Homogeneous Particle Suspension in an Agitated Reactor with Maxblend Impeller
Multi-scale and/or multi-disciplinary approach to process-product innovation
Innovative Process Equipment-Operation Design & Analysis (T3-10)
Keywords: particle size, high particle concentration, homogeneous suspension, Maxblend
Mixing at high solid concentration is fairly common in processing engineering. In order to improve productivity, chemical industries tend to increase the particle concentration and the particle size in their processes. Under those conditions, as previous investigators have indicated, a clear layer may form at the liquid surface above the cloud suspension layer separated by a sharp interface, resulting in extremely long mixing time. The presence of this interface yields loss of productivity due to fouling, product adhesion and insufficient property of the end-product. An essential characteristic of the reactor to avoid adhesion on the wall and the generation of by-products is to have a homogeneous suspension.
In this work, a pitched blade turbine, which is traditionally used for particle suspension, and a Maxblend impeller are compared in terms of their respective performance to yield a homogeneous suspension at high concentration of particles for several particle sizes.
* “MAXBLEND” is a registered trademark in Japan.
Presented Thursday 20, 11:20 to 11:40, in session Innovative Process Equipment-Operation Design & Analysis (T3-10).
