Chemical Engineering and Processing, Vol.116, 40-47, 2017
Spinning Fluids Reactor: A new design of a gas - liquid contactor
Current trends in chemical reactor design are based on adapting these to the requirements of a particular chemical process. Processes involving reactions between the gas and liquid phase in particular require precise adjustment of all parameters. The common denominator for most modern design solutions is enhancement of the mass transfer area and the overall volumetric mass transfer coefficient. Gas - liquid contactors evolved from a typical stirred vessel to a plethora of other types suitable for many applications, such as bubbling columns. The Spinning Fluids Reactor presented in this paper uses tangential inlets of both fluids that cause a swirling flow. High tangential velocity of the liquid phase results in a high shearing force that decreases the size of the generated bubbles and increases the mass transfer area per bulk liquid. The reactor of our design can reach gas-liquid interfacial areas up to 16 400 m(2) per cubic meter, which is an order of magnitude higher than values obtained in the majority of gas-liquid contactors what we believe is a significant improvement over common designs. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.