Investigation of micromixing in the ART plate reactor PR37 using the acetal cleavage method and different mixing models

Abstract

The mixing time can strongly affect the yield of a desired product if side reactions occur. Mixing is therefore of great practical importance. Millireactors enable comparatively high flow rates at moderate pressure drops and are thus well suited for production purposes. In this work, the mixing performance of the millistructured reactor ART PR37 is investigated using the Bourne method. Four plate types with similar meandering, converging/diverging process channels, but different hydraulic diameters have been studied over a wide range of Reynolds numbers. Mixing times have been calculated using two different mixing models, the IEM model and a recently introduced modified incorporation model. Mixing times were found to be less than 0.1 second for Reynolds numbers exceeding 150. For higher Reynolds numbers, mixing times in the range of 0.02 to 0.03 s are achievable without prohibitively high pressure drops. The ART PR37 is therefore a promising option for mixing-sensitive reactions.