Taylor Vortex Reactor Research Articles

A Taylor Vortex Photocatalytic Reactor for Water Purification

A detailed analysis has been performed for a heterogeneous photocatalytic Taylor vortex reactor that uses flow instability to recirculate fluid continually from the vicinity of the rotating inner cylindrical surface to the stationary outer cylindrical surface of an annulus. In the present research, a detailed time-accurate computation shows the different stages of flow evolution and the effects of the finite length of the reactor in creating eddies, which results in a very high overall efficiency of photocatalytic conversion. The physical arrangement considered is such that pollutant degradation is maximized by the motion of fluid particles in a specific regime of centrifugal instability. Also provided are detailed flow structures for the chosen parameters when the reactor is started impulsively.

Numerical tracking and circulation time distribution in an infinite Taylor system

A numerical investigation was conducted to compute circulation time of elementary fluid elements in a Taylor vortex reactor. Finite volume method using the SIMPLER algorithm is adopted to solve the conservative equations. The numerical code was first validated. The convective displacements were determined by the three velocity components associated with the current location of the particles. For a given initial fluid element, the numerical tracking gives the circulation time which corresponds to a complete rotation (2 π).

A Taylor vortex reactor for heterogeneous photocatalysis

Heterogeneous photocatalysis is a promising advanced oxidation process for water purification. One of the limitations in photocatalysis has been inherently low photoefficiencies. Recent studies show that the photoefficiency of formate decomposition can be increased through the use of controlled periodic illumination. In this study, a Taylor vortex reactor was designed, constructed and tested as a novel photocatalytic reactor that incorporated illumination and dark recovery times via fluid mixing. A combination of the vortex motion and the limited light penetration depth into the photocatalytic slurry allowed the photocatalyst particles to move into and out of the illuminated portion of the reactor. The photoefficiency in the reactor increased by nearly a factor of three with the optimal conditions of an inner cylinder rotation rate of 300 rpm and an unusually high weight loading of 10 g/l of TiO 2 photocatalyst.