Abstract
The mini-fluidic contacting system is developed as process intensification platform as an attractive alternative for existing liquid-liquid extraction system for separation of Omega 3 PUFA from using Aqueous 50% Wt. Silver nitrate solution. To improve the performance of extraction in mini-fluidics, it is necessary to study the flow-dynamic behavior of fish oil silver nitrate system in the channel. Moreover, different flow patterns influence mass transfer and mixing which indirectly influence the separation efficiency of omega 3 PUFA from fish oil. Therefore, Different flow patterns were studied at Y-junction that connected to mini-channel and classified over a range of organic phase and aqueous flow rate. The flow is stratified at the “Y” Junction after phase inversion and also due to the reduction of interfacial tension between fish oil and silver nitrate solution. The addition of alkane’s solvents into the fish oil ethyl ester is attempted to change the flow pattern of fish oil silver nitrate system by elevation of interfacial tension. The formation mechanism of slug and stratified flow was studied by a competition between the gravity, inertia, viscous forces and the interfacial tension forces. The flow patterns maps is presented in terms of Ca, Re and We and identified the three regions namely gravity force dominant region, transition region and interfacial force dominant region. The flow patterns observed in real Fish Oil/AgNO3 system was significantly different than previously reported for a synthetic DHA/AgNO3 system. The addition of organic solvent into the fish oil ethyl ester increase the interfacial tension between fish oil and silver nitrate system, however, the increase was not sufficient to produce slug flow. This would suggest that practical processing of fish oils with AgNO3 would require the handling of stratified flow within the processing units.
Highlights
The mini-fluidic reactor technology has been developed for silver based solvent extraction of Omega 3 PUFA from fish oil esters
One notable difference between this study and previous mini-fluidic studies was the presence of a stratified flow patterns in the channels, where a slug flow profile was anticipated
The Y-junction acts as mixing section of organic phase and aqueous phase and the various flow patterns were observed in the flow of two immiscible liquids in mini-channel at various flow rates especially in fish oil water system whereas fish oil silver nitrate system offers stratified flow at various flow rates
Summary
The mini-fluidic reactor technology has been developed for silver based solvent extraction of Omega 3 PUFA from fish oil esters. The stratification of flow is observed instead of Slug flow pattern. In order to improve the performance of slug flow mini-fluidic reactor technology, it is necessary to investigate flow patterns of the fluids at mini-scales and various dominating forces to control the flow patterns. In mini-fluidic channels, specific flow patterns are observed for two immiscible fluids, including stratified flow, wavy annular flow and slug/plug flow. The flow patterns at mini/micro scales are well-defined and the interfacial areas of the flows are uniform, allowing simple and precise modeling of numerous chemical processes. Among the various flow patterns, slug flow offers promising advantages in mini/micro-
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