Inter Symposium On Mixing in Industrial Processes VIII - Sept 2014 - Australia

INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON
MIXING IN INDUSTRIAL
PROCESSES VIII
1517 September 2014
Melbourne, Australia
ISMIP8
ABSTRACTS VOLUME
Co-hosted by
Symposium Partner
Proceedings International Symposium on

Mixing in Industrial Processes VIII (ISMIP8)
1517 September 2014
Melbourne, Australia
The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

Publication Series No 10/2014
Edited by
Dr Jie Wu, CSIRO
Dr Rajarathinam Parthasarathy, RMIT University
Published by:
The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy
Ground Floor, 204 Lygon Street, Carlton Victoria 3053, Australia
The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 2014
ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Dr Jie Wu, CSIRO (Co-chair)
Dr Rajarathinam Parthasarathy, RMIT University (Co-chair)
THE AUSIMM
Alison McKenzie (Senior Manager, Events)
Belinda Martin (Manager, Event Operations)
Cassandra Benn (Senior Coordinator, Events)
Claire Lockyer (Coordinator, Publishing)
FOREWORD
The inaugural International Symposium on Mixing in Industrial Processes (ISMIP) was held in Quebec City,
Canada in 1995. Since then the symposium has been held in countries around the world including Mexico,
Japan, France, Spain, Canada and China, approximately on a triennial basis.
In September 2014, the 8th ISMIP will be held in Melbourne, Australia for the first time. Both CSIRO and
RMIT University believe that mixing in industrial processes is important for the Australian economy due to
its wide application in minerals and chemical industries.
We are pleased to have a wide range of presentations from around the world, including high attendance
from Asia. This volume contains a wealth of topics in abstract form, ranging from fundamental mixing
research to industrial applications. In addition to many traditional topics like viscous mixing, solids
suspension, liquid-liquid mixing, micromixing and CFD modelling, interesting and new topics such as
mixing in the thickener technology will be presented at the symposium. These topics are very important for
minerals, wastewater, food and the industry as a whole.
We would like to extend our warm welcome to all delegates of ISMIP8. We sincerely hope the symposium
will bring you a valuable and memorable experience.
Dr Jie Wu, CSIRO (Co-chair)
Dr Rajarathinam Parthasarathy, RMIT University (Co-chair)
CONTENTS
Keynote Speakers
Characterising Mixing What Can We Get Out of Todays
Modern Tools?
J Aubin
Influence of Energy Input on Behaviour of Multiphase Processes
G M Evans, E Doroodchi,
M Sathe, Z Peng, M Hoque
and S Ghatage
Mixing in Gravity Thickener Feedwells as Applied in the

Minerals Industry
P D Fawell, M N Tanguay,
T V Nguyen, D W Stephens
and A F Grabsch
Gas-liquid Mass Transfer in Hot Sparged Gas-liquid-solid

Stirred Tanks
Z Gao, J Zhang, Y Bao and

Z Cai
Suspending Mixtures of Solids in Stirred Tanks Complexities

and Solutions
S Kresta
11
Chaotic Mixing The First 25 Years
G Metcalfe
12
Stirred Ultra-scale-down Bioreactors for Animal and Stem Cell

Culture A Theoretical Challenge
A W Nienow
13
Chemical Process Intensification from the Perspective of Chaotic

Mixing
N Ohmura
15
Effect of Operating Conditions on Mixing Time in Stirred Tank

Reactors
N H Abdullah and
S Ibrahim
18
The Effect of Curvature Angles and Central Disk Sizes of

Six-curved Blade Impellers on Liquid-liquid Reaction Through
Stirred Vessel
R Afshar Ghotli,
A R Abdul Aziz and
S Ibrahim
19
Low Temperature Synthesis and Characterisation of Ni/Al

Bimetallic Catalyst
M Ahmad and
A R Abdul Aziz
20
Analysis of Mixing Performance using Planar Laser Induced

Fluorescence for the Blending of Shear-thinning Fluids in Static
Mixers
F Alberini, M J H Simmons,
A Ingram and E H Stitt
21
Gas-liquid Mass Transfer Study Using Ultrasonic Irradiation

Assistance and Response Surface Methodology
S Asgharzadehahmadi,
R Afshar Ghotli,
A R Abdul Aziz and
R Parthasarathy
23
Study of the Starting Torque of Vertical Paddle Impellers
Y Bando, K Nishi,
R Misumi and
M Kaminoyama
24
Abstracts
Experimental Research of Macromixing in a Boiling

Gas-solid-liquid Stirred Tank
Z Cai, W Li, Y Qin and

Z Gao
26
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modelling of Micromixing of a

Single-feed Semi-batch Precipitation Process in a Liquid-liquid
Stirred Reactor
D Cheng, X Li, C Yang and

Z-S Mao
28
Hydrodynamic Behaviour of Three Shaking Flask

Configurations used in Biotechnology
M S Crdova-Aguilar,
C Palacios, R Zenit,
M A Trujillo-Roldn and
G Ascanio
30
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modelling of Micromixing in

Stirred-tank Reactors with DQMOM-IEM Model
X Duan, X Feng, C Yang

and Z-S Mao
32
Acoustic Micromixing for Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent

Assay
Y Gao, K Petkovic Duran,

P Tran, R Manasseh and
Y Zhu
34
Numerical and Experimental Studies on Hydrodynamics of

Double Helical Ribbon Impeller with Internal Baffles
C-Y Ge, J-J Wang and

L-F Feng
36
Axial Mixing of Viscous Fluid by New Static Time Difference

Type Mixer
T Hanada, T Okada and

K Takahashi
37
Advances in Thickener Flocculant Mixing and Delivery
A R Heath
40
Chaotic Mixing Induced by Axial Reciprocation of Disk Impeller
Y Hirata
41
Effects of Impeller Height and Particle Properties on the Particle

Collision Phenomena in a Solid-liquid Stirred Vessel
H Iijima, R Misumi,
K Nishi and M Kaminoyama
43
Numerical Simulation of Liquid Surface in a Small Cup using

Rotation Revolution Mixer
T Inaba, K Imai and

S Matsuoka
45
Characterisation of Batch Rotor-stator Mixers
J James, M Cooke,
A J Kowalski, P Martin and
T L Rodgers
47
Solids Suspension for the Mining Industry
R Jacques, T Post and

K Johnson
48
Effects of Agitation and Fluid Concentration on the Mixing

Enhancement of a Yield Stress Fluid in a Stirred Vessel with
Aeration
M Kaminoyama,
H Nakahara, S Ikeda,
M Misumi and K Nishi
49
Low Viscosity Blending Performance for Multiple Hydrofoil

Impellers in Tall Vessels
R O Kehn, M Powell and

A Strand
50
Mixing Characteristics of Liquid Jet Recirculation in a Model

Digester
S Kennedy,
R Parthasarathy,
N Eshtiaghi, S Bhattacharya
and P Slatter
54
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modelling Study to Predict the

Particle Shear History in a Tank Stirred by an Axial Flow
Impeller
G L Lane and I Livk
55
Improved Blending in a Full-scale Iron Ore Slurry Tank
B D Marjavaara,
O Eriksson, J Wu,
B Nguyen and L Pullum
57
Effect of Mixing on Starch Hydrolysis Using a CouetteTaylor

Flow Reactor
H Masuda, T Horie,
R Hubacz and N Ohmura
58
Effects of Baffle Geometry on Mixing Performance in

Continuous Oscillatory Flow Reactors
A Mazubert, M Poux,
D F Fletcher and J Aubin
60
Relation between Particle Collisions and Paint Erosion on

Impeller Blades
R Misumi, H Kato,
H Iijima, K Nishi and
M Kaminoyama
62
Physical Modelling of Mixing and Separation in Liquid-liquid

Systems
K Mohanarangam, W Yang
and K R Barnard
64
Horizontal Load on Agitating Shaft of Eccentric Mixing using

Maxblend Impeller
K Nishi, K Sonoda,
R Misumi and
M Kaminoyama
65
Micromixing Physics and Applications in Biology and

Chemistry
K Petkovic Duran,
D R Lester, G Metcalfe,
R Manasseh and Y Zhu
67
Impact of Gas Flow Rate on the Specific Power Input for a

Solid-liquid-gas Stirred Reactor
R S S Raja Ehsan Shah,

A A Abdul Raman,
S Ibrahim and M Davoody
69
Analysis of Mixing Performance of Viscoelastic Fluids in Static

Mixers using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence
J A Ramsay,
M J H Simmons, A Ingram,
A Tharakan and E H Stitt
70
Assessment of the Performance of Butterfly Impellers in Stirred

Tanks using Particle Imaging Velocimetry and Planar Laser
Induced Fluorescence
J A Ramsay,
M J H Simmons, A Ingram,
A Tharakan and E H Stitt
72
Enhancing Solid-liquid Mass Transfer Using Ultrasound in

Agitated Solid-liquid Systems
D Stoian, R Parthasarathy,
N Eshtiaghi and J Wu
74
Effect of Vertical Inner Coiler on Bioreactors Power

Consumption and Mass Transfer Coefficient
X Wan and K Takahashi
76
Transport of Finite-sized Particles in Stirred Tanks
S Wang, R Stewart,
G Metcalfe and J Wu
78
Dynamically Enhanced Dispersive Mixing of Shear Sensitive

Microstructures with Rotating Membrane Devices Applying
Micro-engineered Membranes
E J Windhab and
S Holzapfel
79
Swirl Flow Agitation to Reduce Tank Down-time for Large-scale

Minerals Processing Applications
J Wu, B Nguyen, G Lane,

I Livk, J Farrow, L Graham,
S Wang and D Harris
81
Mixing Effect on Undesirable Coagulation in Emulsion

Polymerisation
R Yatomi, H Nishimi and

K Takahashi
82
Dished-base Tank as an Alternative Geometry for Solid-liquid

Suspension
Z Zamzam, M Sato, Y Kato,

S Ibrahim and S D Wong
83
Effect of Lift Force on Solid Particles for Complete Suspension in

a Stirred Tank
Z Zamzam, S Yoshikawa,
S Ookawara and Y Kato
85
Keynote Speakers
Characterising Mixing What Can We Get Out of Todays

Modern Tools?
J Aubin1
1. Researcher, Laboratoire de Gnie Chimique, University of Toulouse, 4 Alle Emile Monso, BP-84234, 31030
Toulouse, France. Email: joelle.aubincano@ensiacet.fr
ABSTRACT
Today, a wide range of advanced experimental and numerical tools exists for the characterisation of mixing
and flow. These tools provide significantly more detailed information on mixing processes than the
traditionally used global parameters, such as power draw, blend time, mass transfer coefficients and reaction
conversion, or qualitative observations of physical phenomena, eg gas-liquid dispersion regimes. Indeed, the
initial development of fluid mechanics tools (eg laser doppler velocimetry (LDV) and computational fluid
dynamics (CFD)) during the 1980s enabled huge developments in the understanding of mixing and the role
of hydrodynamics by providing detailed knowledge of the physical flow phenomena occurring within the
vessel, and this has had a significant impact on equipment design and operation. Since the 1980s, there have
been phenomenal advances in technology and computational power, which have enabled the capacities of
CFD to be extended enormously and have led to the development of other sophisticated measurement
techniques, such as particle image velocimetry (PIV), particle tracking velocimetry (PTV), positron emission
particle tracking (PEPT), laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and electrical resistance tomography (ERT). At
present, these techniques provide the possibility to obtain vast two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional
multiparameter data sets for complex multiscale and multimechanism engineering problems, and thereby
ultimately allow the detailed characterisation of hydrodynamics and the fluid mixing throughout the
duration of the process. Indeed, access to spatially resolved time-dependent data sets provides the
possibility to go beyond the traditional definition of mixing and methods used for characterising mixing.
Considering this, mixing has been redefined as the control of segregation (or inhomogeneities) based on
three dimensions: the intensity of segregation, the scale of segregation and the rate of change of segregation
(Kukukova, Aubin and Kresta, 2009). Using this definition, mixing can be quantitatively described in terms
of appropriate time and length scales, which can be accessed through multiparameter data sets. However,
one of the major difficulties encountered is that we are typically not used to dealing with such large and
complete time-dependent data sets and are therefore often not sure what to do with such masses of
information. Indeed, the translation of such vast information into practical engineering rules requires
creative thinking to design data processing methods that quantitatively describe what we see.
Over recent years, effort has been made in mixing research to explore new experimental and numerical
techniques and develop innovative methods for the analysis of mixing performance, making use of the vast
data sets available. Indeed, the advances in computing, graphics and data analysis over the past decade, as
well as facilitated access to knowledge in other disciplines through online and open access journals, has led
to the development new types of analyses, thereby allowing the characterisation of mixing performance to
be revisited. For example, PLIF data, which have typically been used to quantify the intensity of segregation
in mixing processes, have been processed to determine the scale of segregation (eg through striation
thicknesses and their distribution) (Kukukova, Aubin and Kresta, 2011), micromixing (Lehwald et al, 2012),
as well as integrated measures of intensity and scale of segregation (Alberini et al, 2014). Analysis of data
using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) has also shown to provide novel ways for characterising
mixing processes, for example by linking macro- and micromixing scales with flow fields (Lehwald et al,
2012) and for the determination of shear strain inflows (Gabelle et al, 2013). Other experimental techniques,
such as PEPT and ERT, and 3D reconstruction have also demonstrated the possibility to provide access to
segregation data in complex, multiphase and opaque fluids (Rafiee et al, 2013; Patel, Ein-Mozaffari and
Mehrvar, 2014).
This lecture presents an overview of the types of data sets that can be acquired from today's modern tools,
both experimental and numerical, and then reviews some of the recent methods explored for characterising
INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON MIXING IN INDUSTRIAL PROCESSES VIII / Melbourne, Australia, 1517 September 2014
mixing with these data sets. In addition, it suggests alternative quantities that could be determined to
evaluate mixing processes and hopes to stimulate other ideas to better characterise mixing processes.
REFERENCES
Alberini, F, Simmons, M J H, Ingram, A and Stitt, E H, 2014. Use of an areal distribution of mixing intensity to describe
blending of non-Newtonian fluids in a Kenics KM static mixer using PLIF, AIChE J, 60(1):332342.
Gabelle, J-C, Morchain, J, Anne-Archard, D, Augier, F and Lin, A, 2013. Experimental determination of the shear rate in
a stirred tank with a non-Newtonian fluid, Carbopol, 59(6):22512266.
Kukukova, A, Aubin, J and Kresta, S M, 2009. A new definition of mixing and segregation: three dimensions of a key
process variable, Chem Eng Res Des, 87(A4):633647.
Kukukova, A, Aubin, J and Kresta, S M, 2011. Measuring the scale of segregation in mixing data, Can J Chem Eng, 89:122
1138.
Lehwald, A, Janiga, G, Thvenin, D and Zhringer, K, 2012. Simultaneous investigation of macro- and micro-mixing in a
static mixer, Chem Eng Sci, 79:818.
Patel, D, Ein-Mozaffari, F and Mehrvar, M, 2014. Tomography images to analyse the deformation of the cavern in
continuous-flow mixing of non-Newonian fluids, AIChE J, 60(1):315331.
Rafiee, M, Simmons, M J H, Ingram, A and Stitt, E H, 2013. Development of positron emission particle tracking for
studying laminar mixing in Kenics static mixer, ChERD, 91:21062113.
Influence of Energy Input on Behaviour of Multiphase

Processes
G M Evans1, E Doroodchi2, M Sathe3, Z Peng4, M Hoque5 and S Ghatage6
1. Professor of Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308.
Email: geoffrey.evans@newcastle.edu.au
2. Senior Lecturer, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308.
Email: elham.doroodchi@newcastle.edu.au
3. Research Fellow, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308.
Email: mayur.sathe@newcastle.edu.au
4. Research Fellow, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308.
Email: zhengbiao.peng@newcastle.edu.au
5. PhD Candidate, School of Engineering, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan NSW 2308.
Email: mohammadmainul.hoque@uon.edu.au
6. PhD Candidate, Chemical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar 382424, India.
Email: swap.ghatage@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Multiphase systems are ubiquitous in industrial applications aimed at the generation of products either by
chemical/biological reaction or physical separation based on density, electrical charge or surface properties
such as hydrophobicity. The physical processing of these multiphase systems is carried out at all scales of
operation and within an endless variety of vessel shapes and ancillary devices. Underpinning each process is
a complex interaction between phases involving hydrodynamic, heat and mass transport. These phenomena
are in turn governed largely by the nature of the flow, and in particular whether laminar or turbulent
conditions prevail. In large-scale industrial processes the flows are almost always turbulent, whilst for
microscale operations the flow will be laminar. Each condition provides its own challenge in being able to
predict (and optimise) performance in terms of operational stability and efficiency of energy utilisation.
Turbulent systems are particularly difficult to optimise, where the efficiency of utilisation of turbulent
energy to enhance the transport phenomena is poor, usually less than five per cent. The major loss of
efficiency can be attributed to the non-optimal distribution of turbulent energy dissipation rate and the
length scale of energetic flow structures. The length scale of turbulence and spatial distribution of energy
dissipation rate, especially in the region of the interface between the phases, must be tailored to the desired
application in order to achieve higher efficiency. This might sound easy but tailoring energy dissipation to
the operational requirements is very difficult to achieve in practice. Not all systems operate under turbulent
conditions. Microdevices are increasingly being used for mixing and reacting operations since they are able
to offer uniformity of flow, enhanced heat and mass transfer, and simplicity and low cost of construction.
However, microdevices have their own limitations in that the flow is almost certainly to be in the laminar
regime whereby any velocity fluctuations, and resultant enhancement of dispersion behaviour, are likely to
be attenuated. Irrespective of whether the system is operating under either laminar or turbulent conditions it
is important to be able to control energy dissipation rate at a length scale that optimises the transport
process.
Multiphase systems operate under different flow regimes. For example, fluidised beds and bubble columns
typically operate in either the homogeneous (bubbly) or heterogeneous (churn-turbulent) regimes
depending on the volumetric flow rates, and dispersed phase (bubbles, droplets or particles) characteristic
size and volume fraction. The rate of heat, mass and momentum exchange will depend on the operating
regime, and for this reason it is important to be able to predict when the transition will take place for a given
(conventional or micro-) scale of operation and energy input rate.
In this study, the velocity field inside a typical multiphase system (fluidised bed and bubble column) is
quantified using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The information is then processed to obtain both overall
energy dissipation rate and spatial and temporal energy spectrums, which allows us to compute/comment
upon the energy utilisation within the system. Measurements are performed within both conventional and
microscale fluidised beds and compared with expectations of pressure drop and dispersed phase volume
fractions obtained from RichardsonZaki/Ergun and discrete element modelling. Finally, both drift-flux and
linear stability analysis are applied in order to predict regime transition as a function of system operating
parameters, including inlet flow conditions of the continuous phase.
Mixing in Gravity Thickener Feedwells as Applied in the

