Process intensification of multiphase flow processes using micro-structured channels/reactors

Over the years, microreactors have emerged as a promising way for process intensification in the areas of fine chemical synthesis like pharmaceutical drug synthesis, biological and chemical processing (e.g. solvent extraction, hydrogenation reactions). In addition to the advantages of high surface-to-volume ratio offered by microreactors, different micro-structured reactors can be designed to generate favorable flow fields leading to further process intensification. Although most of the industrially relevant reactions involve multiple phases, intensification of multiphase flow process has received relatively less attention than that involving single phase flow. Our aim is to characterize two phase (gas-liquid and liquid-liquid flows) flow and related mass/heat transfer rates. Apart from using high speed imaging to aid the flow visualization and flow regime categorization, the primary focus is to measure instantaneous velocity for two-phase flow in microchannels using non-intrusive time-resolved μ-PIV. Mass transfer involving liquid-liquid flow is also being investigated by chemical means in simple and micro-structured channels. Also, quantitative measurements of concentration as well as temperature distributions in two-phase flow will be studied using μ-LIF. Finally, industrially useful chemical reactions involving two/three phase flows will be performed in microchannels.

Publications/conference presentations:

·  Sayantani Saha, Vivek B. Buwa, Characterization of single phase and gas-liquid flows in milli-channels using µ-PIV and µ-LIF, accepted for presentation at 12th International Symposium on Particle Image Velocimetry (ISPIV 2017) to be held in Busan, Korea during 19-21 June 2017.