Investigation of micromixing and precipitation process in a rotating packed bed reactor with PTFE packing

Abstract

A rotating packed bed (RPB) reactor plays an important role in process intensification of micromixing and mass transfer. However, the commonly used stainless steel wire mesh packing suffers from serious corrosion in various chemical processes. Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) material, which is well-known for its excellent anticorrosion property, was employed as packing in the RPB reactor. Micromixing efficiency of the RPB reactor with PTFE packing was studied experimentally by adopting the iodide-iodate reaction system. Results showed that the micromixing efficiency of the RPB reactor with PTFE packing was better than that with the conventional stainless steel wire mesh packing. The micromixing time (tm) was calculated using an incorporation model based on the experimental data. Furthermore, the RPB reactor with PTFE packing was applied to a precipitation process for the preparation of magnesium hydroxide (Mg(OH)2) nanoparticles. The obtained Mg(OH)2 nanoparticles have small size and narrow particle size distribution, which indicates that the RPB reactor with PTFE packing is a promising reactor for preparing small size nanoparticles with its excellent micromixing efficiency.