Minerals Industry
P D Fawell1, M N Tanguay2, T V Nguyen2, D W Stephens3 and A F Grabsch2
1. Team Leader | Solid-Liquid Handling, CSIRO Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship, Australian
Minerals Research Centre, PO Box 7229, Karawara WA 6152. Email: phillip.fawell@csiro.au
2. CSIRO Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship.
3. Applied CCM Pty Ltd.
ABSTRACT
The aggregation of single particles or small groups of particles into multiparticle structures is used to
accelerate or improve the efficiency of solid-liquid separation. In water treatment this can be done by
coagulation, in which adsorbed inorganic or organic reagents alter surface charge and reduce inter-particle
repulsions. In mineral processing applications (typically achieved in the feedwells of gravity thickeners),
long chain polymers (flocculants) are added that aggregate by particle bridging in a process termed
flocculation.
Both coagulation and flocculation are very much dependent upon the applied mixing, a consequence of the
need for efficient distribution of reagents across the particle and the shear-sensitivity of the sizes achieved
for the fragile aggregate structures. The key distinction between the two processes is that breakage of
coagulated aggregates under shear is reversible, ie they can increase in size if shear is reduced or tapered.
Flocculated aggregates actually exhibit higher strength, but their breakage is usually irreversible.
Knowledge about applied mixing in industrial applications for both processes is crucial for subsequent
optimisation, but actual requirements for each are often very different. The reversibility of coagulation leads
to fairly simple relationships between shear and residence time that are routinely used in design. Many
attempt to extend such relationships to flocculation this has limited success in low solids clarification, but
fails for flocculation in most thickener feedwells from the greater impact of irreversible breakage at higher
solids concentrations.
Coagulation in water treatment typically seeks high clarity at modest throughputs. Computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) can be quite successful in the study of such applications even at fairly low levels of
sophistication, through the prediction of currents within a settling vessel that can entrain fine solids and the
testing of baffle designs to dissipate such flows. Throughputs are often much higher in mineral processing
thickeners, and while much faster settling can be achieved from flocculation, the demands this places on the
hydrodynamic conditions within a feedwell are not well captured by basic CFD.
For over 25 years, the AMIRA P266 Improving Thickener Technology project series has sought to advance
the fundamental understanding of all aspects associated with feedwell flocculation. Central to this has been
what began as two distinct research streams:
1. Developing robust tools and procedures to quantify flocculation performance and the kinetics of
aggregate growth and breakage in real-time at practical solids concentrations.
2. Enhancing CFD as a tool for optimising feedwell design and operating conditions, including pilot and
full-scale validation of model predictions.
These streams remained distinct for many years primarily due to the difficulty in relating experimental shear
conditions to CFD-predicted feedwell shear rates, and in incorporating flocculation into CFD models. In
terms of the latter, the initial step involved including a simple model for flocculant adsorption, which then
allowed practical predictions as to the effectiveness of flocculant mixing throughout the solids. By improving
residence times for both solids and flocculant within feedwells by simple modifications to designs and
flocculant dosing points, CFD was used to achieve substantial enhancements in thickener throughputs and
reduced flocculant consumption, saving operating companies many millions of dollars.
The greatest step forward came with the use of turbulent pipe flow to measure flocculation kinetics, enabled
by real-time monitoring of aggregate size. From such results, a population balance (PB) model of flocculation
was developed and subsequently incorporated into CFD code. PB-CFD was initially highly complex, solving
for multiple equations and 30 size channels across millions of elements within a meshed feedwell, and
involved significant customisation of the commercial CFD code to better deal with multiphase flows.
However, the ability to for the first time predict aggregate sizes in 3D flows allowed the capture of the
critical effects of solids concentration, shear and residence time, as well as aggregate structural changes that
may result from the use of different flocculants.
Recent advances have seen substantial reductions in CFD convergence times, improved model stability and
the introduction of new performance measures. New insights have been gained from systematic PB-CFD
studies of feedwell design elements, operating conditions and particle sizes, with the impact of flocculant
viscoelasticity now being examined. Such modelling is also now better able to predict transient flow
behaviour, with recent advances in real-time flow measurement providing practical validation.
Gas-liquid Mass Transfer in Hot Sparged Gas-liquid-solid

Stirred Tanks
Z Gao1, J Zhang2, Y Bao2 and Z Cai2
1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of
Chemical Technology, Mailbox 230, Beijing 100029, China. Email: gaozm@mail.buct.edu.cn
2. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Resource Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of
Chemical Technology, Mailbox 230, Beijing 100029, China.
ABSTRACT
Multiphase stirred reactors are widely applied in many industrial processes such as polymerisation,
halogenations, mineral processing, fermentation and sewage treatment. In the processes where the gasliquid mass transfer is a determining step, the capacity design should be based on the volumetric mass
transfer coefcient (k L a). In an aerated system at ambient (cold) temperature, the vapour pressure can be
assumed to be insignificant compared with the operating pressure. However, many processes are
exothermic and hot, operating at higher temperatures, when the assumption of negligible vapour pressure
is likely to be invalid. Over the past decades, studies on hot gas-liquid systems have shown that hot-sparged
conditions signicantly differ from those in cold gassed systems, even though the investigation on
volumetric mass transfer coefcient at high temperature seems not so common, especially in a three-phase
stirred reactor. The present work is carried out in a stirred tank with triple impellers and focuses on the
effects of temperature and solid concentration on the power consumption and the volumetric mass transfer
coefficient.
The experiments were carried out in 0.3 m and 0.476 m diameter cylindrical vessels under full-baffled
condition. The impellers used in this work were six-half-elliptical-blade disk turbine (HEDT) and two uppumping four-wide-blade hydrofoil impellers (WH U ), abbreviated as HEDT+2WH U . All the impellers were
0.4 T in diameter, the same as the clearance from the lowest impeller to tank bottom, while the distance
between two adjacent impellers was 0.48 T. Air bubbles were sparged from a ring aparger of diameter 0.8 D
located at the height of 0.33 T above the tank bottom. Solids concentration C v varied from 012 per cent (vol).
In order to make sure that the solids were suspended off the bottom, all experiments were carried out above
the critical just suspension speed (N js ) and impeller power consumption was measured using a torque
transducer. Volumetric mass transfer coefficient k L a in non-coalescent system (air/sodium sulfite) in 0.476 m
diameter vessel was measured by sulfite oxidation method (Ruchti, Dunn and Bourne, 1985), while in
coalescent system (air/deionised water) it was obtained by the feeding sulfite method in 0.3 m diameter
vessel (Imai, Takei and Matsumura, 1987).
Increasing the power input is effective to improve the mass transfer in the stirred tank (Figure 1). When
more mechanical power is input, the fluid flow in the stirred tank is more violent, benefiting both the shear
mixing and the gas dispersion. Therefore, larger amount of small bubbles are introduced into liquid, and the
overall gas hold-up increases. Meanwhile, the gas-liquid interfacial area (a) is also increased and k L a
increases eventually. Introducing more gas into the vessel is another effective way to improve the mass
transfer performance (Figure 2). Temperature is another important factor affecting the mass transfer
coefficient due to the physical properties variation of gas and liquid phases. Though the rising of
temperature leads to a decrease of interfacial area a and an increase of diffusivity k L simultaneously, the
variation amplitudes are totally different, inducing the increase of k L a finally (Figures 1 and 2).
0.50
0.35
T*/oC
50
60
70
80
0.25
0.20
0.15
0.5
50
60
70
80
1.0
1.5
2.0
0.35
0.30
0.25
0.20
(a) Vs=7.8010-3m/s
0.10
0.05
T*/oC
0.40
kLa(s-1)
kLa(s-1)
0.30
0.45
(b) Vs=2.3410-2m/s
0.15
0.10
2.5
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
-1
-1
PTm(Wkg )
PTm(Wkg )
FIG 1 Relationship between k L a and P Tm at different Vs in a non-coalescent system.

0.40
T*/oC
0.22
0.20
kLa(s-1)
T*/oC
50
60
70
80
0.18
50
60
70
80
0.35
kLa(s-1)
0.24
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.25
0.20
(a) N=4 s-1
0.10
0.30
(b) N=5s-1
0.15
0.08
0.01
0.02
0.03
0.04
0.01
0.02
-1
Vs (ms
0.03
0.04
-1
Vs (ms
FIG 2 Relationship between k L a and Vs at different P Tm in a non-coalescent system.

The effects of the temperature on the RPD carried in 0.3 m diameter vessel at different solid concentrations
(Figures 3a and 3b) clearly shows that in gas-liquid system the higher the temperature, the greater the RPD.
However, the effect of temperature on RPD is not so obvious at high solid concentrations.
1.00
25
40
54
68
80
0.95
0.85
0.80
0.80
0.70
0.00
25
40
54
68
80
0.90
0.85
0.75
T*/C
0.95
RPD
0.90
RPD
1.00
T*/C
0.75
N=10s-1
0.05
0.10
Flg
0.15
0.20
0.70
0.00
N=10s-1
0.05
0.10
0.15
0.20
Flg
FIG 3 Influence of the temperature on the RPD (N = 10s-1) in coalescent system: (A) C V = 0%; (B) C V = 12%.
The effects of the temperature on k L a in coalescent system (Figure 4a) show that no evident effect can be
observed since k L a values appear not to follow any particular trend. However, when the solid concentration
C V is as high as nine per cent, k L a increases with the increasing temperature (Figure 4b).
0.30
0.28
T*/C
25
40
54
68
80
0.26
0.24
0.20
kLa
kLa
0.22
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.5
1.0
1.5
2.0
0.30
0.28
0.26
0.24
0.22
0.20
0.18
0.16
0.14
0.12
0.10
0.08
0.06
2.5
T*/C
25
40
54
68
80
0.5
1.0
1.5
Pm
2.0
2.5
Pm
FIG 4 Influence of the temperature on k L a in coalescent system:

(A) C V = 0% (Vs = 0.031 m/s); (B) C V = 9% (Vs = 0.031 m/s).
The effects of C V on k L a at different temperatures in coalescent system (Figure 5) show that k L a decreases
when the particles were added to nine per cent at both ambient and high temperatures. But compared with
the k L a with or without solids, the decreasing at hot is much smaller than that at cold.
0.30
0.25
Cv=0%
Cv=9%
Cv=0%
Cv=9%
25
C
25
C
80
C
80
C
0.8
1.2
kLa
0.20
0.15
0.10
0.05
0.4
1.6
2.0
2.4
Pm
FIG 5 Influence of C V on k L a under different temperatures in coalescent system.
REFERENCES
Imai, Y, Takei, H and Matsumura, M, 1987. A simple Na 2 SO 3 feeding method for K L a measurement in large-scale
fermentors, Biotechnol Bioeng, 29:982993.
Ruchti, G, Dunn, I J and Bourne, J R, 1985. Practical guidelines for the determination of oxygen transfer coefficients (K L a)
with the sulfite oxidation method, Chem Eng J, 30:2938.
10
Suspending Mixtures of Solids in Stirred Tanks

Complexities and Solutions
S Kresta1
1. Consultant, Canada.
ABSTRACT
The Zwietering Correlation, developed in the 1950s, has been used for decades as the standard design
equation for suspension of solids in stirred tanks. Developed as an empirical fit to a large set of experimental
data, the constant S, the lack of a mechanistic underpinning, and several of the exponents have provoked
discussion for many years. In spite of a number of attempts to find a better solution, the equation has been
difficult to replace.
Over the last decade, a number of groups have taken on a direct critical assessment of the correlation, and a
number of weaknesses in the correlation have emerged:
The effect of particle diameter is only partially explained by the balance between drag and buoyancy.
The effect of viscosity is realistically represented for low viscosity fluids. The impact at higher
viscosities and in different flow regimes is unknown.
The effect of impeller diameter is not fully captured by either D0.85 or S.
S is a function of impeller diameter, off-bottom clearance, impeller type, bottom shape, baffle
geometry, particle type, and weakly of scale. An S that exactly matches the geometry and the particles
of interest is required to get accurate predictions.
The off-bottom clearance is known to have a significant effect, but it is not specifically accounted for in
the correlation.
At very low concentrations (one particle) the correlation predicts that N js will go to zero, but in fact
there is a fixed lower limit.
At concentrations higher than (X = 2) the correlation is no longer accurate.
In summary, the original form of the Zwietering correlation is applicable to a very small range of cases:
up to 2 wt per cent solids (or X = 2)
for geometries, scales, and particle types with known S values
low viscosity fluids
unimodal slurries.
This keynote will outline a number of new outcomes in the field for mixtures of solids, high concentrations,
low concentrations, and discuss various possible paths forward based on a better understanding of the
mechanisms which dominate solids suspension.
11
Chaotic Mixing The First 25 Years

G Metcalfe1
1. CSIRO Manufacturing / Applied Fluid Chaos Group, 37 Graham Rd, Highett Vic 3190.
Email: guy.metcalfe@csiro.au
ABSTRACT
It is 25 years since the publication of Julio Ottinos book, The Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching, Chaos, and
Transport (Ottino, 1989) advanced the ideas of chaotic advection into the mixing and process industries. Now
hailed as one of the most influential contributions to mixing research (Calabrese, Kresta and Liu, 2014), the
silver anniversary of publication seems like a good time to review the progress of the ideas of chaos and
mixing and the extent to which they have impacted the process industries. The central mixing discovery is
that highly simple, even creeping, flows can generate topologically complex fluid filament structures and
that these structures are the highways for all transport in laminar flows and mediate all particulate and
reactive interactions in the flow. I will review chaotic mixing from the perspective of dynamical systems,
moving from theory to several examples of chaotic advection in industrial use. Finally, I will attempt to
forecast some major directions for chaotic mixing research: fully three-dimensional flows, incorporation of
additional physical forces (chaotic advection plus!), and the push to ever smaller scale mixing.
REFERENCES
Calabrese, R, Kresta, S and Liu, M, 2014. Recognizing the 21 most influential contributions to mixing research, Chem Eng
Prog [online]. Available from: <http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2014/01/31/7656910.htm> [Accessed: 31
January 2014].
Ottino, J M, 1989. The Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching, Chaos, and Transport, Cambridge Texts in Applied Mathematics
Series, 396 p, (Cambridge University Press: United Kingdom).
12
Stirred Ultra-scale-down Bioreactors for Animal and Stem

Cell Culture A Theoretical Challenge
A W Nienow1,2
1. Emeritus Professor of Biochemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Email: a.w.nienow@bham.ac.uk
2. Visiting Professor of Biochemical Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE11 3TU, UK.
ABSTRACT
Stirred bioreactors have been the workhorse of the bioprocess industries since the 1950s (Amanullah,
Buckland and Nienow, 2004). Initially, when animal cell culture was introduced to produce monoclonal
antibodies and therapeutic proteins, there was much concern that stirring would damage them due to shear
because they lacked a cell wall. As a result, bubble column bioreactors were proposed but bursting bubbles
proved more damaging than stirring; though that has been solved by the use of the surfactant, Pluronic F68.
As a result, though the perception of shear sensitivity still exists, sparged, stirred bioreactors up to 20 m3
are now in operation (Nienow, 2006). However, there is always a need to look for better cells or clones which
demands many experiments (O 100 s); and that has generally been undertaken in small shaken conical
flasks. Around 2010, a 15 mL robotically-controlled fed-batch bioreactor (ambr) stirred at speeds up to
30 rev/s with pH and dO 2 control was introduced, which has since been shown by many companies to be
much better at predicting which are good clones; and it has rapidly been adopted by industry, especially
because its configuration is so similar to the large stirred ones used commercially. More recently (2013), we
reported its mixing characteristics (power number measured and predicted by computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) with good agreement, mixing time, k L a), which are actually very different from those found
in stirred bioreactors growing animal cells from the bench to the 20 m3 scale, eg transitional flow rather than
turbulent, mean specific energy dissipation rate, T W/kg > by an order of magnitude, very high specific
sparge rate (vvm) but low superficial gas velocity (Nienow et al, 2013). These differences would not suggest
that performance in the ambr should be a good predictor of large scale performance; and the lack of
turbulent flow means Kolmogorov theory is not strictly applicable for assessing shear sensitivity.
Since about 2000, stem cells, which only grow attached to surfaces, have been produced for allogeneic
therapeutic purposes in patients (regenerative medicine) and for drug testing. Particularly, mesenchymal
stem cells (hMSCs) from the bone marrow of human donors have been cultured in bioreactors attached to
suspended microcarriers (~200 m solid particles with particular surface properties to encourage attachment
and to give a large surface area). We have reported the successful cultivation in a standard baffled 5 L bench
scale stirred bioreactors by operating at N js , the just fully suspended speed (rev/s) to minimise the chance of
shear damage to the cells (Rafiq et al, 2013). This scale is the largest reported to date in the peer reviewed
literature. By agitating for < 10 minutes at T = ~ 300( T ) N js , the cells could be removed from the
microcarriers and harvested for cryopreservation (Nienow et al, 2014). The cells maintained their therapeutic
attributes throughout these procedures in spite of their historically-perceived shear sensitivity (Croughan,
Hamel and Wang, 1987). Since there are potentially many cell donors and many process variables (type of
microcarrier, media, temperature, pH, batch or fed-batch) to optimise, there is again a need for an efficient
small scale robotic system to minimise the cost. The ambr is now being used for this purpose with some
success (Nienow, 2014); but again as with animal cells in free suspension, T is very high even at N js
compared to that used in the 5 L bioreactor during the 1014 days of culture.
These recent studies will be outlined and the theoretical problems they raise will be discussed during the
presentation.
13
REFERENCES
Amanullah, A, Buckland, B C and Nienow, A W, 2004. Mixing in the fermentation and cell culture industries, Handbook
of Industrial Mixing; Science and Practice (eds: E L Paul, V A Atiemo-Obeng and S M Kresta), 18:10711157.
Croughan, M S, Hamel, J F and Wang, D I C, 1987. Hydrodynamic effects on animal cells grown in microcarrier cultures,
Biotechnol Bioeng, 29:130141.
Nienow, A W, 2006. Reactor engineering in large scale animal cell culture, Cytotechnology, 50:933.
Nienow, A W, 2014. Physical characterization of the microbioreactor ambrTM and implications for animal and stem cell
culture, presented at Scale-Up and Manufacturing of Cell-Based Therapies III, San Diego, USA, January 2014.
Nienow, A W, Rafiq, Q A, Coopman, K and Hewitt, C J, 2014. A potentially scalable method for the harvesting of hMSCs
from microcarriers, Biochem Eng J, 85:7988.
Nienow, A W, Rielly, C D, Brosnan, K M, Bargh, N, Lee, K, Coopman, K and Hewitt, C J, 2013. The physical
characterisation of a microscale parallel bioreactor platform with an industrial CHO cell line expressing an IgG4,
Biochem Eng J, 76:2536.
Rafiq, Q A, Brosnan, K M, Coopman, K, Nienow, A W and Hewitt, C J, 2013. Culture of human mesenchymal stem cells
on microcarriers in a 5 L stirred-tank bioreactor, Biotechnol Lett, 35:12331245.
14
Chemical Process Intensification from the Perspective of

