Dynamics of Laminar Mixing in Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors

Paulo Arratia, Joe Kukura & Fernando Muzzio

Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering 98 Brett Road, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854-8058

Laminar Batch System

Segregated zones (toroidal regions) in a Newtonian fluid

(b)

(a)

Rushton impeller

Structures in the toroidal regions

Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

It runs at steady state with continuous flow of reactants and products. Uniform composition and temperature are assumed throughout the reactor. Its exit stream has the same composition as the entire tank volume. Popular when temperature control is critical and when conversion must take place at a constant composition.

Continuous Flow Stirred Tank Reactor

Acid-Base Reaction

pLIF

Objectives
To investigate experimentally and computationally the mixing of viscous Newtonian fluids under laminar flow conditions in a CSTR. To examine the effect of inlet/outlet stream positioning and Reynolds number on the dynamics of the mixing process.

Experimental Set-up
Top View

(A)

(C)

(P) 7.5 cm

7.5 cm

Volume=15 Liters Flow Rate = 4.75liters/min Residence Time = 3.15 min Fluid - Glycerin (800 cP) Re=67 (100 RPM) Re=134 (200 RPM) Experimental Techniques: Acid-Base Reactions UV-Fluorescence pLIF Particle Image Velocimetry Computational Fluid Dynamics

24 cm

Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor Base Flow

Flow pattern produced by base-flow visualized using acid/base reaction (a,b) and UV-Fluorescence (c). Clear formation of an asymmetric re-circulating zone at the top of the tank due to flow expansion.

(a)

(b)

(c)

CSTR Across Case

Re=67

Re=134

2 minutes

7 minutes

12.5 minutes

Time

CSTR Parallel Case

Re=67

Re=134

2 minutes

7 minutes

12.5 minutes

Time

CSTR Center Case

Re=67

Re=134

2 minutes

7 minutes

12.5 minutes

Time

Continuous Stirred Tank Mixing Efficiency Plot

100

Fractional Area Coverage, %

80 Re 67 (C) 60 Efficiency Re 67 (A) Re 67 (P) Re 134 (C) 40 Re 134 (A) Re 134 (P) 20

0 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000

Revolutions

Evolution of Lower Segregated Region 20

Re 67 (C) Re 67 (A)

% Area Size of Lower Toroidal Region

16

Re 67 (P) Re 134 (C) Re 134 (A)

12

Re 134 (P)

0 0 1000 2000 3000 Revolutions 4000 5000 6000

Continuous Stirred Tank - Flow Asymmetry PIV Experiments & CFD (ORCA)

Continuous Stirred Tank - Flow Asymmetry Acid/Base Experiments & CFD (ORCA)

Short Circuiting in Continuous Flow Tanks Dye Experiments versus Particle Tracking (CFD - ORCA)

Particle Tracking (ORCA)

Short Circuiting Phenomena in Continuous Flow Stirred Tanks

Batch

Continuous

Dye Experiments

Conclusions
We provided experimental and computational evidence of segregated zones in CSTRs. Asymmetric flow patterns were produced by carefully positioning inlet/outlet flow. Counter-intuitively, toroidal regions were not destroyed at higher Re. A short-circuiting phenomenon was observed both experimentally and computationally.