AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF LIQUID-LIQUID FLOW THROUGH MINI SERPENTINE GEOMETRY

Abstract

Miniaturization and process intensification have become important in many chemical processes and processing industries. Miniaturization increases interfacial surface which further increases heat and mass transfer.In this dissertation work, we have taken a serpentine reactor of circular cross section with ID 2mm and OD 4mm. 6 tubes of same cross sectional area and 0.5m length have been connected with silicon tube of same ID with 180-degree return bend. The distance between two consecutive tubes is 1 inch and total length of reactor is 3m. Distilled water, toluene and toluene with 10% acetic acid (v/v) have been taken as test fluids. We have observed three flow regime that is slug flow, slug with droplet flow and inverted slug flow for toluene-water system. For toluene-water-acetic acid system, only slug and slug with droplet flow have been observed. Pressure drop is higher in toluene-water system as compare to toluene-water-acetic acid system. It has been also observed that pressure drop is decreasing with increase in slug length and minimumin slug regime. The maximum extraction efficiency of the reactor is 94% for the feed to solvent ratio 10. The optimum length of reactor is 2.5m and optimum residence time is 54 second.