Pressure static mixer

Air is compressed to modest pressures, typically 100 to 200 kPa ( 15-30 psig) with either a centrifugal or radial compressor, and mixed with superheated vaporized butane. Static mixers are normally employed to ensure good mixing. Butane concentrations are often limited to less than 1.7 mol 1 to stay below the lower flammable limit of butane (144). Operation of the reactor at butane concentrations below the flammable limit does not eliminate the requirement for combustion venting, and consequendy most processes use mpture disks on both the inlet and exit reactor heads. A dow diagram of the Huntsman fixed-bed maleic anhydride process is shown in Figure 1. 

Pressure drop in static mixers depends very strongly on geometric arrangement of the inserts. It is simply defined in relation to the pressure drop AP in an empty tube given by Darcy s equation ... 

The energy to drive the fluid through a static mixer comes from the fluid pressure itself, creating a loss in pressure (usually small) as the fluid flows through the unit. For laminar flow... 

AP, = static mixer pressure drop in turbulent flow, psi... 

P0 = Np = Power number, dimensionless, Equation 5-19 Ppew = Plate coil width, one plate, ft Ap = Pressure drop, psi AP0 = Pressure drop for open pipe, psi AP, = Static mixer pressure drop in turbulent flow, psi Q = Flow rate or pumping capacity from impeller, cu l t/sec, or Ls/1... 

One of the most important considerations in choosing or comparing static mixers is the power consumed by the mixer to achieve a desired mixture quality. The pressure... 

Static mixers are typically less effective in turbulent flow than an open tube when the comparison is made on the basis of constant pressure drop or capital cost. Whether laminar or turbulent, design correlations are generally lacking or else are vendor-proprietary and are rarely been subject to peer review. 

The high pressure continuous reactor consists of five Kenics type in-line static mixers, that were connected in series [3]. Each reactor unit has 27 Kenics elements and dimensions of 19 cm tube length and 3.3 mm inner diameter. Acetonylacetone and 1 % NaOH aqueous solution were pumped into the in-line static mixer reactor using two independent HPLC pumps. The in-line static mixer reactors were immersed in a constant temperature controlled oil bath at 200 °C so that the reaction mixture was heated to the reaction temperature. When the reaction was completed, the fluid was cooled down rapidly in a constant temperature cold bath at 0 °C. At the end of the cooling line, a backpressure regulator was placed to allow experiments to be run at 34 bar. 

Reactors with a packed bed of catalyst are identical to those for gas-liquid reactions filled with inert packing. Trickle-bed reactors are probably the most commonly used reactors with a fixed bed of catalyst. A draft-tube reactor (loop reactor) can contain a catalytic packing (see Fig. 5.4-9) inside the central tube. Stmctured catalysts similar to structural packings in distillation and absorption columns or in static mixers, which are characterized by a low pressure drop, can also be inserted into the draft tube. Recently, a monolithic reactor (Fig. 5.4-11) has been developed, which is an alternative to the trickle-bed reactor. The monolith catalyst has the shape of a block with straight narrow channels on the walls of which catalytic species are deposited. The already extremely low pressure drop by friction is compensated by gravity forces. Consequently, the pressure in the gas phase is constant over the whole height of the reactor. If needed, the gas can be recirculated internally without the necessity of using an external pump. 

FIGURE 14.18 Flow diagram of split flow capillary LC system. 1. Solvent reservoirs. 2. Model 5000 syringe pump (Varian, Walnut Creek, California). 3. Static mixer. 4. Injection port. 5. Column. 6. Detector. 7. Pressure transducer. 8. Pulse dampener. 9. Purge valve. 10. U-flow controlling device. 11. Waste. 

As previously mentioned, plant personnel were successful at mitigating the black streaks with the use of static mixers positioned inside the injection nozzle. Since the degraded resin was soft and leathery, it was easily broken into smaller particles as they passed through the mixer. Thus, the particles were not eliminated they were just reduced in size such that they did not create as many black streaks. The additional pressure and time that was required to inject the resin through the static mixers and into the mold, however, increased the cycle time to an unacceptable level. Although static mixers can be used to mitigate these types of problems, they do not eliminate the root cause of the degradation problem. 

Likewise, the Increased pressure drop associated with some thin-channel systems, turbulence promoters, and static mixers must be weighed against the increased flux obtained. 

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