Determination of interfacial area and overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficient in a novel type of two impinging streams reactor by chemical method

The theory of mass transfer accompanied by chemical reaction for gas-liquid systems was used to measure the effective interfacial area (a) and the overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficient (k_La) in a new two impinging streams reactor (TISR), which is characterized by a high-intensity mixing chamber equipped with two two-phase nozzles directed toward each other. As a result of both the impinging process and high rate shear forces exerted on the gas and liquid phases, the overall volumetric mass-transfer coefficients of up to 0.41 s^-1, and the mass-transfer coefficients (k_L) of up to 15 - 10^-4 m/s have been obtained. In addition, the influences of gas and liquid flow rates on the k_La and a values obtained in the TISR have been investigated. These experimental results verify the capability of the proposed TISR in gas-liquid operations. Furthermore, on the basis of the experimental results obtained, two correlations for both the Sherwood number for the liquid phase (Sh_L) and the specific interfacial area (a) in terms of Froude, Reynolds, Schmidt, and Morton numbers have been derived.