Multiphase Flow Pattern Hydrodynamics of Carbon Dioxide and Water in Microchannel Reactor

The utilization of CO2 is crucial to convert waste into valuable products, such as fuels. Microchannel reactor technology has gained attention for CO2 utilization due to their higher interfacial area compared to traditional reactors. Understanding flow regimes is critical for optimizing mass transfer efficiency. Hence, this project aims to create a new flow pattern map for CO2 and water and investigate how gas bubble and liquid slug properties are affected by the change in superficial velocity. Thus, the interfacial area for each flow pattern can be observed which affects the mass transfer performance. The dimensions of flow pattern were measured, so the interfacial area could be calculated accordingly. The amount of CO2 absorbed into water was determined using the titration method. Then the liquid side mass transfer coefficient for slug flow was determined from the models proposed by van Baten and Krishna (2004). In the end, the rate of mass transfer was determined for slug flow. The results show that slug flow is formed at high gas-to-liquid ratio. Longer slug flow has higher interfacial area and more CO2 is absorbed through diffusion. A larger interfacial area contributes to higher mass transfer rate, so this proves that the microchannel is good for CO2 utilization process.