Three-Port Valve to Generate Length-Controllable Slug Flow for Chemical Process(Machine Elements, Design and Manufacturing)

We have developed a micro three port electromagnetic valve for micro chemical process. This study aims at integrating the micro three-port valve into micro reactor or micro flow control systems. We have applied the developed valve to slug flow generation by pouring two liquids into the ports to promote efficient chemical reaction. The slug flow is a stripe flow formed by serial segments of two liquids which appear alternately along the flow line. It greatly increases the interface between two liquids, resulting in very efficient chemical reactions. In addition, each set of the segments works as a kind of micro reactor chamber, in which many advantages of micro chemical reaction such as very uniform reactions and reactions under special conditions appear. Slug flow has been applied to copper ion extraction process. The effectiveness of the slug flow is clearly found. The results show the potential of the prototype valve to be applied to actual chemical processes.