Development of a scale-up strategy for an aerated coaxial mixer containing a non-Newtonian fluid: A mass transfer approach

Abstract

Coaxial mixers have been shown to be effective in enhancing the hydrodynamic stress and shear environment inside the aerated systems. However, the scale-up study of the aerated coaxial mixing reactors based on a constant mass transfer coefficient has never been reported in the literature. In this study, for the first time, a practical technique is suggested to evaluate the scalability of these systems in terms of a constant mass transfer coefficient. The effects of impeller speed, impeller type, aeration rate, and pumping direction on the mass transfer, power consumption, gas holdup profile, fluid hydrodynamics, and energy dissipation rate were explored for gas dispersion in non-Newtonian fluids inside coaxial mixers through tomography, dynamic gassing-in, and computational fluid dynamics. It was found that a practical approach to preserve the mass transfer coefficient of the large-scale coaxial mixer the same as its small-scale counterpart was to maintain the volumetric aeration rate per working fluid volume constant.