Actively homogenizing fluid distribution and slug length of liquid-liquid segmented flow in parallelized microchannels

Abstract

Liquid-liquid segmented flow offers the unique characteristics of high heat and mass transfer combined with a narrow residence time distribution and thus shows great potential in process intensification of biphasic applications. Capacity increase of this technology can only be achieved by numbering-up, if scale-related advantages are to be preserved. This implies homogeneous residence times and volume flows in all parallel channels. Conventionally this is achieved by static fluid distribution concepts with high pressure drops. This contribution develops a microfluidic valve based on temperature-controlled viscosity adjustments. It can be used to actively compensate for manufacturing tolerances in parallelized micro reactors and thus requires a lower pressure drop than static distribution concepts to achieve a homogeneous fluid distribution. The distributor concept is combined with sensors and actuators for flow patterns and an automated parallelization concept for homogenizing flow patterns of liquid-liquid slug flows in micro channels is presented.