Liquid-phase residence time distribution for two-phase flow in coiled flow inverter

The coiled flow inverter (CFI) is an innovative device, which has potential for the intensification of processes currently carried out in conventional mixers. Step response experiments were carried out in a CFI to study liquid-phase residence time distribution (RTD) for gas-liquid flow under the conditions of both negligible and significant molecular diffusion using Newtonian fluids. A total of 16 CFIs of different curvature ratios ranging from 6.7 to 20, dimensionless pitch from 1 to 2.5, and number of bends from I to 15 were investigated. The range of Dean numbers for the gas and the liquid phase was varied from 235 to 1180 and 3.16 to 1075, respectively. The reduction in dispersion number is nearly 2.6 times for two-phase flow in CFI with 15 number of bends as compared to a straight helix under identical process conditions. A modified axial dispersion model is proposed to describe the RTD. The efficiency of the device is characterized by a mixing criterion.