Chaotic Mixing
N Ohmura1
1. PhD, Professor, Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Kobe
University, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada-ku, Kobe 657-8501, Japan. Email: ohmura@ kobe-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
The terminology of process intensification was first used by Imperial Chemical Industries Ltd (ICI) in the
late 1970s as a concept of strategy for development of a compact plant to reduce capital cost of a chemical
production system. In 1990s or later, however, process intensification means not only miniaturisation
techniques but also innovative process techniques achieving a quantum leap in process/plant efficiency and
safety by dramatically reducing the number of processes, energy consumption and waste generation. Process
intensification also contributes toward a sustainable society. As Reay, Ramshaw and Harvey (2008)
described, it is crucial for process intensification to enhance momentum, mass and heat transfer rates and to
give every molecule the same processing experience. In this sense, it can be considered that chaotic mixing
plays a central role in process intensification.
Thanks to the pioneering works of Aref (1984) and Ottino (1989), the knowledge of chaos in Hamiltonian
systems has given us a better understanding of laminar mixing called chaotic mixing. Their works have
made us realise that mixing can be occurred by even infinitesimal perturbations imposed on a laminar flow
field and turbulent motions are not indispensable. Mixing enhancement in laminar flows is significant in
such industries as foods, polymers and chemicals and requires new mixing techniques. Since their works,
therefore, high efficient methods for laminar mixing have been proposed such as unsteady operations
(Lambert et al, 1996), eccentric stirred tank systems (Alvarez, Arratia and Muzzio, 2002), inclined impeller
systems (Takahashi et al, 2012; Wang, Wu and Ohmura, 2013), reciprocating impeller systems (Komoda,
Inoue and Hirata, 2000) and so on. These methods imply that chaotic mixing has a potential for dramatic
improvement of performance of chemical processes.
One characteristic of chemical devices is that their mixing capability is a strong function of their size.
Miniaturisation of reactors is one of effective ways for intensification of mixing. In a small-scale reactor such
as a microreactor, although laminar flow will be dominant, the molecular diffusion path is reduced and the
diffusion-controlled mixing is significantly accelerated. In this situation, the knowledge of chaotic mixing is
very useful for further mixing enhancement in a small-scale reactor that leads to achieving process
intensification. On the other hand, as Wu, Graham and Noui-Mehidi (2007) pointed out, it is not always
practical to reduce the physical size of reactors in a full-scale industrial plant. This indicates that process
intensification with conventional mixing devices such as stirred vessels should be explored by enhancing the
fluid dynamics of mixing. When the flow in a large-scale device has a coherent structure, even in a turbulent
flow, the mass transport between inside and outside of the coherent structure often becomes a rate-limiting
factor for global mixing. This transport between inside and outside of the coherent structure is due to chaotic
advection instead of to turbulent transport mechanisms (Metcalfe, 2010). Chaotic mixing may also provide
insight for the development of new type impellers and novel mixing methods.
From the above background, this lecture will discuss about the significance of chaotic mixing for the strategy
of developing new processes by introducing some of our research activities.
REFERENCES
Alvarez, M, Arratia, M and Muzzio, F J, 2002. Laminar mixing in eccentric stirred tank systems, Can J Chem Eng, 80:546
557.
Aref, H, 1984. Stirring by chaotic advection, J Fluid Mech, 143:121.
15
Komoda, Y, Inoue, Y and Hirata, Y, 2000. Mixing performance by reciprocating disk in cylindrical vessel, J Chem Eng
Japan, 33:879885.
Lambert, D J, Muzzio, F J, Swanson, P D and Tonkovich, A L, 1996. Using time-dependent RPM to enhance mixing in
stirred vessels, Chem Eng Sci, 51:733741.
Metcalfe, G, 2010. Applied fluid chaos: Designing advection with periodically reoriented flows for micro to geophysical
mixing and transport enhancement, in Proceedings 22nd Canberra International Physics Summer School, pp 187239
(The Australian National University: Canberra).
Ottino, J M, 1989. The Kinematics of Mixing: Stretching, Chaos, and Transport (Cambridge University Press: New York).
Reay, D, Ramshaw, C and Harvey, A, 2008. Process Intensification (Elsevier: Oxford).
Takahashi, K, Sugo,Y, Takahata, H, Sekine, H and Nakamura, M, 2012. Laminar mixing in stirred tank agitated by an
impeller inclined, Int J Chem Eng, article ID 858329, 10 p.
Wang, S, Wu, J and Ohmura, N, 2013. Inclined-shaft agitation for improved viscous mixing, Ind Eng Chem Res, 52:11741
11751.
Wu, J, Graham, L J and Noui-Mehidi, M N, 2007. Intensification of mixing, J Chem Eng Japan, 40:890895.
16
Abstracts
17
Effect of Operating Conditions on Mixing Time in Stirred

Tank Reactors
N H Abdullah1 and S Ibrahim2
1. Student, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 50603,
Malaysia. Email: haslina_abdullah1989@yahoo.com
2. Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 50603,
Malaysia. Email: shaliza@um.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Mixing time is one of the important parameters for assesing mixing efficiency and is applied to characterise
bulk flow in fermenters. The mixing time, t m is the time required to achieve a given degree of homogeneity
starting from the completely segregated state. It can be measured by injecting a tracer into the vessel and
following its concentration at a fixed point in the tank. Tracers in common use include acids, bases and
concentrated salt solution. For a given speed, the power required depends on the fluid resistance to
movement induced by the impeller, and this in turn is governed by the fluid properties and geometrical
aspects. This study was conducted to determine the efficiency of mixing in terms of mixing time using tracer
study on a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) with 0.155 m cylindrical diameter, flat bottom with
standard baffles (0.1 T) and liquid height, H = T. Three parameters were varied, namely the impeller
rotational speed, impeller geometry and liquid properties. Two types of impeller which are the Rushton and
pitched-blade turbines, rotating at three different speeds of 100, 200 and 300 rev/min were used in distilled
water as a medium for low viscosity and glycerine solutions of varying concentrations for higher Newtonian
viscosities (6, 60.1, 624 and 1200 cP). A concentration of 2500 ppm LiCl was prepared and 20 ml of this
solution was injected into the reactor inlet within a period of 20 s. The generated tracer response was then
measured at the outlet. The lithium concentration in the output stream was measured using inductivecoupled plasma (ICP) over intervals of ten minutes at the beginning of the experiment, and spaced out to
every 30 minutes after two hours of experiment. Preliminary results show that in distilled water (low
viscosity) the tracer leaves the tank in shorter period than in glycerin. Experiments such as this are useful in
the study of polymerisation reactors and bioreactors such as anaerobic digesters, in which the rheology
becomes more complex over the course of the process, causing changes in the impeller energy requirement.
18
The Effect of Curvature Angles and Central Disk Sizes of

Six-curved Blade Impellers on Liquid-liquid Reaction
Through Stirred Vessel
R Afshar Ghotli1, A R Abdul Aziz2 and S Ibrahim3
1. PhD Student, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
50603, Malaysia. Email: afsharghotli_reza@yahoo.com
2. Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
50603, Malaysia. Email: azizraman@um.edu.my
3. Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603,
Malaysia. Email: shaliza@um.edu.my
ABSTRACT
Appropriate impeller selection is a key to accomplish efficient liquid-liquid systems. Large differences in
mixing efficiency can be seen among various designs, while the effect of small changes in a particular
geometry has not been widely established. In this work, effectiveness of seven types of six-curved blade
impellers of varying curvature angles and central disk sizes, was measured through the hydrolysis reaction
in a stirred vessel. A specific reaction rate (r AS ) was defined as a ratio of reaction rate per power
consumption to take into consideration on the impeller efficiency. The experiments were performed at 5
rev/second. The analysis was carried out by employing the automatic titrator. Power consumption during
the reaction was measured by a loadcell system. The highest initial value of the specific reaction rate of 0.25
10-2 was observed for the elliptical shape curved blade impeller after 20 minutes dispersion and then
reduced continuously to 0.10 10-2 after 60 minutes. The r AS values decreased with increasing curvature
angle. Thus, the lowest values of specific reaction rate were obtained for the impeller with 140 curvature
angle in a range of 0.13 10-2 to 0.10 10-2. Increasing of the central disk size demonstrates an insignificant
effect on the values of r AS .
19
Low Temperature Synthesis and Characterisation of Ni/Al

Bimetallic Catalyst
M Ahmad1 and A R Abdul Aziz2
1. PhD Scholar, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur
50603, Malaysia. Email: engr_mushtaq@hotmail.com
50603, Malaysia. Email: azizraman@edu.um.my
ABSTRACT
Catalytic systems based on bimetallic crystalline particles with controlled size, composition and structure
dispersed on a high-surface-area support are widely used for catalytic reforming, pollution control, alcohol
oxidation and electro-catalysis in fuel cells. Different approaches have been used for the production of
bimetallic catalysts. However, crystallisation is one of the most prominent approaches to produce bimetallic
catalysts even at industrial scale. Temperature and mixing are the dominant parameters to be controlled to
maximise the yield with desired crystal size and morphology. In this work, a two steps crystallisation
process was developed for a lab scale crystalliser and tested for the synthesis of Ni-Al catalyst at low
temperature (45C) and atmospheric pressure conditions. Two 2-bipyridine has been used as ligand to
interlink metal atoms while continuous stirring is applied to control crystal size distribution (CSD) inside the
crystalliser. Crystalline product was characterised by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray
diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FeSEM) and energy-dispersive X-ray
spectroscopy (EDX). Better yield (70 per cent) and porosity of the crystalline cluster make it attractive
catalyst; suitable for different applications. With this systematic methodology, production is possible even at
industrial scale.
20
Analysis of Mixing Performance using Planar Laser Induced

Fluorescence for the Blending of Shear-thinning Fluids in
Static Mixers
F Alberini1, M J H Simmons2, A Ingram3 and E H Stitt4
1. Research Fellow, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Email: alberini.federico@gmail.com
2. Professor of Fluid Mechanics, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Email: m.j.simmons@bham.ac.uk
3. Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK.
Email: a.ingram@bham.ac.uk
4. Scientific Consultant and Visiting Professor, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre, Billingham, TS23 1LB, UK.
Email: hugh.stitt@matthey.com
ABSTRACT
The blending of non-Newtonian fluids is an important subject which affects a wide range of industrial
applications. Whilst most traditional processing of complex fluids is carried out in batch plant, continuous
processing is becoming increasingly attractive due to lower energy costs, decreased plant footprint and
reduced inventory. For several decades, the understanding of mixing performance has focused on either
determination of the scale or intensity of segregation. Mostly, these parameters were always considered as
complementary methodologies to measure the mixedness of a system. Kukukova, Aubin and Kresta (2009)
showed the importance of consideration of both these criteria together in assessing mixing performance,
which is the key principle adopted in this work. A method developed by Alberini et al (2014) is proposed for
the evaluation of the mixing performance where the scale and the intensity are combined in a single criterion
by determining striation distributions in terms of area and perimeter for given ranges of mixing intensity.
This method has been used to assess the performance of KM static mixers for the blending of two nonNewtonian fluid streams. Planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) (Figure 1a) was used to obtain the
concentration distribution at the mixer outlet. A base visco-plastic time-independent non-Newtonian fluid
(aqueous Carbopol 940 solution) was pumped through a KM static mixer comprised of six elements (0.5 and
1 diameters). A secondary stream doped with fluorescent dye (Rhodamine 6G) was introduced either at the
centre line of the pipe or at the wall. The fluid used in this stream was either the same base fluid or a more
viscous fluid. The distribution of dye concentration across the pipe CROSS-SECTION was obtained at the
mixer outlet using a four megapixel charge-coupled device (CCD) camera equipped with a cut-off filter and
an orthogonal laser sheet from a Nd-Yag laser to illuminate the dye. The effects of the static mixer diameter,
total flow rate, flow ratio between the fluid streams (of different or similar rheology) and inlet configuration
have been examined. This image analysis-based method defines the mixing performance based on
determination of areas (striations) within the PLIF image which possess a defined concentration range
(intensity of mixing). This is shown in the white areas within the example image for a level of mixedness,
X > 90 per cent in Figure 1b, where X is defined as the percentage of the concentration at the mixer outlet
which would be obtained if the two fluids were fully mixed. Further analysis of the striation area
distribution to determine individual contiguous striations (Figure 1c) enables the structure of the mixing to
be examined in terms of a distribution of non-dimensional area versus non-dimensional length.
21
FIG 1 Image process stages: (A) raw image captured using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF),
(B) detection of area of interest for selected mixing intensity X>90 per cent,
(C) detection of different striations within same range of mixing intensity (X>90 per cent).
The divergences between different experiments are clearly represented in terms of the absolute values of
area fraction at different mixing intensities (Figure 2), in particular the experiment with the injection of less
viscous fluid performs always better than the injection of more viscous fluid. The mixing performance as a
function of energy per unit mass demonstrates the relationship between the energy spent and mixing
quality. Clearly the new approach shows the complexity of information-rich PLIF images, and allows a
deeper understanding of mixing phenomena which cannot be explained via conventional analyses.
1
0.9
Area Fraction
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
X < 60%
#1a v=0.1
#1a v=0.3
60 < X < 70%
#1a v=0.6
#1b v=0.1
70 < X < 80%
#1b v=0.3
#1b v=0.6
80 < X < 90%
90 < X < 100%
FIG 2 Overall area fraction distribution for selected ranges of mixing intensity.
REFERENCES
blending of non-newtonian fluids in a kenics KM static mixer using PLIF, AIChE Journal, 60(1):332342.
Kukukova, A, Aubin, J and Kresta, S M, 2009. A new definition of mixing and segregation: three dimensions of a key
process variable, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 87:633647.
22
Gas-liquid Mass Transfer Study Using Ultrasonic Irradiation

Assistance and Response Surface Methodology
S Asgharzadehahmadi1, R A Ghotli2, A R Abdul Aziz3 and R Parthasarathy4
50603, Malaysia. Email: seyedali.asgharzadeh@gmail.com
50603, Malaysia. Email: afsharghotli_reza@yahoo.com
50603, Malaysia. Email: azizraman@um.edu.my
4. Associate Professor, School of Civil, Environmental, and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic
3001. Email: rajarathinam.parthasarathy@rmit.edu.au
ABSTRACT
Sonochemical reactors, with ultrasound as a source of energy, are used for various applications. Ultrasonic
mixing produces smaller droplet compared to conventional agitation, leading to more interfacial area for
reaction to occur. According to the literature, transfer rate of gas into liquid medium is a crucial factor in
determining the overall efficiency of the process in gas-liquid systems. Several correlations have been
derived for batch and continuous flow systems of gas-liquid agitation based on experimental work to
determine the mass transfer coefficient (KLa). However, there is not sufficient work about the transfer of gas
into solution in the presence of ultrasound for efficient design of sonochemical reactors. In this study,
experiments on gas-liquid mass transfer were performed in a perspex tank with diameter of 150 mm using
an ultrasonic horn connected to a generator with different amplitudes and cycles. The effects of ultrasonic
power, gas flow rate and temperature on mass transfer were studied via response surface methodology
(RSM) and gas flow rate found to have the most influence on KLa.
23
Study of the Starting Torque of Vertical Paddle Impellers

Y Bando1, K Nishi2, R Misumi3 and M Kaminoyama4
1. Master Course Student, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501,
Japan. Email: bando-yuma-yb@ynu.jp
2. Associate Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
Email: nishi@ynu.ac.jp
3. Assistant Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
Email: r-misumi@ynu.ac.jp
4. Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
Email: kamin@ynu.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
The mixing process using an impeller is widely used in various industries, such as inks, electronics,
ceramics, foods, pharmaceuticals and chemicals. When rotation of an impeller is started, a torque is larger
than that of steady state. This torque is important in the design of an impeller and a motor. Nagata (1975)
suggested that starting torque, T start , could be calculate from the power consumption in fully baffle
condition. However the relationship between T start and the impeller rotational speed and shape of impeller is
not investigated enough. In this study, the influence of the impeller rotational speed n, number of impeller
blades and width of blade on T start of vertical paddle impeller was investigated.
A cylindrical vessel with 0.31 m diameter, D, and a dished bottom was used. Four baffles with were installed
in a vessel. The diameter of vertical paddle impeller, d, was 0.15 m. The number of blades, np, and width of
blade, b, were 2, 4, 6 and 0.03, 0.06, 0.09 m, respectively. The range of impeller rotational speed was
1.0~4.0 s-1. Water was used as the mixing medium and the vessel was filled to a depth 0.37 m. The torque
was measured with strain gauges affixed to the shaft. The signal of torque transferred through a radio
system and was analysed by computer. The time interval of the data transfer, which was the time resolution
of the measurement, was 0.0125 s (80 Hz). In Figure 1, an example of time series of torque shown. The
maximum value of torque after an impeller rotating start was recorded as T start . T start was measured four
times under each condition and was averaged. The torque in steady state, T steady , was measured to
comparison with T start .
0.3
T[Nm]
0.2
0.1
0.0
Fi 1 Ti
t[s]
i
FIG 1 Time series of torque.

