Power Consumption in Uncovered Unbaffled Stirred Tanks: Influence of the Viscosity and Flow Regime

Computational Fluid Dynamics Study of a Pharmaceutical Full-Scale Hydrogenation Reactor

The pharmaceutical industry has been quite successful in developing new hydrogenation processes, and the chemistry of hydrogenation is currently well understood. However, it is a complex process to scale and optimize due to its high exothermicity, use of expensive catalysts and solvents, and its mass transfer requirements. Therefore, the aim of this work is to develop a CFD model to be able to describe the mass transfer, hydrodynamics, and mixing with respect to changes in rotational speed for a full-scale pharmaceutical hydrogenation reactor. In the first stage, a simple CFD model is used to predict the development of the surface vortex, and it is validated against literature data. In the second stage, the CFD model is tested on a full-scale configuration equipped with a Rushton turbine and a bottom kicker to study the formation of the surface vortex. Simulation results show the ability to predict the development of the surface vortex. These results are used to estimate the liquid height and mixing time as a function of several rotational speeds, allowing us to propose novel process correlations for this particular configuration. Although modelling the complete hydrogenation process would be challenging, this work is seen as a first step towards developing models that demonstrate the use of CFD at such large reactor scales.

Impact of baffle geometry on the fluid motion in the stirred vessel

The fluids mixing is a crucial operation in a large number of engineering systems. It has major significance in chemical engineering, food, cosmetics and pharmaceutics production, biotechnology, wastewater treatment engineering, and countless other applications. Among many available systems online mixing with static mixers and stirred tanks plays a primary role and has been developed to meet several processing objectives. The effectiveness of the mixing process depends on a number of parameters, i.e. impeller shape, mixing phases properties, process conditions as well as stirred vessel design - in particular, number and baffles’ design. The optimal baffles geometry is still an open issue and is usually design with trial and error methods. In this study, the focus is on the experimental investigations of the baffle geometry on the fluid flow and mixing phenomenon as well as on the required by the mixer power. In order to evaluate velocity field and mixing parameters, particle image velocimetry measurement is used whereas to obtain the power consumption by the stirred vessel precise torque meters were used. Measurements are carried out for different Reynolds numbers, to determine the most efficient process parameters. It has been shown that for the analyzed range of Reynolds numbers, the baffles design significantly influences fluid flow motion, mixing phenomena and the pumping number power number, but not affect the power number.

Mixing Performance Analysis of Orbitally Shaken Bioreactors

This study investigated the efficacy of a novel correlation of power input, energy dissipation rate and mixing time as a potential route to identify the orbitally shaken bioreactor (OSB) system. The Buckingham’s π-theorem was used to designate and transform dimensionless Newton numbers with five relevant power input variables. These variables were empirically varied to evaluate the correlation among the dimensionless numbers. The Newton number decreases with the increased shaking frequency and filling volume. Previous work has focused on optimizing the mixing process by evaluating different shaking and agitation mixing methods. We establish a new mixing process and assessable measurement of the mixing time in the OSB. An innovative explanation of mixing time for the thermal method is proposed. The optimal mixing time is independent of the temperature of filled liquid. The dimensionless mixing number remained constant in the turbulent regime and increasing with the increased liquid viscosity and filling volume. Our findings revealed that the observed correlation is a practical tool to figure the power consumption and mixing efficiency as cell cultivation in all OSB scales and is fully validated when scaling–up system.

Effect of Impeller Design on Power Characteristics and Newtonian Fluids Mixing Efficiency in a Mechanically Agitated Vessel at Low Reynolds Numbers

The mixing process is a widespread phenomenon, which plays an essential role among a large number of industrial processes. The effectiveness of mixing depends on the state of mixed phases, temperature, viscosity and density of liquids, mutual solubility of mixed fluids, type of stirrer, and, what is the most critical property, the shape of the impeller. In the present research, the objective was to investigate the Newtonian fluids flow motion as well as all essential parameters for the mechanically agitated vessel with a new impeller type. The velocity field, the power number, and the pumping capacity values were determined using computer simulation and experimental measurements. The basis for the assessment of the intensity degree and the efficiency of mixing had to do with the analysis of the distribution of velocity vectors and the power number. An experimental and numerical study was carried out for various stirred process parameters and for fluids whose viscosity ranged from low to very high in order to determine optimal conditions for the mixing process.