Mass transfer behavior of liquid-liquid slug flow in circular cross-section microchannel

An alkaline hydrolysis reaction was used as the model reaction to investigate the performance of liquid-liquid slug flow microchannel. The specific interfacial area was determined through the photographic snapshot method physically by means of measuring the lengths of relevant slugs. The overall volumetric mass transfer coefficients were calculated through the Danckwerts' model chemically. The influences of various operating conditions on the slug length, the overall volumetric extraction rate and the mass transfer coefficient were investigated quantitatively. A decreasing trend of volumetric mass transfer coefficients along the channel length was found. The linear dependence of the volumetric extraction rate on the volumetric mass transfer coefficient indicates that the overall rate of the process is determined by the mass transfer process. In addition, the volumetric mass transfer coefficients were correlated for different channel lengths. (C) 2013 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.