Torque shows a peak (T start ) within one second from the impeller rotating start. For example, in the case of
n = 1.5 s-1, T start was more than the twice of T steady . The relationship between T start and n is shown in Figure 2.
24
In the region of n > 2.3 s-1, T start was proportional to the square of n. In this region, T start was almost equal to
the torque calculated from the power consumption in fully baffle condition. On the other hand, in the region
of n < 2.3 s-1, T start was proportional to n. Therefore, it is found that T start is underestimated if it is estimated
from the power consumption in fully baffle condition.
101
Starting torque
nP=6
nP=4
nP=2
0
Steady torque
nP=2
T[Nm]
10
10-1
10-2
10-1
100
101
-1
n[s ]
FIG 2 Relationship between T start and n.
Log T start increased in proportion to log n p . When the impeller rotational speed was low, the gradient of log
n p to log T start is almost 1.0. On the other hand, when the impeller rotational speed was large, the gradient
became small (0.78 at n = 4.0 s-1). The relationship of log T start and log b was also similar. However, in this
case, the gradient gradually decreased. These behaviours suggest change of the generating mechanism of
T start when the shape of impeller is changed.
REFERENCES
Nagata, S, 1975. Mixing Principles and Applications, 44 p (Koudansha: Tokyo).
25
Experimental Research of Macromixing in a Boiling

Gas-solid-liquid Stirred Tank
Z Cai1, W Li2, Y Qin2 and Z Gao3
1. College of Chemical Engineering, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China.
Email: caiziqi@mail.buct.edu.cn
Email: gaozm@mail.buct.edu.cn
ABSTRACT
Stirred tank is a widely used unit operation in the processing industry as fermentation, polymerisation and
oxidation. One important goal in the mixing process is to reach an ideal mixing status, including the perfect
flow behaviour, appropriate mixing time, excellent micromixing and the like. As a traditional characteristic
parameter, mixing time is always primarily concerned in the macromixing field. The research of
macromixing time started from the 1960s (Holmes, Voncken and Dekker, 1964), involving the conductivity
technique, which came to be one of the mostly used in mixing time measurement.
During the last half century, mixing time has been researched intensively in the normal temperature
conditions, mainly including various measuring techniques, impellers and even from single to multiphase
systems. However, exothermicity exists in many reaction processes, the chemical or biological ones, leading
to the temperature rising of stirred fluid, so much as being boiling. In the boiling systems, a typical feature is
the existence of highly saturated gas, resulting in a totally different mixing behaviour from the normal
temperature (Chen, Bao and Gao, 2009; Bao et al, 2010).
The present research on mixing time in boiling tank mainly aims to the gas-liquid system (Gao, Smith,
Muller-Stein-Hagen, 2001; Takahashi, Tagawa and Atsumi, 2006) but lack in the gas-solid-liquid system.
This work mainly investigates the influence of dispersed phases, power input on macro mixing time using
the conductivity technique.
The experiments were carried out in a fully baffled stirred tank with the diameter of 0.476 m. A typical
impellers combination, single half-elliptical-blade disk turbine (HEDT) plus double WH D , was employed.
The liquid, gas and solid phases were de-ionised water, purified air and glass beads, respectively. The
superficial velocity of gas ranged from 0.0125 m/s to 0.05 m/s, while it is 15 per cent of the solid volume
concentration at most. Four heating rods were used at the bottom of tank to heat the liquid, producing 8 m3
vapour per hour individually. In previous work by Chen, Bao and Gao (2009), the average bubble size was
about 3~5 mm, so the conductivity probe was protected by a metallic filter screen with 3 mm holes in order
to avoid the large bubble collision or damage to it.
In the investigation of macromixing time in gas-solid-liquid stirred tank, it was found that:
At a fixed rotating speed, the mass averaged power input keeps constant although the solid
concentration keeps increasing.
The critical suspension speed in solid-liquid system is only influenced by the solid concentration,
while the gas superficial velocity makes a little difference.
The macromixing time increases with the solid concentration and gas superficial velocity, but when
the power input exceeds 2.0 W/kg, it barely affects the mixing time.
REFERENCES
Bao, Y, Hao, Z, Gao, Z, Shi, L, Smith, J R and Thorpe, M B, 2010. Local void fraction and bubble size distribution in coldgassed and hot-sparged stirred reactors, Chemical Engineering Science, 65:976984.
26
Chen, L, Bao, Y and Gao, Z, 2009. Void fraction distribution in cold-gassed a hot-sparged three phase stirred tanks with
multi-impeller, Chinese Journal of Chemical Engineering, 17(6):887895.
Gao, Z, Smith, J M and Muller-Stein-Hagen, H, 2001. Gas dispersion in sparged and boiling reactors, Trans IChemE,
79:973978.
Holmes, D B, Voncken, R M and Dekker, J A, 1964. Fluid flow in turbine stirred baffled tank, part 1, circulation time,
Chem Eng Sci, 19:201208.
Takahashi, T, Tagawa, A and Atsumi, N, 2006. Liquid-phase mixing time in boiling stirred tank reactors with large crosssection impellers, Chem Eng Proc, 45:303311.
27
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modelling of Micromixing of

a Single-feed Semi-batch Precipitation Process in a
Liquid-liquid Stirred Reactor
D Cheng1, X Li2, C Yang3 and Z-S Mao4
1. PhD Student, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese
Academy of Sciences. Email: dcheng@ipe.ac.cn
2. Associate Professor, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese
Academy of Sciences. Email: xyli@ipe.ac.cn
3. Professor, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy
of Sciences. Email: chaoyang@ipe.ac.cn
of Sciences. Email: zsmao@ipe.ac.cn
ABSTRACT
The stirred tanks operating with two immiscible liquids are extensively used in chemical industry and
metallurgy, such as emulsion/suspension polymerisation, multiphase chemical reactions and solvent
extraction. The presence of oil droplets has been shown to affect the velocity field and turbulence level of the
continuous phase (Svensson and Rasmuson, 2006), and thus affects both macro- and micromixing. Recently,
our experiments have indicated that the continuous phase macromixing was dampened at high volume
fractions of the dispersed oil phase and enhanced at low fractions (Zhao et al, 2011; Cheng et al, 2012a). When
fast or instantaneous chemical reactions are involved, micromixing is a crucial mechanism that affects the
process rate directly, since the reactants are brought local contact with each other through micromixing. In
overall, the micromixing phenomenon changes the selectivity for complex reactions, the size distribution of
precipitate, and the molecular weight distribution of polymer molecules, and so forth (Baldyga and
Pohorecki, 1995).
Micromixing was usually studied experimentally using model reactions such as consecutive competing
reactions (diazo-coupling reaction) and parallel competing reactions (iodide/iodate reaction scheme; acidbase neutralisation/alkaline hydrolysis of ethyl monochloracetate). However, the commonly used model
reactions are subjected to the difficulty that either reactants or products are dissolved or absorbed by the oil
phase in immiscible liquid-liquid systems (Brilman et al, 1999). As chemical precipitation is a fast reaction by
nature, this process is indirectly influenced by macromixing and mesomixing, and more importantly,
directly influenced by micromixing (ie mixing on molecular scale). Accordingly, the influence of
micromixing on the BaSO 4 fast precipitation process in an immiscible liquid-liquid stirred reactor is
experimentally investigated in order to validate the developed multiphase micromixing model. The details
of the experiments can be referred to (Cheng et al, 2012b).
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has become a powerful tool to explore the flow and mixing
characteristics in various reactors including stirred tanks. The macromixing (mesomixing) process can be
easily solved in terms of convection and turbulent diffusion whereas the micromixing must be modelled
additionally in order to take it into account when applying the standard Reynolds-average Navier-Stokes
(RANS) equations (Cheng et al, 2013).
In this work, an EulerianEulerian two-fluid model is adopted for calculation of liquid-liquid two-phase
flow field. The in-house CFD code resolves first the hydrodynamics field including mean velocity, dispersed
phase holdup distribution, turbulence kinetic energy and turbulent energy dissipation. The CFD prediction
of flow field has been validated, which allows the use of such a technique with more confidence. The
calculated turbulent flow filed is then used to solve species concentrations. Several micromixing models
were developed and coupled with CFD codes in the literature and one of the most popular is the finite mode
probability density function (FM-PDF) method (Marchisio and Barresi, 2003; Fox, 2003).
28
The FM-PDF model is represented by a finite set delta functions, and they can be taken as environments or
modes. Every cell in the computational domain contains certain number of modes or environments. Three
modes are proved to be enough (Figure 1a): environments/modes 1 and 2 contain unmixed reactants
separately, and due to micromixing these two environments mix together and generate environment 3,
where the reaction occurs (Marchisio, Barresi and Fox, 2001).
Droplet
A (P1)
B(P2)
A+B=C (P3)
B(P2)
A (P1)
A+B=C (P3)
FIG 1 Physical properties of three environments and

representation of their interaction: (A) singe-phase; (B) two-phase.
The PDF model was extensively used and shown to be an adequate description of fast reactions in single
liquid turbulent media (Marchisio, Barresi and Fox, 2001). Nevertheless, no modelling description or
numerical simulation of two-phase micromixing based on CFD approach is found in the open literature. In
the present work, we firstly examine whether the existing single-phase FM-PDF model can describe the
micromixing process in a liquid-liquid system or not. Then, its extension to two-phase systems is attempted
(Figure 1b). In formulating the two-phase FM-PDF model, the transport equations for the probabilities of
environments (P1, P2 and P3) are extended to two-phase transport equation forms by considering the
dispersed phase hold-up distribution. Finally, the results from the single-phase FM-PDF model and the twophase FM-PDF model are compared with each other and with the corresponding experimental data.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Financial supports from 973 Program (2012CB224806), the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young
Scholars (No 21025627), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21276004) and 863 project
(2011AA060704) are gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Baldyga, J and Pohorecki, R, 1995. Turbulent micromixing in chemical reactorsa review, Chem Eng J, 58:183195.
Brilman, D W F, Antink, R, Van Swaaij, W P M and Versteeg, G G, 1999. Experimental study of the effect of bubbles,
drops and particles on the product distribution for a mixing sensitive, parallel-consecutive reaction system, Chem
Eng Sci, 54:23252337.
Cheng, D, Cheng, J C, Li, X Y, Wang, X, Yang, C and Mao, Z-S, 2012a. Experimental study on gas-liquid-liquid
macromixing in a stirred tank, Chem Eng Sci, 75:256266.
Cheng, D, Cheng, J C, Yong, Y M, Yang, C and Mao, Z-S, 2012b. Experimental investigation and CFD modeling of
micromixing of a single-feed semi-batch precipitation process in a liquid-liquid stirred reactor, in Proceedings 14th
European Conference on Mixing, Warszawa, 1013 September, pp 5560.
Cheng, D, Feng, X, Cheng, J C and Yang, C, 2013. Numerical simulation of macromixing in liquid-liquid stirred tanks,
Chem Eng Sci, 101:272282.
Fox, R O, 2003. Computational Models for Turbulent Reacting Flows (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge).
Marchisio, D L and Barresi, A A, 2003. CFD Simulation of mixing and reaction: the relevance of the micro-mixing model,
Chem Eng Sci, 58:35793587.
Marchisio, D L, Barresi, A A and Fox, R O, 2001. Simulation of turbulent precipitation in a semi-batch Taylor-Couette
reactor using CFD, AIChE J, 47:664676.
Svensson, F J E and Rasmuson, A, 2006. PIV measurements in a liquid-liquid system at volume percentages up to 10%
dispersed phase, Exp Fluids, 41:917931.
Zhao, Y C, Li, X Y, Cheng, J C, Yang, C and Mao, Z-S, 2011. Experimental study on liquid-liquid macromixing in a stirred
tank, Ind Eng Chem Res, 50:59525958.
29
Hydrodynamic Behaviour of Three Shaking Flask

Configurations used in Biotechnology
M S Crdova-Aguilar1, C Palacios2, R Zenit3, M A Trujillo-Roldn4 and G Ascanio5
1. Associate Professor, Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnolgico, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de
Mxico, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Apdo, 70-186, Mxico.
Email: marisol.cordova@ccadet.unam.mx
2. Postdoctoral Fellow, Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico,
Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Apdo, 70-360, Mxico. Email: palacios.ca@gmail.com
3. Full Professor, Instituto de Investigaciones en Materiales, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Circuito
Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Apdo, 70-360, Mxico. Email: zenit@unam.mx
4. Full Professor, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomdicas, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico, Circuito
Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Apdo, 70-228, Mxico.
5. Full Professor, Centro de Ciencias Aplicadas y Desarrollo Tecnolgico, Universidad Nacional Autnoma de
Mxico, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, 04510, Apdo, 70-186, Mxico.
Email: gabriel.ascanio@ccadet.unam.mx
ABSTRACT
Shaking of flasks is the most widely technique used for bioprocesses optimisation and culture research.
Many studies have been conducted since this technique was introduced into the biotechnology field, at the
beginning of previous century, and different aspects of shaken flasks have been investigated during this
time. Differences in flask geometry and volumetric power input play a significant role in the changes in
morphology, growth rate, and productivity of the micro-organisms studied, thus suggesting that
hydrodynamic effects may be strong involved in the performance of them. However, there is limited
understanding of the physics of the flow which is required to assure reproducible and meaningful scalingup to bioreactors. In this work, the flow patterns and velocity fields were determined experimentally for
three flask configurations as a function of the shaking rate by means of a particle image velocimetry (PIV)
technique and high-speed digital video recordings to illustrate the movement of the liquid.
Three different configurations of 250 ml Erlenmeyer flasks (Pyrex, Mexico) were tested (conventional,
baffled and coiled), identical flask configurations used for Streptomyces cultures. The conventional flasks
have a standard design. Baffled flasks had three 45 indentations placed at 120. Coiled flasks consist of
conventional flasks with an inserted 30 cm stainless steel spring. Each flask was filled with 50 ml of LuriaBertanis medium modified by the addition of 34 per cent w/v sucrose. The flasks were agitated in an orbital
standard shaker with a counter-balanced eccentric drive mechanism at shaking frequency range from
25500 rev/min. Flasks were mounted onto a transparent support with a mirror at the bottom with an
inclination of 45 respect to the flask bottom and camera. In order to estimate the flow characteristics of the
three shaken flasks configurations using particle image velocimetry, a Dantec Dynamics system was used,
which consisted of a pulsed laser light with a wavelength of 532 nm, an optical array for creating a light
sheet with a width of 1 mm, a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera and a 60 mm lenses, both rigidly
mounted in the same orbital shaker to synchronise the PIV image acquisition to any orbital position of the
rig. The camera was placed in front of the mirror and the laser sheet was aligned parallel to the bottom of the
flask and with a height of 2 mm from the bottom. Fluorescent particles of 10 m were seeded. The images
were processed by the Flow Manager software (Dantec Dynamics) in order to obtain the hydrodynamic
analysis at different shaking speeds.
As a qualitative description, the images documented were analysed. The movement of the liquid for the
three configurations was very different for each case and the deformation of the interface was function of the
shaking frequency. This means that at low frequencies, the interface was slightly deformed and no
significant interaction with the flask wall, baffles or coil was observed. As the shaking rate increased, the
liquid strongly interacts with the geometry generating an asymmetrical flow that promotes the appearance
of secondary recirculation and incorporation of air bubbles. As the shaking speed increased, the fluid flows
30
rounded the walls forming a main circulation in the shaking direction, therefore, the baffles or coil disrupts
the mean flow. On the other hand, large vortexes were observed for conventional flask at low shaking
frequencies while the vortex diameter for the baffled and coiled configurations were quite similar to the
conventional case; however, as the velocity increases the vortex diameter decreases, being the smaller
vortexes for the coiled flasks as it was expected.
This hydrodynamic analysis is an useful challenge to be consider not only for scale up purposes but also to
fully understand the physical processes that control the generation of hydrodynamic stresses in shaking
flask and their influence in culture growth.
31
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modelling of Micromixing in

Stirred-tank Reactors with DQMOM-IEM Model
X Duan1, X Feng2, C Yang3 and Z-S Mao4
1. PhD Student, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, PR China. Email: duanxiaoxia255@126.com
2. Assistant Professor, Key Laboratory of Green Process and Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, PR China. Email: xfeng@ipe.ac.cn
of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, PR China. Email: chaoyang@ipe.ac.cn
of Sciences, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, PR China. Email: zsmao@ipe.ac.cn
ABSTRACT
Stirred-tank reactors are widely encountered in process industries, such as chemical, petroleum processing
and metallurgy, which usually involve complex fast or quasi-instantaneous reactions. Interaction between
mixing and chemical reactions will influence the selectivity towards desired products. Turbulent mixing is
conceived consisted of macromixing, mesomixing and micromixing on different length scales. Macro- and
mesomixing determine the environment for ultimate local micromixing. If the characteristic reaction time is
shorter than the time required for bringing homogeneity at molecular scale, micromixing can significantly
influence the products quality and selectivity.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been successfully used for predicting turbulent reacting flows.
When the Reynolds averaging method is employed to solve instantaneous scalar transport equations, the
key problem is to select an appropriate micromixing model that can describe the local concentration
information to close the chemical source term. Different models have been developed and the most common
used models include the engulfment model and the probability density function methods (PDF). PDF
methods can be categorised as the presumed PDF (eg finite-mode PDF, multiple-time-scale turbulent mixer
model, etc) and the full-PDF. In recent years, a new direct quadrature method of moments combining with
the interaction by exchange with the mean micromixing model (DQMOM-IEM) was proposed by Fox (2003)
and has received significant attention. The application of DQMOM-IEM to turbulent reacting flows has been
validated, such as simulation of precipitation in a poorly micromixed plug-flow reactor (Wang and Fox,
2004), and parallel reaction scheme in confined impinging jet reactors (Liu and Fox, 2006; Gavi, Marchisio
and Baressi, 2007). This method, compared with the transport-PDF method, is easily incorporated into
existing CFD codes and does not introduce statistical errors. Quite encouraging simulation results offer great
promise, but the applicability range of this method is needed to be explored furthermore.
The aim of this work is to employ the DQMOM-IEM model to predict the mixing effects on the course of
parallel competing chemical reactions carried out in a continuous-flow single-phase stirred-stank reactor.
The simulation results are compared with the experimental data reported by Baldyga, Henczka and
Makowski (2001). The flow field is solved with the standard k- turbulence model and the multireference
frame using the commercial CFD software Fluent 6.3 at unsteady-state. The two-environment DQMOM-IEM
model is implemented through user-defined functions and scalars. The total computational grid number is
around 900 000, including tetrahedral and hexahedral grids. The second-order upwind scheme is used to
discretise the continuity and momentum equations and a first-order upwind scheme for the passive scalars
transport equations. The temporal discretisation is second-order implicit and the pressure-velocity coupling
is resolved with the SIMPLE algorithm. Simulation results show that the DQMOM-IEM model can be used
to predict and quantify the effects of mixing on the distributions of products in a stirred-tank reactor. The
segregation index of parallel chemical reactions (hydrolysis of ethyl chloroacetate in competition with
neutralisation of sodium hydroxide) decreases with the increase of mean residence time for various stirring
speeds. The higher concentrations of reactant solutions are, the higher the yield of by-product. Although the
simulation results agree with the experimental data, it is worth to investigate the prediction behaviour of
32
DQMOM-IEM micromixing model in other geometry parameters and operating conditions in the further
work.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The financial supports from 973 project (2010CB630904), 863 project (2012AA061503), the National Natural
Science Foundation of China (21306197) and the National Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young
Scholars (21025627) are gratefully acknowledged.
REFERENCES
Baldyga, J, Henczka, M and Makowski, L, 2001. Effect of mixing on parallel chemical reactions in a continuous-flow
stirred-tank reactor, Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 79(A5):895900.
Fox, R O, 2003. Computational Models for Turbulent Reacting Flows (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge).
Gavi, E, Marchisio, D L and Baressi, A A, 2007. CFD modelling and scale-up of confined impinging jet reactors, Chemical
Engineering Science, 62(8):22282241.
Liu, Y and Fox, R O, 2006. CFD predictions for chemical processing in a confined impinging-jets reactor, AIChE Journal,
52(2):731744.
Wang, L and Fox, R O, 2004. Comparison of micromixing models for CFD simulation of nanoparticle formation, AIChE
Journal, 50(9):22172232.
33
Acoustic Micromixing for Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent

