Experimental characterization and mixing modeling of a horizontally rotating disc reactor

Abstract

Mixing is important in many chemical and biochemical processes to ensure uniform conditions throughout the process volume. A complex interaction arises for heterogeneous systems sensitive to the stress induced by mechanical mixing devices. This work introduces the Rotating Disc Reactor consisting of a horizontally rotating cylinder of a small width and partial filling, potentially allowing low-shear mixing. A colorimetric approach was implemented to study the mixing behavior. An increase in rotational speed resulted in a maximum reduction in mixing time by a factor of 7.5, while a higher filling level increased the mixing time by 20%. Also, doubling the reactor diameter doubled the mixing time at the same circumferential speed, and quadrupling the reactor width prolonged the mixing process similarly. Finally, a model is proposed to describe the dependencies of the dimensionless mixing number with a set of dimensionless groups.