated value, which was computed by the correlative expressions of kLae, was less than 5 %. In conclusion, the mass transfer characteristics of RPB are deeply impacted by the manner in which the flows are established and the Cross-RPB would have a great potential for industrial scale-up applications.