Assay
Y Gao1, K Petkovic Duran2, P Tran3, R Manasseh4 and Y Zhu5,6,7
1. CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Clayton Vic 3169. Email: yuan.gao@csiro.au
2. Research Officer, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Normanby Rd, Clayton Vic 3168.
Email: karolina.petkovicduran@csiro.au
3. CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Clayton Vic 3169.
4. Associate Professor, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology,
PO Box 218, Hawthorn Vic 3122. Email: rmanasseh@swin.edu.au
5. Research Team Leader, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Normanby Rd, Clayton Vic 3168.
Email: yonggang.zhu@csiro.au
6. Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication/Australian National Fabrication Facility, 151 Wellington Road, Clayton Vic
3168.
7 Centre for Microphotonics, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences, Swinburne University of Technology,
PO Box 218, Hawthorn Vic 3122.
ABSTRACT
Point-of-care (POC) diagnostics are increasingly needed as affordable and rapid tests in our society.
Currently, many critical diagnostic tests are still conducted in clinical laboratories with enzyme-linked
immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Immunoassays are the principal analytical technique for quantitative
determination of a broad variety of analytes in clinical diagnosis, plant pathology, the food industry and
environmental monitoring. Although specific and sensitive ELISA requires relatively long incubation times
and multistep regents handling, and that is why it is not suitable for the POC diagnostics. Integration of
conventional immunoassays and microfluidics holds strong promise for producing low-cost, sensitive and
portable next-generation immunosensors.
Acoustic microstreaming is a phenomenon where sound waves propagating around a small obstacle create a
mean flow near the obstacle. Fundamentally, the generation of acoustic microstreaming is due to a nonlinear
rectification of the oscillatory fluid motion due to the sound waves. This creates a mean flow that is
noticeable only if there is a large gradient in the acoustic field. If the interface between a liquid and a gas has
a small radius of curvature, there will be a locally large gradient in the sound field where the sound field is
forced to distort around the small radius. It is readily apparent if the object is a bubble, because the bubble
resonates to the applied sound in one or more ways, locally amplifying and transforming the
microstreaming effect. Here we present an acoustic microstreaming based device with a key simplification
acoustic microstreaming can be achieved at audio frequencies by ensuring the system has a liquid-air
interface with a small radius of curvature. The meniscus of a drop in a small well or vial provided an
appropriately small radius. We have tested a range of frequency and have selected a frequency of 100 Hz as
the most appropriate for the ELISA assay plates.
The aim of this work is to determine whether acoustic micromixing can increase the binding efficiency of
antibodies to their antigens, a reaction that forms the basis of ELISA, using anti-rabbit immunoglobulin G
(IgG) (conjugate to horseradish peroxidase (HRP)) and rabbit IgG as the examples. After coating the
Maxisorb ELISA plate wells with rabbit IgG, extensive washing and blocking with three per cent skim milk,
anti-rabbit IgG of appropriate dilutions was then added to the wells and mixed on a commercial rocking
mixer or on an acoustic micromixing device for designated lengths of time (360 min). The binding efficiency
between the rabbit IgG and anti-rabbit IgG was determined by measuring HRP activity using 3, 3, 5,
5-tetramethylb-benzidine (TMB) as the enzyme substrate.
It was found that the acoustic micromixing enhanced the binding between the antibody and its antigen by
up to 100 per cent when compared with the standard mixing platform. This effect was much more profound
after short binding time (eg 15 min or less). Therefore, the application of acoustic micromixing will increase
34
Y Gao et al
Acoustic Micromixing for Enzyme-linked Immunosorbent Assay
the detection sensitivity of ELISA. Furthermore, because the ELISA involves up to three steps of antibodyantigen binding, acoustic micromixing has the potential to significantly shorten the time length of the ELISA
process.
35
Numerical and Experimental Studies on Hydrodynamics of

Double Helical Ribbon Impeller with Internal Baffles
C-Y Ge1, J-J Wang2 and L-F Feng2
1. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang
University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China. Email: jiajunwang@zju.edu.cn
2. State Key Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Zhejiang
University, Hangzhou 310027, PR China.
ABSTRACT
Helical ribbon impellers are widely used and especially preferred for mixing operations of high-viscosity
fluids because they generate both tangential and axial motion, which enhances the mixing efficiency. The
objective of this work is to investigate the flow dynamics of a double helical ribbon impeller system with
internal baffles (DHR-IB). The internal baffles are placed between the helical ribbon blade and the vessel wall.
Computational fluid dynamic (CFD) and particle image velocity (PIV) studies have been performed on
hydrodynamics characteristics of DHR-IB. The flow pattern, pumping capacity, power consumption, shear
rate distribution and mixing time in the system were investigated to get understanding of its versatile
capacity covering laminar and transitional regimes. The hydrodynamics were also compared with a
traditional double helical ribbon impeller (DHR) without baffles.
A two-dimensional PIV system (Dantec Inc) used in this work consisted of a dual Nd:YAG 532 nm pulsed
laser (New Wave Research Solo, 200 mJ, 15 Hz), a frame-straddling charge-coupled device (CCD) camera
with 1600 1200 pixels, a synchroniser, and Dynamic Studio software. A shaft encoder was used to obtain
the phase-resolved measurements. The transistortransistor logic (TTL) signals triggered by the encoder
once-per-revolution were used to synchronise the blade angular position, image acquisition and laser firing.
The numerical simulations were conducted using the commercial software package FLUENT 6.3, which is
based on the finite volume method. The discretised form of the governing equations for each cell was
obtained such that the conservation principles are obeyed on each cell. The second order upwind was used
for the spatial discretisation of momentum equations and the second-order accurate implicit scheme was
used for the time step for the k- turbulence model. The coupling between the continuity and momentum
equations was achieved using SIMPLE (semi-implicit method for pressure-linked equations). The transient
interaction of the flow between impeller (rotation) and baffle (stationary) was modelled using the sliding
mesh (SM) approach. Time step was set at 0.001 s. To provide good initial values for the transient simulation,
a steady calculation with multiple reference frame (MRF) was conducted.
The simulated mean axial velocity and mean radial velocity obtained by CFD simulation were validated
against the measured PIV data. It shows a good consistency. Under the laminar regime (Re = 20), both DHR
and DHR-IB generate a large circulation loop throughout the whole tank, with an upward motion at the wall
and a downward flow along the centre, and the difference between them is very small. As it develops to
transitional regime (Re = 200), a whole axial circulation is still formed for DHR-IB, but a small vortex
occurred at the bottom corner. While as for DHR, the circulation zone formed under laminar regime broken
into two smaller recirculation zones around the helical blades, and a small vortex also exists at the bottom
corner.
Statistical distribution of shear rate shows that the proportion of low shear rate decreases and volume
average shear rate increases due to the presence of internal baffles.
36
Axial Mixing of Viscous Fluid by New Static Time Difference

Type Mixer
T Hanada1,2, T Okada3 and K Takahashi4
1. Technical Development Department, Asahi Organic Chemicals Industry Co Ltd, Miyazaki, Japan.
Email: toshihiro.hanada@asahi-yukizai.co.jp
2. Department of Biochemical Engineering, Yamagata University, Yonezawa-City, Yamagata, Japan.
3. Technical Development Department, Asahi Organic Chemicals Industry Co Ltd, Miyazaki, Japan.
Email: takahiro.okada@asahi-yukizai.co.jp
4. Department of Biochemical Engineering, Yamagata University, Yonezawa-City, Yamagata, Japan.
Email: koji@yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
In-line mixing processes using a static mixer which only mixes in the radial direction of flow has become an
important process in the process industries now. However, the conventional static mixer has no ability for
the axial mixing that is necessary to eliminate the temporal variations of concentration. A new static mixer,
known as the Time Difference type Mixer (TDM), developed by the Asahi Organic Chemicals Industry Co
Ltd has an ability for axial mixing, which has reported mixing performances for the turbulent flow condition
(Hanada et al, 2012; Hanada, Okada and Takahashi, 2012, 2013). The structure of TDM is quite different from
the conventional static mixers or other axial mixers. TDM has main spiral flow path, central flow path and
plural branch paths that connect both flow paths. If the fluid flows into TDM, the concentration peak is
divided into a number of branch paths, and then divided peaks merge again with time differences (see
Figure 1).
FIG 1 Concept of Time Difference Mixer.

The original model (commercial model) has the even pitched spiral flow path and the same diameter branch
paths that placed on even interval. But for getting a good mixing performance it was found that the intervals
of branch paths should not become an even interval and the blade structure should be made at the tip of
element. The geometry of branch paths and the structure of element are shown in Table 1 and Figure 2.
37
TABLE 1
Position of branch path on spiral flow path.
Branch number
Original model
(commercial model)
Optimised model
10
/2
1 /2
2 /2
3 /2
41/ 2
/4
15/ 8
21/ 4
27/ 8
33/ 8
33/ 4
41/ 4
41/ 2
Unit: rotation number from first branch.
FIG 2 Tip structure of element: (A) optimised model; (B) original model.
In this study, we report that the optimised model also has an excellent mixing performance in the laminar
flow condition. First we performed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis where glycerine was used
as the model fluid and Reynolds number was set less than 20. In the case of turbulent flow condition, TDM
showed a good mixing performance in the flow direction compared with the other conventional static
mixers. In the laminar flow condition, the velocity distribution exists in the flow direction in the channel,
which may contribute a better mixing performance for TDM. However, since the conventional static mixers
were designed so as to create the plug flow, it is clear that the mixing in the flow direction cannot be
expected. Figure 3 shows the tracer concentration at each branch paths for the optimised model when the
input pulse having 0.1 s width and 100 per cent tracer concentration was entered into the mixer.
Here, each peak profile represents the arrival time distributions of input pulse at the corresponding branch
paths. As can be seen from the figures, the arrival time distributions of input pulse has broader peaks in the
laminar flow than those in the turbulent flow. Their final output concentration profiles of tracer are shown in
Figure 4.
FIG 3 Arrival time of tracer at each branch: (A) turbulent flow condition; (B) laminar flow condition.
38
FIG 4 Final output profile of tracer: (A) turbulent flow condition; (B) laminar flow condition.
In the laminar flow condition, maximum peak of tracer density of optimised model was about only
30 per cent of original model. Since this value has become almost half than in turbulent condition, it is
confirmed that the optimised model has good structure for laminar mixing. We also performed real flow test
using glycerine. These CFD results were consistent with experimental results that have performed by the
optical method using light-emitting diode (LED) and photo sensor for original model, optimised model and
conventional static mixer. This study indicated that the new axial mixer TDM has also excellent mixing
performance in the laminar flow region and it might be useful for the various flow conditions in the process
industries.
REFERENCES
Hanada, T, Okada, T and Takahashi, K, 2012. Development of new static mixer to reduce unevenness in flow direction,
in Proceedings 14th European Conference on Mixing, 1013 September, Warsaw, Poland, pp 145150.
Hanada, T, Okada, T and Takahashi, K, 2013. Improvement of axial mixing in new static mixer TDM by CFD,
in Proceedings Fourth Asian Conference on Mixing, pp 186192.
Hanada, T, Yamada, T, Okada, T, Li, S and Kuroda, K, 2012. Development of a new static mixer to reduce unevenness of
concentration in flow direction, Kagaku Kogaku Ronbunshu, 38:148154.
39
Advances in Thickener Flocculant Mixing and Delivery

A R Heath1
1. R&D Manager, Thickeners, Outotec, 40 Kings Park Rd, West Perth WA 6005. Email: alex.heath@outotec.com
ABSTRACT
Feed slurries are typically flocculated in a thickeners feedwell to increase the settling rate, underflow
density and overflow clarity. Flocculation is essentially a mixing problem, however, it has a couple of
unusual features. Flocculation and flocculant make up is shear sensitive and must be done gently to prevent
irreversible aggregate breakup. Flocculant solutions are also viscoelastic and are typically dosed into the
feedwell at 0.025 per cent to improve the mixing and flocculation.
Various aspects of the flocculant make up and mixing process have been studied with a combination of flow
visualisation and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Flume testing has shown that flocculant viscoelastic
effects primarily affect the small-scale eddies but have a lesser effect on the bulk-scale mixing. This is
significant in terms of feedwell modelling using Reynolds Averaged Numerical Simulation (RANS) type
CFD models, and the standard k- gave a good match with the observed dispersion in the flume using the
standard scalar diffusion approach with a Prandtl number of 0.9. The Scale Adaptive Simulation (SAS)
turbulence model also performed well; in that case with the scalar dispersed by the resolved turbulent
eddies.
40
Chaotic Mixing Induced by Axial Reciprocation of Disk

Impeller
Y Hirata1
1. Professor Emeritus, Osaka University, 1-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, 565-0871, Japan. Email: hirata@tcct.zaq.ne.jp
ABSTRACT
This study will demonstrate that chaotic mixing is performable in a simple system where a disk is
reciprocated axially in a vessel. Experiments were carried out in a small vessel using a full disk or an orifice
disk. The vessel diameter was 7.6 cm and the liquid height was 12 cm. The cross-sectional opening ratio on
the disk plane, S = 1 (disk area)/(vessel cross-sectional area), was set to 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6, for which a full disk
of 6.8, 5.9 or 4.8 cm in diameter was used. The outer diameter of an orifice disk was kept constant,
d o = 7.2 cm, with a clearance of 0.2 cm from the vessel sidewall, while its inner orifice diameter, d i , was set to
2.4, 4.2 or 5.4 cm corresponding to S = 0.2, 0.4 or 0.6, respectively. Reciprocation mixing was performed at an
axial amplitude of a = 4 cm by changing frequency n = 0.1 to 1 s1.
To investigate flow behaviour and mixing process, the boundary between two miscible fluids to be mixed
was visualised by using laser induced fluorescence (LIF). To this end, reciprocation was started by moving
the impeller upward under the condition where two still glycerol solutions had been stratified vertically. The
lower solution containing a small amount of uranine (fluorescein) was weakly acidic, while the upper
solution was basic at pH 1112. Uranine can be coloured by injecting an Argon laser as a fluorescence
exciting light when pH of its surrounding solution is larger than five. In a short diffusion time of uranine
and hydroxide ion after starting reciprocation mixing, the diffusive boundary of two miscible solutions is
coloured as a narrow band or a line by injecting sheet laser. The coloured band expands as diffusion
proceeds and the whole region is fully coloured when mixing is completed. Applying LIF in this manner one
can trace dynamic deformation of the diffusive boundary of two miscible fluids in the early stage of mixing
as well as overall flow behaviour and mixing process.
In the case of full disk reciprocation, the fluid is forced to flow-through the annular region between the disk
edge and the vessel sidewall in the opposite direction to the disk movement. A ring vortex was generated
behind the moving disk at every half reciprocation when the Reynolds number, which was defined by
Re = (v max /S)d e / with the maximum reciprocation velocity v max = 2na, was larger than 20. The vortex
thus generated was engulfed in a vortex newly generated by the following stroke in the opposite direction.
In the case of orifice disk reciprocation, the fluid is forced to flow-through the orifice opening since the gap
between the outer edge of the disk and the vessel sidewall is small. A small ring vortex, which was
generated near the orifice edge behind the moving disk, was engulfed in the flow passing through the orifice
during the following opposite disk movement. In both cases, the flow induced through the opening grew up
to be a circulating flow covering the whole region as the Reynolds number increased. Particularly at large
Reynolds numbers, a strong circulating flow was induced since the flow-through the opening impinged onto
the vessel bottom or the liquid surface. The circulating flow with vortex generated in this manner yields
significant elongation and multifolding of diffusive fluid boundary or fluid interface. Length measurements
of the visualised fluid boundary by image processing showed that the interfacial length increased
exponentially with time. This reveals that chaotic mixing is performed by disk reciprocation.
Mixing time M was measured using the decolourising reaction of iodine with sodium thiosulfate. The
dimensionless mixing time n M decreased with increasing Reynolds number and it became constant when
the Reynolds number was larger than a critical value. The constant value of n M was less than three, which
means that mixing is completed within a few reciprocations. Reciprocation with a disk with smaller S gave a
smaller value to n M . In the ordinary rotational mixing, n M is normally larger than ten. Accordingly, chaotic
mixing by disk reciprocation enables rapid mixing as compared to the ordinary rotational mixing.
41
In the reciprocation system studied here, the axially moving disk pushes the liquid in the front region
toward the rear region. If v max is adopted as a reference velocity of the fluid passing through the opening, the
volume flow rate through it may be represented as Q D = (/4)d2v max for full disk reciprocation or
Q D = (/4)(d o 2 d i 2)v max for orifice disk reciprocation. Then the time required for displacing the whole fluid
with volume V may be estimated by D = V/Q D . With increasing the Reynolds number, the dimensionless
mixing time M / D decreased gradually and approached a constant value of around two in both
reciprocation operations.
42
Effects of Impeller Height and Particle Properties on the

