Scale-up correlation for mass transfer coefficients in pulsed baffled reactors

Abstract

We report experimental measurements on air—water mass transfer characteristics in two pulsed baffled reactors in a scale-up format. The experiments have, for the first time, investigated the scale-up parameters involved in such reactors and identified the optimal baffle spacing and the optimal superficial gas velocity for enhanced mass transfer performance. The experimental results indicate that the mass transfer rate strongly depends on the combination of the baffle spacing, aeration rate and oscillation frequency and amplitude. The mass transfer data, corrected for temperature effect and oxygen probe responses, are correlated in terms of power density and superficial gas velocities to show the scale-up correlation for the pulsed baffled reactors where the mass transfer performance is better in a large diameter reactor than in a small diameter reactor.