ISBN 978-3-8439-3497-8

978-3-8439-3497-8, Reihe Apparatedesign

Safa Kutup Kurt
Design and Characterization of Tubular Equipment for Process Intensification

185 Seiten, Dissertation Technische Universität Dortmund (2017), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Process intensification via micro- and millistructured equipment has become one of the most attractive research fields in chemical engineering and process technology, as it paves the way for sustainable and flexible production of high quality chemicals and pharmaceuticals. A tubular device, i.e., Coiled Flow Inverter (CFI), which provides narrow residence time distribution (RTD) with high average residence times at laminar flow regime, is investigated as multipurpose equipment for intensification of reactive and non-reactive flow processes.

According to the numerical and experimental characterization of RTD, new CFI structures are presented for flexible usage of the footprint in case of different application purposes. A design concept for a modular CFI in terms of variable residence times is proposed to achieve narrow RTD. A selection tool is developed to systematically design modular CFI structures for the process development from laboratory to production scale.

Regarding two phase flow applications, a novel hypothesis is proposed to elucidate the slug flow (Taylor or segmented flow) mixing behavior in CFI. To confirm this hypothesis, the liquid-liquid (L L) non-reactive and gas-liquid (G L) reactive mass transfer performances of CFI are characterized by using standard test systems with slug flow patterns. Improved mass transfer performance of CFI in comparison to conventional tubular devices is revealed for both L-L and G-L systems.

In a further step, gas-liquid-solid reactive mass transfer performance of CFI is investigated as an alternative to conventional batch reactors. Continuous precipitation of calcium carbonate particles is achieved with G-L slug flow patterns along the CFI. The average residence time is varied at a constant flow rate by means of modular CFI concept in order to demonstrate that the control of the median particle size diameter is possible with a narrow particle size distribution (PSD). The predominance of the CFI with respect to a batch reactor is presented in terms of higher production rates, narrower PSD, and more uniform particle morphology.