Particle Collision Phenomena in a Solid-liquid Stirred Vessel
H Iijima1, R Misumi2, K Nishi3 and M Kaminoyama4
1. Master Course Student, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Japan.
Email: iijima-hironari-gr@ynu.jp
2. Research Associate, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Japan.
3. Associate Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Japan.
4. Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama, Japan.
ABSTRACT
Solid-liquid mixing is widely used in crystallisation and chemical reactions with catalysis particles. In these
processes, solid particles collide with impeller blades, wearing and damaging the solid particles and blades.
It is important to quantify the particle collision phenomenon on impeller blades to clarify this phenomenon,
but it is difficult to do this by way of experimentation. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has been
determined to be a valid means to quantify this phenomenon. Generally, the flow pattern in a vessel changes
with impeller height and the flow pattern affects the particle collision phenomenon. Particle properties also
influence particle collision. In this study, the effect of impeller height and particle properties on the
distribution of particle collision and particle collision velocity was investigated.
We used a flat-bottom cylindrical vessel with four baffles and a six-blade paddle impeller. The vessel
diameter was 10 cm and the baffle width was 1 cm. The diameter and width of the blades were 5 cm and
1 cm, respectively. The impeller height, h was set at one-tenth, one-third, and one-second of the vessel
height, H. The impeller speed was 6 s-1. The fluid was presumed to be water of a certain density and
viscosity. The particle diameter varied from 100 to 200 m. The particle density was changed from 1000 to
5000 kg/m3. The number of particles was 50 000. Fluid flow and particle suspension in the vessel reached
steady state after 8 s from the stationary state; statistical data after 8 s were used for discussions. The Euler
Lagrangian approach, which tracks all particle motion, was adopted. Turbulent flow in the stirred vessel was
represented by large eddy simulation. The interactions of particle-particle and particle-solid surfaces were
modelled using the distinct element method. Simulations were conducted using commercial CFD software
(R-FLOW, Rflow Co Ltd). The particle collision positions, particle collision velocity, and time-average
collision frequency on the front and back faces of the impeller blades were quantified under various
conditions.
The distribution of the particle collision points on the front (loading) and back faces of the impeller blades
were quantified in cases of h = H/10 and H/2. The distribution of the particle collision points on the front
face was almost same, regardless of impeller height. On the other hand, the distribution of the particle
collision points on the back face was different between the two cases. In the case of h = H/10, the location of
the particle collision was divided into two regions that were concentrated on the lower side of the blade. In
the case of h = H/2, the particles collided with the entire back face.
The circumferential, axial, and radial components of fluid velocity around the impeller blades were
quantified to investigate the relation between fluid flow and particle collisions for two impeller heights. In
the case of h = H/2, the upper-side trailing vortices and down-side vortices were almost same size. On the
other hand, in the case of h = H/10, the downward components of fluid flow around the blades was stronger
than the other two components. Consequently, the upper-side trailing vortices generated behind the blades
were bigger than those of the down side. This is the reason why the particle collision points are divided into
two regions.
43
The time-average collision frequencies on the blade front face, F coll,f , and back face, F coll,b , were quantified in
various particle diameters and densities. The time-average collision frequencies F coll,f and F coll,b were divided
by N imp because the vertical distribution of the particle concentration in the vessel varied with the particle
properties. N imp denotes the number of particles suspended in the space that corresponded to impellerequipped height from the bottom edge of the blade to the top edge. The relaxation time of the particle
motion, , the degree of delay that followed the fluid motion, was also calculated to represent the particle
properties. In the front face, the time-average collision frequency divided by the particle number F coll,f /N imp
increased with both particle diameter and density and showed a clear correlation with . In the back face,
however, F coll,b /N imp decreased with both particle diameter and density and showed a clear correlation
with .
This study was supported financially by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Nos 23760147 and 25420108.
44
Numerical Simulation of Liquid Surface in a Small Cup using

Rotation Revolution Mixer
T Inaba1, K Imai2 and S Matsuoka3
1. Senior Researcher, Hitachi, Ltd, Hitachi Research Laboratory, 832-2, Horiguchi, Hitachinaka, Ibaraki 312-0034,
Japan. Email: toru.inaba.rk@hitachi.com
2. Engineer, Science and Medical Systems Business Group, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, 882, IChige,
Hitachinaka, Ibaraki 312-8504, Japan. Email: imai-kenta@naka.hitachi-hitec.com
3. Engineer, Science and Medical Systems Business Group, Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation, 882, IChige,
Hitachinaka, Ibaraki 312-8504, Japan. Email: matsuoka-shinya@naka.hitachi-hitec.com
ABSTRACT
Mixing is very important for chemical, bio-engineering, and material process. Especially, mixer combined
rotation and revolution is very powerful and useful for mixture of the material with high viscosity, removal
of contaminated air, or low volume liquid mixture. In this research, we concentrate on the simulation
method for the rotation revolution mixer. Moreover we focus on the rotational condition that the speed of
the rotation and the revolution is the same and the direction of those is reverse. Then, the specified point of a
cup is always pointed out to the same direction during rotational motion as shown in Figure 1. Note that, the
coordinate (x, y, z) is the absolute coordinate, on the other hand, the coordinate (X, Y, Z) is the relative
coordinate, which is fixed with the cup. In this research, we derived the apparent force for the movement of
the rotation revolution mixer, and calculated the surface of liquid contained in a small cup by using
computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Moreover, the geometry of the liquid surface by using computation is
compared with that by using experiment.
FIG 1 Rotation revolution mixer.
45
In the experiment, we used a small cup and an experimental device for the rotation revolution mixer. The
approximate diameter and height of the cup are 10 mm and 35 mm, respectively. A reagent liquid, which
volume is 300 L, 400 L, and 500 L, is contained into the cup. The speed of the rotation is the same as that
of the revolution, and the direction of rotation and revolution is reverse. The rotational speed is changed
from 600 min-1 to 1200 min-1 every 100 min-1. After mixing rotation, red-ink as a marker is attached on the
inner wall of the cup and then it is spread if the reagent liquid is on the wall. Then we evaluated the
boundary of the reagent liquid. Therefore, we can measure the maximum height of the reagent liquid from
the bottom of the cup by the mixing rotation.
In the computation, we calculate the liquid surface in a small cup using the CFD with volume of fluid (VOF)
method. In CFD, we calculated flow field using the relative frame for the momentum equation. The
momentum equation using absolute coordinate (x, y, z) and force per mass (Fx, Fy, Fz) is transformed to the
momentum equation using relative coordinate (X, Y, Z) and force per mass (FX, FY, FZ). After three
rotational transformations taking account for rotation revolution mixer are operated for absolute coordinate
system, we can get the three-dimensional momentum equation with the relative frame like as Equations 13,
that is fixed with the cup coordinate. Here, is the angular velocity for rotation and revolution, is the
leaned angle between the axis of the rotation and that of the revolution, (X, Y, Z) is relative coordinate on the
cup. The terms with the underline in these equations are apparent force because of the relative frame. We
add these terms to the momentum equation, that is, the Navier-Stokes equation for the flow field calculation
as an apparent force. We also add the transformed gravity force for the rotation revolution mixer. By
calculating with relative frame, the computational grid is kept stayed while taking account for the rotation.
Then computational time can be decreased.
X = FX 2 sin 2 X cos 2 t + 2 2 (1 cos ) X 2 (1 cos )Y 2 sin 2 Y sin t cos t 2 sin Z sin t 2 sin cos Z cos t
(1)
Y = FY + 2 (1 cos ) X 2 sin 2 X sin t cos t 2 sin 2 Y sin 2 t + 2 2 (1 cos )Y + 2 sin Z cos t 2 sin cos Z sin t
(2)
Z = FZ + 2 sin X sin t + 2 sin (2 cos ) X cos t 2 sin Y cos t + 2 sin (2 cos )Y sin t + 2 sin 2 Z
(3)
Figure 2 shows the comparison between computation and experimental results for the maximum height of
liquid. We compared 300 L, 400 L, and 500 L of liquid volume with rotational speed from 600 min-1 to
1200 min-1 every 200 min-1. In this figure, error bar of the experiment is added for additional information.
Simulated results are good agreement with experimental results. Accuracy between the computation and
experiment are approximately below 1 mm.
FIG 2 Comparison between experiment and simulation.
46
Characterisation of Batch Rotor-stator Mixers

J James1, M Cooke2, A J Kowalski3, P Martin4 and T L Rodgers5
1. The University of Manchester, SCEAS, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.
Email: jebin.james@student.manchester.ac.uk
Email: michael.cooke@manchester.ac.uk
3. Unilever R&D Port Sunlight Laboratory, Quarry Road East, Bebington, Wirral, CH63 3JW, UK.
Email: adam.kowalski@unilever.com
4. The University of Manchester, SCEAS, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK. Email: p.martin@manchester.ac.uk
Email: tom.rodgers@manchester.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
High-shear rotor-stator mixers are widely used in the process industries including the manufacture of many
food, cosmetic, health care products, fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals. Rotor-stator devices provide a
focused delivery of energy, power, and shear to accelerate physical processes such as micro-mixing,
dissolution, emulsification and de-agglomeration. The use of rotor-stator devises used in a batch system
provides the flexibility to produce a wide range of products in one vessel.
This paper examines the key design parameters for batch rotor-stator Silverson mixers at both lab (LR4) and
pilot (GX10) scale. Full-power curves are produced for a variety of rotor sizes with and without screens
measured using a TorqueSense meter. The Metzner-Otto constant is also calculated for these same
configurations providing a comparison of the average shear rate.
The mixing times and flow patterns of the rotor-stator mixers are measured using electrical resistance
tomography suggesting an optimum configuration; the use of a secondary propeller is also investigated to
aid the mixing. As many products can be sensitive to air ingress the speed until surface aeration is also
measured and compared for the different configurations.
The equilibrium drop size is measured for the different configurations and compared at different rotor
speeds over the two scales. The transient drop size is also measured and correlated against the key design
parameters.
47
Solids Suspension for the Mining Industry

R Jacques1, T Post2 and K Johnson3
1. President, Envirequip WTEM Inc, 21494 Little Russia Rd, Glen Robertson, Ontario K0B 1H0, Canada.
2. Managing Member and Consultant, Post Mixing Optimization and Solutions LLC, 7 Tippet Way, Pittsford, New
York 14534, USA. Email: tpost@postmixing.com
3. Consultant, Post Mixing Optimization and Solutions LLC, 7 Tippet Way, Pittsford, New York 14534, USA.
ABSTRACT
There are many articles published about solids suspension in mixed tanks many are confusing and many
contradict each other. We decided to launch an experimental and computational study to better understand
how disagreements between researched results can happen. The consequences for the mining industry is
huge as no one wants to wait for the installation of a full-scale leach tank only to find out it fails on start-up.
The most commonly used correlation for scale-up is based on the work of Zwietering, but many people have
criticised it. More recently, there have been claims that the scale-up should be based on constant P/V, and
others claim that it should be a hybrid between the two models.
Our study looks at 12, 20 and 40 tanks, a variety of hydrofoil impeller designs and pitched bladed
turbines of various impeller to tank diameter ratios and various off bottom clearances. We varied the solids
concentration from 165 per cent. We varied the particle sizes from 801000 microns. Every experiment was
duplicated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to better understand the hydro-dynamics along the
tank base and the walls. Based on our results we plan on expanding our work to 84 or 96 tanks and
investigate the effect of solids as small as 20 microns on solids suspension.
The impeller design does have an impact on solids suspension, but we also found that for geometrically
similar set-ups, solid suspension was fundamentally different between the 12, 20 and 40 tanks. We also
discovered a sweet spot for each impeller design, where the power of suspension was at a minimum for
that tank geometry and slurry characteristics. An amazingly simple little trick will be demonstrated to
improve solids suspension in many leach tank applications. Finally, we will also show how constant P/V
and Zwietering can both be correct scale-up methods.
48
Effects of Agitation and Fluid Concentration on the Mixing

Enhancement of a Yield Stress Fluid in a Stirred Vessel with
Aeration
M Kaminoyama1, H Nakahara2, S Ikeda2, M Misumi3 and K Nishi4
1. Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Hodogaya-ku, Tokiwa-dai, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
2. Yokohama National University, 79-5 Hodogaya-ku, Tokiwa-dai, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
3. Research Associate, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Hodogaya-ku, Tokiwa-dai, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
4. Associate Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Hodogaya-ku, Tokiwa-dai, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
ABSTRACT
It is known that a phenomenon, in which the flow region occurs only in the vicinity of the stirring impeller,
while the region outside is stationery, occurs when a fluid possessing yield stress, such as a slurry system
fluid, is agitated using a small plate-type impeller (Kaminoyama et al, 2009). This flow region is called a
cavern, and the mixing state across the whole of the vessel is poor, since exchange of liquids through the
cavern boundary does not occur. On the other hand, aeration can generate a large circulating flow in a
stirred vessel.
We have already reported quantitative investigations into improving the flow and mixing states of a slurry
system fluid in a stirred vessel with the aid of aeration (Kaminoyama et al, 2010, 2011).
In this study, we quantitatively investigated, further, the effects of the concentration of a fluid and the
impeller rotational speed, n[n-1], on the mixing enhancement for a yield stress fluid, an aqueous solution of
carboxyl vinyl-polymer, in a stirred vessel equipped with a concave impeller (Sito et al, 1992). The vessel
used was made of acrylic resin and was transparent and cylindrical, having a flat bottom and a 0.2 m
diameter. The impeller used was six-bladed and concave, having a 0.1 m diameter. The impeller rotational
speed was varied from 3.0 to 7.0 s-1. A large sparger, having a 0.145 m diameter, was used in the bottom of
the vessel. The aeration rate was 15 L/min. The concentration of the sample fluid was varied: 0.15, 0.20 and
0.20 wt per cent. The mixing process was evaluated with a decolourisation reaction method using iodine and
sodium thiosulfate. Firstly, we observed the differences in the bubble behaviour with increasing n for each
fluid concentration. Secondly, we defined some mixing indices, such as the time integral of a s , Sa s [s] and the
mixing rate constant, k s [n-1], based on the dynamic change in the ratio of the volume of the unmixed region
to that of the whole vessel, a s [-], with an image analysis method. We ascertained that the lower the fluid
concentration and the higher the impeller rotational speed, the greater the mixing enhancement, and we
clarified the relation between the fluid concentration and mixing enhancement with these indices and tried
to establish a correlation equation of Sa s with the impeller Reynolds Number, Re d , using the representative
apparent viscosity, based on the Metzner concept.
REFERENCES
Kaminoyama, M, Masaki, Y, Kitahara, K, Suzuki, Y, Misumi, R and Nishi, K, 2011. Effects of aeration and agitation on
the mixing rate of fluids possessing yield stress in a stirred vessel equipped with a concave impeller, in
Proceedings International Symposium on Mixing in Industrial Processes VII (ISMIP 7) pp 78.
Kaminoyama, M, Nishi, K, Misumi, R and Otani, F, 2009. A representative viscosity of casson fluids in a stirred vessel, in
Proceedings Eighth World Congress of Chemical Engineering, No 2131, Montreal, Canada.
Kaminoyama, M, Yonezawa, A, Kitahara, K, Suzuki, Y, Misumi, R and Nishi, K, 2010. Effects of aeration on the flow and
mixing states of fluids possessing yield stress in a stirred vessel when a cavern region occurs, in Proceedings Third
Asian Conference on Mixing, October 1922, No B-06, Jeju, Korea.
Sito, F, Nienow, A W, Chatwin, S and Moore, I P T, 1992. Power, gas dispersion and homogenisation characteristics of
scaba SRGT and rushton turbine impellers, J Chem Eng Japan, 25(3):281288.
49
Low Viscosity Blending Performance for Multiple Hydrofoil

Impellers in Tall Vessels
R O Kehn1, M Powell2 and A Strand3
1. Manager Research and Development, SPX LIGHTNIN, Rochester, New York, USA. Email: richard.kehn@spx.com
2. Research Engineer, SPX LIGHTNIN, Rochester, New York, USA. Email: madi.powell@spx.com
3. Research Engineer, SPX LIGHTNIN, Rochester, New York, USA. Email: aaron.strand@spx.com
ABSTRACT
Agitated vessels with batch aspect ratios greater than 1.0 are common in many process industries. Multiple
impellers are recommended for these applications to ensure that material is blended quickly and thoroughly
throughout the vessel. For turbulent blending applications, there are few published correlations that predict
blend time in a tall vessel with multiple impellers. Tall vessels present agitator shaft design challenges due to
the need for multiple impellers. Each impeller adds a concentrated weight to the shaft/impeller system,
which effects critical speed of the agitator shaft. In many cases, agitator shaft systems are typically critical
speed limited. If the number of impellers required and their locations relative to each other can be optimised,
the mechanical design can also be optimised.
Process tomography, a system that measures conductivity within an agitated vessel, was used to develop
experimental blend time data for a 760 mm diameter clear vessel (see Figure 1). The process tomography
system has eight planes of conductivity probes, with each plane containing sixteen probes. The system
allows for the electrical conductivity of the base fluid to be monitored during each test run. Water was used
for the base fluid and a saturated sodium chloride solution was used for the tracer. A liquid level of
1067 mm was maintained for all the experiments. The LIGHTNIN A310 impeller was used for the
experiments (see Figure 2). Two single impeller configurations, four dual impeller configurations and a
triple impeller configuration were tested. For each of the seven configurations, experimental blend times
were generated at three power levels. For each impeller speed that was tested, three blend time runs were
completed and the average of the three results are presented in Figures 3 through 6. The experimental blend
time was the time it took for each tomography plane to reach less than a 1 per cent variance in conductivity
after the salt spike was added. Thus the blend time to reach a 99 per cent reduction in variance was recorded.
Generally the uppermost plane took the longest to reach this variance level.
FIG 1 Experimental set-up (process tomography).
50
FIG 2 SPX LIGHTNIN A310 impeller.
FIG 3 Measured blend time versus blend time correlation

from Handbook of Industrial Mixing (Grenville and Nienow, 2004).
51
FIG 4 Experimental blend time results single A310.
FIG 5 Experimental blend time results dual impeller (different geometries).
52
FIG 6 Experimental blend time results single, dual and triple impellers same off bottom clearance.
The single impeller results were compared to the turbulent blend time correlation presented in the Handbook
of Industrial Mixing (Grenville and Nienow, 2004), which is shown in Equation 1.
1/3 99
where:
1.5 0.5
Po
is the power number of the impeller
is the rotational speed (rps)
is the impeller diameter in metres
is the tank diameter in metres
is the liquid level in metres
is the calculated blend time (in seconds).
(1)
In this case, a value of 6.8 was used for the constant since the measured blend time was calculated based on a
99 per cent reduction in variance. Figure 3 shows that the measured blend time versus the predicted blend
time are within 20 per cent for the majority of the data set.
In Figures 4 to 6, the experimental results are presented. The results show that adding a second impeller at
equal power to a single impeller configuration can lead to a 45 per cent improvement in blend time (see
Figure 6). Adding a third impeller in this configuration shows no improvement in blend time at equal
power. Adding the third impeller, while adding torque to the agitator design, does not lead to improved
blending performance. In addition, blending results differed depending on the location of the impeller(s) for
both the single and dual impeller cases (see Figures 4 and 5). This implies that impeller geometry, not just
applied power, is important to optimising blend time in tall vessels. Overall for taller vessels, blending
results improve as the spacing between the impellers are widened. The implications of these experimental
results will be illustrated utilising full scale design comparisons for the presentation.
REFERENCES
Grenville, R K and Nienow, A W, 2004. Blending of miscible liquids, in Handbook of Industrial Mixing (eds: E L Paul,
V Atiemo-Obeng and S M Kresta) (Wiley: New York).
53
Mixing Characteristics of Liquid Jet Recirculation in a Model

