Development of a Novel Multi-Phase Flow Reactor and Optimization of Mixing Effect Based on a Liquid-Liquid System

Abstract

The effectiveness of fluid mixing in a reactor is crucial for the success of chemical reactions. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-phase flow reactor for continuous flow technology and employ computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to optimize the mixing efficiency for a liquid-liquid system. The uniformity index and phase boundary area per unit volume (custom parameters representing mixing efficiency) are used to characterize the mixing effects of the fluid. We investigate the impact of stirring paddle structure, rotation speed, and feed flow rate on fluid mixing. The numerical simulation results demonstrate that employing multiple stirring paddles enhances the mixing effects of the fluid, but there is an upper limit to this improvement. Increasing the rotation speed improves fluid mixing, but excessively high speeds generate a strong centrifugal effect. Effectively enhancing fluid mixing can be achieved by reducing the feed flow rate to prolong the reaction time. These findings are valuable for the application of multi-phase flow reactor.