Abstract
Parallel or multiple microchannels (PMC) are being tried for high throughput operations. Extremely fewer reports on liquid/liquid two-phase flow in PMC exists in the open literature compared to the gas/liquid flow especially utilizing the new designs. In this work, a bifurcation-based PMC was employed to study hydrodynamics and the mass transfer aspect of solvent extraction of propionic acid. Slug formation, slug volume, specific surface area, extraction efficiency and mass transfer coefficients were evaluated. PMC exhibited better results than the single microchannels (SMC), making them superior in performance than the SMC. The standard deviation for uniform flow distribution is within 2%. A maximum specific surface area was obtained in PMC than the single channels, which is 10513 m2/m3. Similarly, the maximum extraction efficiency of 98% is achieved in PMC at flow rates 16 times higher than the SMCs. The overall pressure drop in PMC is significantly less than in the SMCs. Thus PMC is a suitable choice for process intensification in process industries.
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