Digester
S Kennedy1, R Parthasarathy2, N Eshtiaghi3, S Bhattacharya4 and P Slatter5
1. PhD Student, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic 3000.
Email: s3134578@rmit.edu.au
2. School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic 3000.
Email: rchrp@rmit.edu.au
3. Senior Lecturer, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic 3000.
Email: nicky.eshtiaghi@rmit.edu.au
4. Professor, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic 3000.
Email: sati.bhattacharya@rmit.edu.au
5. Principal Engineer, ATC Williams, 222 Beach Road, Mordialloc Vic 3195. Email: pauls@atcwilliams.com.au
ABSTRACT
Wastewater treatment is becoming an increasingly important issue to municipal water suppliers the world
over. Anaerobic digestion is a preferred method of treatment given that it can produce energy above and
beyond the needs of the wastewater treatment plant. With an increasing population density, the necessity to
treat digester feeds with increased sludge concentration becomes apparent. With increasing sludge
concentration, however, comes its increasingly complex rheology.
This study aims to study the mixing characteristics of digested sludge and establish models for active
volume creation in anaerobic digesters. Experiments were carried out in a 0.2 m diameter vessel, mixed
using liquid jet recirculation. A transparent simulant fluid (xanthan gum Keltrol T solution) at varying
concentrations was used to mimic digested sludge. The active volume generated during mixing was
determined using a flow visualisation technique involving an acid-base reaction and a fluorescent dye tracer.
The active volume formation was found to be a function of vessel geometry, specific power input and fluid
properties. It was found that the rheological properties of the agitated fluid play a major part in the
formation of the active volume. An increase in fluid apparent viscosity leads to an increase in specific power
input required to achieve an equivalent active volume. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models to
estimate the volume of active volume were developed and validated using experimental data. These models
can be used for scale-up purposes in the design and operation of anaerobic digesters used for municipal
wastewater treatment.
54
Computational Fluid Dynamics Modelling Study to Predict

the Particle Shear History in a Tank Stirred by an Axial Flow
Impeller
G L Lane1 and I Livk2
1. Research Engineer, CSIRO Computational Informatics, Bayview Avenue, Clayton Vic 3168.
Email: graeme.lane@csiro.au
2. Project Leader, CSIRO Mineral Resources, Conlon Street, Waterford WA 6152. Email: iztok.livk@csiro.au
ABSTRACT
It is well known that the turbulent energy dissipation rate in mechanically stirred tanks exhibits large spatial
variations, as well as transient variations related to impeller rotation, turbulence and macro instabilities. In
various applications such as crystallisation, flocculation, or liquid-liquid dispersion, the local turbulent
energy dissipation rate determines the fluid shear experienced by particles, and the time history of particle
exposure to different levels of shear is important to physical processes such as aggregation and breakup,
impacting upon the resulting particle size distribution. This paper reports on a computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) methodology, which has been developed with the aim of investigating the time history of
shear exposure of suspended particles, so as to obtain statistics related to the time-averaged shear as seen by
the particles, and the fraction of time spent at different levels of shear. Results are presented here for the
analysis of a baffled tank stirred by a Lightnin A310 impeller.
As a first step, a CFD model was set-up for a stirred tank following the geometry and operating conditions
of an experimental study which was carried out by Bugay, Escudi and Lin (2002). A finite volume mesh
was set-up to represent the tank geometry including the details of the impeller blades. Transient simulations
were carried out using the ANSYS-CFX software (version 15) to solve the unsteady Reynolds averaged
equations (URANS), using the Sliding Mesh method to account for impeller rotation. Three alternative
turbulence models were compared, being the k-epsilon model, the Shear Stress Transport (SST) model, and
the Scale Adaptive Simulation version of the SST model (SAS-SST). The accuracy of fluid flow predictions
with each of these turbulence models was assessed against available measurements. The accuracy of results
was also assessed in relation to the mesh resolution, leading to a final non-uniform mesh of about four
million elements for the shear history analysis.
With the k-epsilon model, good agreement with measurements was obtained for the power number, as
calculated from the impeller torque, while mean velocities near the impeller were slightly underpredicted.
Near the impeller, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent energy dissipation rates did not follow the
experimentally measured profiles and values were too high in places, although in the bulk of the tank,
turbulent kinetic energy values were in good agreement with the measurements. Another problem with the
k-epsilon model was that the simulation failed to predict the separation of the flow from the side wall in the
vertical plane half way between baffles, as found by Bugay, Escudi and Lin (2002), which leads to a
separate small circulation loop in the top corner of the tank. With the SST model, this flow separation was
predicted, and the velocities near the impeller were also better matched. Profiles of turbulent kinetic energy
and turbulent energy dissipation rates near the impeller showed much better agreement with the
experimental measurements using the SST model, although values were slightly underpredicted near the
impeller and slightly overpredicted in the bulk of the tank. The predicted power number was again in good
agreement with measurements. With the SAS-SST model, as well as predicting flow separation from the
wall, the modelling method allowed the prediction of large-scale transient flow structures. These were found
to have a low frequency content and are consistent in their nature with the macro instabilities which have
been reported by various studies. The time-varying flow field as obtained using the SAS-SST model could be
considered more suitable for the shear history study, since the resulting particle tracks using this model
seem more realistic.
55
Particle shear history was studied using the particle tracking facility within ANSYS-CFX. Neutrally buoyant
particles of one micron diameter were seeded uniformly over the tank volume, and the motion of particles
was calculated using a Lagrangian equation, where the particles are coupled to the liquid flow field through
drag and virtual mass forces. Turbulent dispersion of particles was modelled by adding a randomised
additional fluid velocity to the velocity seen by particles taking into account the local turbulent kinetic
energy. A total of about 600 particles were tracked during transient simulation for long enough to obtain
convergent statistics. This was carried out using each of the turbulence models. Results are presented for the
time-averaged energy dissipation rate as seen by the particles as compared with the volume-averaged
energy dissipation rate in the tank. Further statistics were obtained, including the distribution of times spent
within defined ranges of the energy dissipation rate.
While results are presented here for a single configuration of a stirred tank, the intention in future work is to
apply this methodology to compare shear histories for tanks with different geometries or impeller types, as
well as investigating scale-up effects, as a means towards further understanding of processes involving the
interaction of suspended particles with fluid turbulence.
REFERENCES
Bugay, S, Escudi, R and Lin, A, 2002. Experimental analysis of hydrodynamics in axially agitated tanks, AIChE Journal,
48(2):463475.
56
Improved Blending in a Full-scale Iron Ore Slurry Tank

B D Marjavaara1, O Eriksson2, J Wu3, B Nguyen4 and L Pullum5
1. Research Engineer, LKAB, Kiruna, SE-981 86, Sweden. Email:daniel.marjavaara@lkab.com
2. Specialist, LKAB, Kiruna, SE-981 86, Sweden. Email: ola.eriksson@lkab.com
3. Scientist, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering Division, Graham RD 37, Highett Vic 3190.
Email: jie.wu@csiro.au
4. Experimental Scientist, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering Division, Graham RD 37, Highett Vic 3190.
Email: bon.nguyen@csiro.au
5. Private Consultant, 29 Monash Avenue, Olinda Vic 3788. Email: lionel.pullum@csiro.au
ABSTRACT
LKAB is a Swedish high-tech international minerals group, that supplies upgraded iron ore products and
closely related services to the world steel market. The company is also a growing supplier of mineral
products for other industrial sectors. Together with the CSIRO, Australias national science agency, LKAB
has tried to modify one of its own iron ore slurry tanks in order to increase surge capacity and improve
blending. The studied magnetite iron ore slurry tank has a capacity of 4000 m3 (~18 m in diameters and
~14 m high) and the agitation is performed by a single four-bladed axial flow impeller located closely to the
bottom of the tank. The tank acts primarily as a surge tank, ie to account for differences in production
between the upstream concentrator plant and downstream pelletising plant, and secondarily as a mixing
tank to blend the magnetite slurry with various types of additives to get the correct recipe for the upgraded
iron ore products.
Stratification occurs, however, in the tank at high tank liquid levels (70100 per cent), which makes it
difficult to maintain consistent output feed to the pelletising plant at these high tank levels. Specifically, the
mass ratio of the additives to the magnetite particles of the outgoing feed would decrease when the tank is
operated at high tank levels for an extended period of time, since the less dense additive particles will gather
in the top of the tank above the denser magnetite particles (the tank will act as a classifier). When the tank
level is reduced again (below 70 per cent) the stratification will disappear and higher mass ratios will be
produced for a subsequent period of time since the just build-up high concentrate additive stratification
layer will be mixed again with bottom magnetite layer. Attempting to avoid this stratification by operating
the tank at lower capacities is undesirable from a LKAB perspective since it reduces tank surge capacity and
thereby production.
To overcome this stratification problem LKAB and CSIRO have made a wide range of laboratory tests at
CSIROs mixing tank research facility in Australia, including removal of baffles, new impeller designs and
many other test configurations. It was found that the stratification could be reduced dramatically by
removing the tank baffles and extend the tip of the existing impeller so it operates at the same speed and
power as before. This is due to improved energy efficiency by the swirling flow effect. To achieve the same
improvement with traditional solutions (increased impeller speed, increased impeller diameter or double
impellers) would require twice the power consumption, which is entirely impractical full-scale solution at
LKAB with todays demand on energy savings.
The solution of removal of baffles and extension of the impeller tip was implemented at LKAB during May
to October 2012 with successful results. After running the full-scale implementation for one year with the
proposed solution it has been found out that the surge capacity have increased with 50 per cent without
altering the consistency of the output feed (ie operating the tank at 100 per cent tank level without any
stratification). It has also reduced the power consumption with ~25 per cent since it was possible to reduce
the impeller speed, despite the extension of the impeller tips.
57
Effect of Mixing on Starch Hydrolysis Using a CouetteTaylor

Flow Reactor
H Masuda1, T Horie2, R Hubacz3 and N Ohmura4
1. Kobe University, Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.
Email: hayato-masuda@stu.kobe-u.ac.jp
2. PhD, Kobe University, Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe 657-8501,
Japan. Email: horie@dragon.kobe-u.ac.jp
3. PhD, Warsaw University of Technology, Faculty of Chemical and Process Engineering, ul, Waryskiego 1, 00-645
Warszawa, Poland. Email: r.hubacz@ichip.pw.edu.pl
4. PhD, Professor, Kobe University, Department of Chemical Science and Engineering, 1-1 Rokkodai, Nada, Kobe,
657-8501, Japan. Email: ohmura@kobe-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
Operations of fluid which have complex rheological properties are encountered in many industries.
Especially, in polymerisation or food industries, the fluids not only show a non-Newtonian behaviour, but
also the viscosity intricately changes during reaction. In this study, an enzymatic hydrolysis of starch was
selected as a test reaction, mainly because it is famous process of non-Newtonian (shear-thinning) fluid
accompanied with viscosity change during reaction. The starch hydrolysis consists of two steps; a
gelatinisation process and a hydrolysis process. The fluid denotes the significant increase in viscosity in the
gelatinisation process, and the gelatinised starch has a shear-thinning property. On the other hand, the
viscosity of the fluid drastically decreases in the processing of enzymatic hydrolysis.
For the purpose of process intensification for the starch hydrolysis, the authors previously applied a
CouetteTaylor flow reactor (CTFR) (Hubacz, Ohmura and Wroski, 2010; Masuda et al, 2013). The CTFR
consists of two coaxial cylinders with the inner one rotating. Above a critical circumferential Reynolds
number, Re c , there appear pairs of counter-rotating toroidal vortices spaced regularly along the cylinder
axis. This toroidal vortex motion enhances not only heat and mass transfer, but also mixing. The authors
successfully showed that the formation of Taylor vortices in hydrolysis process was effective for
enhancement of mixing enzyme with gelatinised starch. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect
of Taylor vortex flow on mixing enzyme with gelatinised starch.
The experimental apparataus consisted of two concentric cylinders (length: 300 mm) with the rotating inner
cylinder (radius: 12.5 mm), the stationary outer one (inner radius: 17.5 mm) and two heating jackets. The
starch suspension was introduced into the gap between the cylinders. Initial concentrations of the starch
suspension (C 0 ) was varied from 50300 gL-1. The temperature of the first half part of the reactor
(gelatinisation section: 0150 mm) was 85C and that of the second half part (hydrolysis section:
150300 mm) was varied from T hy = 3585C. By injecting enzyme ( amylase) at the middle point of the
reactor, continuous starch hydrolysis was conducted.
Numerical calculation was conducted using Ansys 14.5 (Fluent). In this calculation, the effluent viscosity and
density were used. This means that the viscosity change during hydrolysis was neglected and numerical
simulation was limited to the hydrolysis section (150 mm). Although this assumption is rough, it is rather
useful to understand the effect of flow patterns on the performance of hydrolysis. In this calculation, the
viscosity profiles of the effluent were characterised by the Carreau Equation 1 (Carreau, 1972):
app = + ( 0 - )[1+( )2](n 1)/2
(1)
where:
app
is the apparent liquid viscosity
is the zero shear-rate viscosity
is the infinite shear-rate viscosity
58
is the shear rate
is a Carreau model parameter
is a Carreau model parameter
In the experiment, the product concentration of reducing sugar (C rs ) monotonically increased with the
increasing of the rotation speed of the inner cylinder until Re c in the hydrolysis process. On the other hand,
above Re c in the hydrolysis process, C rs almost kept a constant value. This result indicates that the formation
of Taylor vortex is effective for enhancement of mixing enzyme with gelatinised starch. Also, the numerical
simulation showed that Taylor vortices were formed in the hydrolysis section above Re c . The numerical
simulation revealed relatively wide distribution of viscosity in the gap due to the shear-thinning property of
fluid. Without Taylor vortex flow, below Re c , the viscosity distribution was uniform in the radial direction.
On the other hand, above Re c , the viscosity distribution in the gap was complicated. The viscosity around
the centre of vortex (low shear rate region) was at least five times higher than the one near the inner cylinder
(high shear rate region). In both cases, the viscosity distribution in the gap might be a serious problem for
mixing. This indicates that the enzyme injection point must be taken into consideration. It is assumed that
the injection of enzyme to the low viscosity region is preferable for mixing. On the other hand, the high
viscosity region can be regarded as the poor mixing region. The effect of viscosity distribution on mixing will
be also discussed by the results of experimental and numerical tracer response tests in the presentation.
REFERENCES
Carreau, P J, 1972. Rheological equations from molecular network theories, Trans Soc Rheol, 16:99127.
Hubacz, R, Ohmura, N and Wroski, S, 2010. Starch gelatinization and hydrolysis in the apparatus with Couette-Taylor
flow, In Apar Chem, 49(2):5556.
Masuda, H, Horie, T, Hubacz, R and Ohmura, N, 2013. Process intensification of continuous starch hydrolysis with a
Couette-Taylor flow reactor, Chem Eng Res Des, 91(11):22592264.
59
Effects of Baffle Geometry on Mixing Performance in

