Helical vortex band formation and process intensification in Taylor–Couette microreactors via inlet design

Abstract

Taylor–Couette microreactor (TCMR) is a promising process intensification equipment for dealing with high‐throughput liquid–liquid systems. A novel liquid–liquid two‐phase flow pattern with right‐handed helical vortex (HV) band was recently reported to be beneficial for mass transfer. This work aims to elucidate the formation mechanism of these bands. It was found that the inlet holes on the rotating cylinder play a critical role in the HV band formation, and the band width could be correlated with the ratio of flow velocity and rotation speed ( u / w ). Accordingly, the TCMR was optimized by introducing three inlet holes, which increased the cutting frequency and effectively reduced the band width. Consequently, the mass transfer coefficients were enhanced. The configuration with three inlets and rotating inlet was preferred due to its wider operation window and better band manipulation capability. Empirical correlations are also developed to predict mass transfer coefficients for the optimized 3‐inlet TCMR.