Axial Dispersion and Heat Transfer in a Milli/Microstructured Coiled Flow Inverter for Narrow Residence Time Distribution at Laminar Flow

Helically coiled tubes offer improved residence and thermal time distributions due to the formation of Dean vortices via centrifugal forces. Design and fabrication of several milli/microstructured helically coiled tube reactors are described for processes requiring a narrow residence time distribution (RTD) and efficient heat transfer at laminar flow regime. The performance of microstructured reactor capillaries, which provide a high specific surface area, is combined with a type of helically coiled tube, namely, a coiled flow inverter allowing for the narrowest RTD in laminar flow regimes. Axial dispersion is characterized by obtaining the RTD curves from different reactor setups. Overall heat transfer coefficients of a new reactor setup are measured in order to determine the heat transfer efficiency.