Parameters for the Design of a Laboratory PFIER

For the dynamic ion-exchange reactor to work properly, it should satisfy the following features, as described in Section 6.11.1 for the case of adsorption. 

Residence time Since ion exchange is a slow process, the fluid contact or residence time should be long enough for the molecular transport to the ion-exchange sites. Therefore, it is possible to tryout residence times around the following figures 1 s x 10 s. 

Particle size Granular particles with large particle sizes should be used, since if the particle size is small, a pressure drop inside the reactor will be generated. As in the case of adsorption, the particle size depends on the dimension of the reactor. A good practice is to construct the reactor following the approximate relation dRldP 10, where dR is the reactor diameter and dP is the particle size. For testing a material in the laboratory, dRldP 10 is a good choice. 

These features are only approximate design criteria, which are exclusively used for laboratory tests of ion exchangers. 

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