Augmented mass transfer in liquid-liquid flow through microchannels of different geometries

Publication date: March 2019Source: Chemical Engineering and Processing - Process Intensification, Volume 137Author(s): Uttam Kumar, Debashis Panda, Koushik Guha BiswasAbstractAn exhaustive study of various flow patterns that occurs in liquid-liquid flow along with detailed mass transfer study in micro-domain has been presented. Experimental studies on mass transfer have been performed using a hydrocarbon phase (toluene) from which extraction of acetic acid was done using water as a solvent in co-current flow. The same liquid-liquid systems (toluene-acetic acid-water) have been used for flow pattern study. Two channel diameters (0.15 mm and 0.25 mm) have been considered in the study with three different microchannel geometries, i.e. straight channel, helical channel and a gradual 90-degree bend. The microchannels used in this study are developed by the non-lithographic method. The present study unravels various flow patterns and their transitions in such small diameter microchannels with very high enhancement in mass transfer rates. The range of flow rates is varied from 10 to 90 μ L/min and mass transfer co-efficients are obtained in the range of 0.0053 – 0.7952 s−1 for all channel geometries. The Reynold number mixture for all the flowrates have been evaluated and it varies from 7 to 50 which clearly indicates that the flow lies in the laminar regime. The study may find useful application in pharmaceutical and fine-chemical industries.Graphical abstract

Source: Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification - February 23, 2019 Category: Chemistry Source Type: research