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Flow and mixing in a tube-in-tube millireactor with multiholes jet and twist tapes

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Abstract

A novel tube-in-tube millireactor with multiholes jet and twist tapes was designed and investigated for its excellent mixing, low price, and industrialization prospects. The inner tube fluid jets into the annular space through six circular microholes with a diameter of 0.2 mm that are evenly drilled around the inner tube. This arrangement achieves good inlet dispersion. The annular reaction channel is modified by three types of twist tape, which facilitates fluid splitting, recombination, and swirling. A detailed computational study has been carried out on the millireactor to characterize flow using a verified and validated CFD model. Villermaux-Dushman reaction and impulse method residence time distribution were used to study both the micromixing and macromixing performance. The multiholes jet has excellent micro-mixing performance with a micro-mixing time of less than 1 ms, at Re > 350. The twist tapes effectively improve the macromixing so that a Pe > 100 is achieved in most of the range of Re 32 ~ 634. Local flow field visualization of the annular spaces with tapes is obtained by PIV - RIM, and the results align with the CFD model.

Graphical Abstract

Highlights

A novel tube-in-tube millireactor with multiholes jet and twist tapes was designed with excellent micromixing and narrow RTD.

Micromixing time is less than 1ms, at Re > 350.

Pe > 100 in most of the studied range, V = 6 ~ 240 ml/min.

The local flow field was obtained by PIV-RIM under structure shading.

The micromixing and differential pressure between inner and outer tube are determined by \({Re}_{hole}\).

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Abbreviations

CFD :

Computational Fluid Dynamics

C j :

reactant concentration of species j, mol/L

C j,r :

molar concentration of species j in reaction r, mol/L

C j10 :

concentration of the surrounding fluid, mol/L

d hole :

microhole size, mm

d N :

hydrodynamic diameter

E(t) :

exit age distribution as a function of time, s− 1

E(θ) :

exit age distribution as a function of dimensionless time

f :

friction coefficient

L :

length of the reactor channel, mm

M :

parameter in empirical model

N :

parameter in empirical model

N in :

Molar amount of substance in the inner tube

N out :

Molar amount of substance in the outter tube

P:

pitch,mm

Pe :

reactor Peclet number, also known as Bodenstein number. The reciprocal is referred to as the Vessel Dispersion number

PIV :

Particle Image Velocimetry

PLIF :

Planer Laser Induced Fluorescence

R :

 the ratio of the volume flow between the inner and outer tubes

RI :

Refraction index

Re :

Reynolds number

TKE :

turbulent kinetic energy, m2/s2

t m :

characteristic micromixing time, s

t max :

maximum residence time

t min :

minimum residence time

\(\overline{t}\) :

mean residence time, s

V in :

volume flow rate in inner tube, ml/min

V out :

volume flow rate in outter tube, ml/min

X s :

segregation index

ΔP :

fluid pressure drop, Pa

ε:

turbulent dissipation rate, m2/s3.

μ :

viscosity, Pa s.

τ :

nominal space time, s.

\({\sigma ^2}\) :

variance

\(\sigma _{\theta }^{2}\) :

dimensionless variance

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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by Jiangsu Seven Continents Green Chemical Co., Ltd.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, 300350, Tianjin, People’s Republic of China

    Hanyang Liu, Junan Jiang, Ning Yang, Zundong Xiao, Xiaoxia Yang & Rijie Wang

Authors
  1. Hanyang Liu
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  2. Junan Jiang
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  3. Ning Yang
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  4. Zundong Xiao
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  5. Xiaoxia Yang
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  6. Rijie Wang
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Contributions

Conceptualization; methodology; CFD simulation, validation, formal analysis, writing—original draft preparation, writing-review and editing, Hanyang Liu.; supervision, Junan Jiang, Ning Yang; project administration, Rijie Wang. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Rijie Wang.

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Supplementary Information

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Supporting information is available on the mesh independence and algorithm reliable verification, refractive index matching PIV, and The Villermaux–Dushman system.

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Liu, H., Jiang, J., Yang, N. et al. Flow and mixing in a tube-in-tube millireactor with multiholes jet and twist tapes. J Flow Chem 12, 353–369 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41981-022-00232-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41981-022-00232-2

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