Unsteady Modelling of the Mixing Efficiency, Species Transport, and Flow Structure in a Novel Photochemical Reactor

This paper deals with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to improve the design of a new scalable photochemical reactor which uses the Taylor–Couette flow principle. This study aims to investigate the ways to improve the mixing efficiency (Meff) within the reactor, as it is a key parameter to increase the productivity and inform the future scale-up of the novel reactor. The investigated design parameters are the gap size (d) between the reactor cylinders, the rotational speed (Ω) of the inner cylinder, the flow rate of the reagent (V˙), and the dynamic viscosity of the mixture (μ). For all the investigated cases, the results show that the temporal evolution of the Meff increases and then becomes steady after a maximum level is reached. The point of the maximum Meff is called the equilibration time. It is revealed that the Meff is mainly affected by the flow rate increase as it contracts the Taylor vortices and consequently the mixing deteriorates.