Continuous Oscillatory Flow Reactors
A Mazubert1, M Poux2, D F Fletcher3 and J Aubin4
1. PhD Candidate, Laboratoire de Gnie Chimique, University of Toulouse, 4 Alle Emile Monso, BP-84234, 31030
Toulouse, France. Email: alex.mazubert@ensiacet.fr
2. Research Engineer, Laboratoire de Gnie Chimique, University of Toulouse, 4 Alle Emile Monso, BP-84234,
31030 Toulouse, France. Email: martine.poux@ensiacet.fr
3. Adjunct Professor, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006.
Email: david.fletcher@sydney.edu.au
4. Researcher, Laboratoire de Gnie Chimique, University of Toulouse, 4 Alle Emile Monso, BP-84234, 31030
Toulouse, France. Email: joelle.aubincano@ensiacet.fr
ABSTRACT
Continuous oscillatory flow reactors (COFR) have been shown to be highly efficient for a number of
different operations, including precipitation, crystallisation, polymerisation and liquid-liquid reactions
(Harvey, Mackley and Stonestreet, 2001; Lawton et al, 2009). Examples of application include production of
solid, active pharmaceutical ingredients and bio-fuels. The continuous oscillatory flow reactor consists of a
pipe with annular baffles along its length and it operates with an oscillatory or pulsed flow rate, which
creates recirculating flow and eddies. This unique flow enables efficient mixing and mass and heat transfer,
and also provides plug flow with long residence times. Although this type of reactor is commercially
available and has proven to globally intensify a number of processes, the fundamental characterisation of
COFRs has been mainly limited to the determination of residence time distributions (Dickens, Mackely and
Williams, 1989; Mackley and Ni, 1991; Stonestreet and Van der Veeken, 1999). As a result, there are still no
well-defined guidelines that recommend appropriate operating conditions for good mixing and plug flow,
and methods for evaluating the mixing and hydrodynamic performance of the reactor have not yet been
developed. Indeed, the characterisation of mixing in these devices is not straightforward due to the transient
nature of the flow. In the same manner, there has been little interest in effects of baffle design on the
performance of COFRs. Only recently have researchers started to explore other baffle designs and their
effects on residence time (Phan and Harvey, 2010, 2011), flow (Nogueira et al, 2013) and heat transfer (Solano
et al, 2012).
The objective of this work is to develop methodologies for characterising mixing and hydrodynamics in
COFRs and to use these methods to explore the effects of baffle design. To do this, we have performed
single-phase, three-dimensional, transient simulations using ANSYS CFX. Indeed, computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) is an attractive tool for the detailed characterisation of mixing and flow performance, since
it provides a full three-dimensional data set and specific characteristics of the flow that are often difficult to
measure, such as local shear rates. It also allows a large number of geometrical parameters to be explored
with ease.
The COFR considered is a cylindrical pipe with a diameter of 15 mm equipped with baffles of different
designs. Five baffle types have been tested, including regular annular baffles, disc and doughnut baffles and
three helical baffle designs. The operating parameters varied are the net flow rate, as well as the amplitude
and the frequency of the flow oscillations. In order to characterise mixing and hydrodynamics, a pulse of
tracer is simulated (Figure 1) and mass-less fluid particles are tracked. The corresponding data are then
analysed in various ways to evaluate, for example, the spatial and temporal mixing performance, the age of
fluid elements, the presence of chaotic mixing, and the history of shear strain experienced by fluid elements.
60
FIG 1 Scalar dispersion in a continuous oscillatory flow reactor with orifice baffles.
In terms of baffle design and the different measures of mixing performance, the results of this study show
that the annular baffles that are used in industrial COFRs provide good mixing and hydrodynamics in a
relatively limited range of operating conditions. On the other hand, baffles with helical designs have shown
to be more flexible, providing better mixing performance in a larger operating window. This provides the
possibility of using the COFR technology for a wider range of applications and opens the opportunity to
develop this technology for applications with fast kinetics, such as fast reactions or precipitations, where
poor mixing and local segregation decreases selectivity and/or product properties.
REFERENCES
Dickens, A W, Mackley, M R and Williams, H R, 1989. Experimental residence time distribution measurements for
unsteady flow in baffled tubes, Chem Eng Sci, 44:14711479.
Harvey, A P, Mackley, M R and Stonestreet, P, 2001. Operation and optimization of an oscillatory flow continuous
reactor, Ind Eng Chem Res, 40:53715377.
Lawton, S, Steele, G, Shering, P, Zhao, L, Laird, I and Ni, X, 2009. Continuous crystallisation of pharmaceuticals using a
continuous oscillatory baffled crystalliser, Organic Process Res Develop, 13:13571363.
Mackley, M R and Ni, X, 1991. Mixing and dispersion in a baffled tube for steady laminar and pulsatile flow, Chem Eng
Sci, 46:31393151.
Nogueira, X, Taylor, B J, Gomez, H, Colominas, I and Mackley, M R, 2013. Experimental and computational modeling of
oscillatory flow within a baffled tuve containing periodic-tri-orifice baffle geometries, Comp Chem Eng, 49:117.
Phan, A N and Harvey, A, 2010. Development and evaluation of novel designs of continuous mesoscale oscillatory
baffled reactors, Chem Eng J, 159:212219.
Phan, A N and Harvey, A, 2011. Effect of geometrical parameters on fluid mixing in novel mesoscale oscillatory helical
baffled designs, Chem Eng J, 169:339347.
Solano, J P, Herrero, R, Espin, S, Phan, A N and Harvey, A, 2012. Numerical study of the flow pattern and heat transfer
enhancement in oscillatory baffled reactors with helical coil inserts, Chem Eng Res Des, 90:732742.
Stonestreet, P and Van der Veeken, P M J, 1999. The effects of oscillatory flow and bulk flow components on residence
time distribution in baffled tube reactors, Trans IChemE, 77A:671684.
61
Relation between Particle Collisions and Paint Erosion on

Impeller Blades
R Misumi1, H Kato2, H Iijima3, K Nishi4 and M Kaminoyama5
1. Research Associate, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
Japan.
Japan. Email: iijima-hironari-gr@ynu.jp
5. Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501, Japan.
ABSTRACT
Solid-liquid mixing is frequently used in many industrial processes. In these processes, solid particles, such
as crystal and solid catalysis, collide with impeller blades in the stirred tank. Particle collision with impeller
blades often induces serious erosion of the impeller blades. It is known that there are differences in erosion
between the front (loading) face and the back face. However, the mechanism of the particle collision with the
impeller blades in a stirred vessel, and the difference between the front and back faces, is not sufficiently
understood, mainly because of the difficulties in characterising detailed particle behaviours experimentally.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) coupled with Lagrangian simulation of particle motion is a very useful
and powerful technique for quantifying particle behaviour. In this study, the velocity and frequency of the
particle collisions on the impeller blades are quantified using Euler-Lagrangian simulations of particle
behaviours suspended in a stirred vessel. The time evolution of the eroded ratio of single-coated paint on an
impeller blade is also quantified experimentally, and it was compared with the CFD results.
A flat-bottomed cylindrical stirred vessel with four baffle plates was used. The vessel had an inner diameter
of 100 mm and a liquid level of 100 mm (H). The fluid was presumed to be water. A six-blade, paddle type
impeller with a diameter of 50 mm was submersed at a height of H/3. The impeller rotational speed, n, was
10 or 6 s-1. Particles were corresponding to glass beads with particle diameter of 200 m and density of
2500 kg/m3, and particle number of 50 000. For the large eddy simulation (LES) coupled with the distinct
element method (DEM), we used the commercial CFD software R-flow (R-flow Co Ltd) with some user
subroutines.
The distribution of particle collision points and the collision velocity on the front (loading) faces and the back
faces of the impeller blades were quantified. The probability density and the distributions of the normal and
tangential components of the particle collision velocity were also investigated. The results show that the
particle collisions on the front face of a blade occur along the edge of the impeller blade, regardless of the
blade width or the impeller shape. The probability of high velocity collision increases based on the ratio of
the edge length of the impeller blade to the blade area. On the other hand, particle collision with the back
face of the blade occurs around the centre of the blade, away from the blade edge. The probability of highspeed collisions with the back face is lower than with the front face. These differences in collision
phenomena between the front and back faces were related to the differences in fluid flow pattern between in
front and behind of the impeller blades.
The time evolution of the eroded ratio of a single-coated paint on an impeller blade was also quantified
experimentally. The geometrical and operational conditions of the stirred vessel used for the experiments
were the same as with the CFD. A series of photos of the eroded paint on the front and back faces of the
impeller blade over a period of several hours was taken, and the ratio of the eroded area to the blade area
was analysed using the MATLAB program. The results show that the paint erosion on the front face occurs
62
along the blade edge. The eroded ratios increase with time and then saturate. The paint erosion on the back
face is weak and occurs around the centre of the blade.
The prototype prediction method for the time evolution of the eroded ratio was also developed based on the
statistical CFD data on particle collisions using a threshold value for the collision energy to erode a paint
layer with a unit area. The experimental data on the eroded ratio of the front and back faces were compared
with the predicted results based on the new method. The results show that the predicted paint erosion ratio
based on CFD and the experimental values show good agreement for both the front and back faces of the
impeller blades, using a suitable threshold value for the cumulative collision energy that induces paint
erosion.
This study was supported financially by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Nos. 19760112, 23760147 and 25420108.
63
Physical Modelling of Mixing and Separation in

Liquid-liquid Systems
K Mohanarangam1, W Yang2 and K R Barnard3
1. Research Scientist, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering, Box 312, Clayton South Vic 3169.
Email: krishna.mohanarangam@csiro.au
2. Research Team Leader, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering, Box 312, Clayton South Vic 3169.
Email: william.yang@csiro.au
3. Research Group Leader, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering, Australian Minerals Research Centre,
PO Box 7229, Karawara WA 6152. Email: keith.barnard@csiro.au
ABSTRACT
Solvent extraction (SX) is an important stage used in many hydrometallurgical operations to purify and
concentrate metal ions of interest. It involves repeated mixing and separation of immiscible aqueous and
organic (kerosene-based) phases to achieve the desired metal recovery. Metal transfer is achieved during the
mixing stage, with smaller droplets facilitating a larger surface to volume ratio and thus faster metal transfer
under given operating conditions. Conversely, an ongoing cost associated with SX is the loss of valuable
organic reagents in the kerosene phase via incomplete separation of the organic and aqueous phases in the
subsequent separation stage. These conflicting demands provide the opportunity to optimise operational
behaviour in SX systems, and is one of the research foci associated with the three multisponsor solvent
extraction technology projects undertaken by CSIRO over the past decade. This paper describes various
physical modelling tools and techniques that are currently used at CSIRO Process Science and Engineering
(CPSE) to investigate mixing and separation phenomena of these liquid-liquid systems at laboratory, pilot
and industrial scales to better understand their behaviour as well as to provide crucial validation data for
concurrent mathematical model development. Two instruments used to investigate mixing behaviour are
the focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM) and particle vision and measurement (PVM) probes. The
current paper discusses the applicability and limitation of these systems for both quantitative and qualitative
measurement of droplets with the aid of an example. An image analysis technique was also developed to
distinguish foreign droplets (air bubbles) from organic droplets within the mixing system.
In terms of phase separation subsequent to mixing, the process occurs in a large box termed a settler. Flow
patterns within the settler have a material impact on the separation efficiency. Although many techniques
such as laser doppler anemometry (LDA) and particle image velocimetry (PIV) can be used to measure flow
patterns in clean (typically laboratory-based) systems, these are not amenable to assessment of flow
patterns in the opaque solutions associated with commercial SX operations. CSIRO has overcome this by
adapting and successfully applying ultrasonic velocity profiling (UVP) in multiple commercial operations.
Examples are provided to explain how quantification of flow patterns aided in efficient separation and
reduced entrainment levels.
64
Horizontal Load on Agitating Shaft of Eccentric Mixing using

Maxblend Impeller
K Nishi1, K Sonoda2, R Misumi3 and M Kaminoyama4
2. Master, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501 Japan.
Email: sonokz2015@gmail.com
3. Assistant Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501 Japan.
4. Professor, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama 240-8501 Japan.
ABSTRACT
Various large impellers have been developed in Japan. Since these impellers have a high mixing
performance over a wide range of viscosities, they are used in mixing, dispersion, reaction and
polymerisation processes. These impellers are usually used with baffles. If a large impeller is used for an
eccentric mixing without baffles, it is expected that the high performance of the large impeller can be
combined with the advantages of an eccentric mixer. Authors investigated the power consumption, mixing
performance, dispersion performance and sloshing characteristics in eccentric mixing using a Hi-F mixer
(Nishi et al, 2011). The performance of eccentric mixing using a Maxblend impeller was investigated
similarly (Nishi et al, 2014). The feasibility of eccentric mixing using a large impeller was demonstrated in
previous papers. However, in eccentric mixing, it is expected that fluctuating horizontal load on agitating
shaft are larger than in the concentric mixing without baffles. The large, fluctuating horizontal load can
cause serious problems, such as the falling off of the impeller or the breakage of the shaft, motor, mechanical
seal or gearbox. It is, therefore, important to understand the relation between these values and the mixing
conditions when designing the mixing equipment and determining the operating conditions.
In this study, the horizontal load were measured in eccentric mixing using a Maxblend impeller, as an
example of a large impeller, at various impeller rotational speeds and under various eccentric conditions in
laminar and turbulent state. The standard deviation of horizontal load F std [N], corresponding to the
amplitude of fluctuation was calculated, and the cause of the fluctuation was investigated by FFT analysis.
Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the experimental apparatus using a Maxblend impeller. The ratio of
impeller diameter d to D was 0.53. Water and the glycerol solution of various viscosities were used for
mixing liquid.
The horizontal load in eccentric mixing was fluctuated periodically. It was shown by FFT analysis that
frequency of horizontal load f [Hz] is the same as impeller rotational speed n [s-1]. The peak of n [Hz]
corresponds with the blade twice approaching the vessel wall during each rotation. In Figure 2a, the
relationship between F std and n in low viscosity fluid (water) is shown. F std in high viscosity fluid (glycerol)
is similarly shown in Figure 2b. F std in high viscosity fluid is smaller than that in low viscosity fluid.
Viscosity controls generating of horizontal load. In both figures, F std increased with the increase in the
eccentric ratio r E . F std increased in proportion to about second power of n. This suggests that horizontal load
originates in drag force on impeller blade. In comparison of F std in the similar and different scale vessels, F std
was proportional to the fourth power of impeller diameter. The relationship between F std and the impeller
rotational speed, eccentric length, scale of vessel was summarised to a correlation equation. It is available
when such equipment as agitating shaft, mechanical seals and gearboxes is designed.
65
LE
ds
FIG 1 Experimental apparatus.

101
100
100
Fstd [N]
Fstd [N]
101
10-1
10-2
10-1
10-1
rE
0.22
0.44
0.65
0.00
100
n [s-1]
101
10-2 -1
10
rE
0.22
0.44
0.65
0.00
100
101
n [s-1]
FIG 2 The relationship between F std and n in various r E (=2L E /(D-d): (A) in water; (B) in glycerol.
REFERENCES
Nishi, K, Enya, N, Misumi, R and Kaminoyama, M, 2014. Power consumption and mixing performance of an
eccentrically located Maxblend impeller, J Chem Eng Japan, 47(2):146150.
Nishi, K, Enya, N, Tanaka, Y, Misumi, R and Kaminoyama, M, 2011. Mixing of eccentrically located hi-f mixer,
J Chem Eng Japan, 44(11):859867.
66
Micromixing Physics and Applications in Biology and

Chemistry
K Petkovic Duran1, D R Lester2, G Metcalfe3, R Manasseh4 and Y Zhu5,6
1. Research Officer, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Normanby Rd, Clayton Vic 3168.
Email: karolina.petkovicduran@csiro.au
2. Research Scientist, CSIRO Computational Informatics, Normanby Rd, Clayton Vic 3168.
Email: daniel.lester@csiro.au
3. Research Scientist, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Normanby Rd, Clayton Vic 3168.
4. Associate Professor, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology, Swinburne University of Technology,
PO Box 218, Hawthorn Vic 3122. Email: rmanasseh@swin.edu.au
5. Research Team Leader, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Normanby Rd, Clayton Vic 3168.
Email: yonggang.zhu@csiro.au
6. Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication/Australian National Fabrication Facility, 151 Wellington Road, Clayton Vic
3168.
ABSTRACT
The length-scales inherent to lab on chip (LOC) technologies impose significant restrictions on the flow and
mixing conditions in these devices, where such viscous-dominated flows impart negligible fluid mixing.
Rapid fluid mixing is critical for a wide range of applications in biology and chemistry where molecular
diffusion is too slow, from biomolecular and chemical reaction to chemical signaling and detection. As such,
micromixers are critical to the acceleration of these processes, and micromixing has stimulated a number of
new research trends in LOC technologies. In this paper we review recent advances in the physics and
applications of micromixing in biology and chemistry, and the impact of these advances upon LOC
technology.
The applied mixing principles can be divided into two classes termed passive and active mixing
respectively. Each class has its specific mixing concepts, capacity, mixing speed and operating conditions.
Active mixing can be accomplished by time-pulsing flow owning to a periodical change of pumping energy,
electrical or magnetic fields, acoustic fluid shaking, ultrasound electrowetting droplet shaking, microstirrers
and others (Jeong, Chung and Kim, 2010). Normally two steps are involved in micromixing process:
heterogenous mixing generated by convection and homogenous mixing at the molecular level created by
diffusion between adjacent domains. In numerous biological applications laminar flow at microscale
prevents efficient mixing except by diffusion. Unfortunately mixing by diffusion is unacceptable in time
critical reactions, or in those that require relatively large particles.
An acoustic-based micromixer that applies sound waves in audible spectrum was designed to effectively
mix two or more solutions (Petkovic-Duran, Manasseh and Zhu, 2009). This mixing method was successfully
integrated with reversed transcription (RT) bio-reaction for an improved cDNA yield, comprising single-cell
quantities of ribonucleic acid (RNA) (Boon, Petkovic-Duran and White, 2011). The improvements in cDNA
yield were above what could be achieved using standard laboratories methods of mixing, such as shaking,
vortexing or trituration.
Another micromixing technology is electro-kinetic (EK) mixing, whereby switched EK flows driven from
specific ports impart chaotic mixing in a microfluidic channel, rapidly accelerating dispersion of diffusive
species. A critical design consideration for EK mixers is optimisation of the EK switching protocol to deliver
rapid, global mixing. For a small number of EK ports, the combination of possible temporal switching
protocols increases factorially, and so very efficient computational methods are required to resolve the
mixing characteristics of these protocols. We consider optimisation of a simple EK mixer model (validated
against experimental particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) data) with four ports, which when accounting for
degeneracy due to symmetry can generate over 18 000 different mixing protocols for a sequence of seven
67
switched flows. A highly efficient matrix mapping method is used to determine the optimum mixing
protocol, which imparts mixing over 120 times faster than that of the ensemble average.
REFERENCES
Boon, W, Petkovic-Duran, K and White, K, 2011. Acoustic microstreaming increases the efficiency of reverse
transcription reaction comprising single-cell quantities of RNA, BioTechiques, 50:116119.
Jeong, G, Chung, S and Kim, C, 2010. Application of Micromixing Technology, Analyst, 135:460473.
Petkovic-Duran, K, Manasseh, R and Zhu, Y, 2009. Chaotic micromixing in open wells using audio-frequency acoustic
microstreaming, BioTechiques, 47:827843.
68
Impact of Gas Flow Rate on the Specific Power Input for a

Solid-liquid-gas Stirred Reactor
R S S Raja Ehsan Shah1, A A Abdul Raman2, S Ibrahim3 and M Davoody4
1. PhD Candidate, University of Malaya, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of
Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Email: rshazrin@gmail.com
2. Professor, University of Malaya, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of
Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Email: azizraman@um.edu.my
3. Professor, University of Malaya, Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya,
Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Email: shaliza@um.edu.my
4. PhD Candidate, University of Malaya, Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of
Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Email: meysamdavoody@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Experimental results of specific power for Rushton turbine (6RT), six-blade curved blade impeller (6CB) and
12-blade curved blade impeller (12CB) for a solid-liquid-gas system in a flat-bottomed agitated vessel
equipped with four full baffles is presented in this work. The specific power at N js was recorded at ungassed and gassed conditions. The studies were carried out in a vessel with inner diameter D = 400 mm and
impeller diameter of D/3. The solids concentrations varied from five per cent wt to 40 per cent wt. N js and
specific power were found to increase with introduction of gas for the tested solids concentration. The 12CB
recorded the lowest specific power compared to 6CB in gassed conditions. A changeover in specific power
pattern was observed for 6CB and 12CB at 15 per cent wt and 30 per cent wt, respectively, which suggests
that there was an optimum gas velocity attainable to achieve the lowest specific power.
69
Assessment of the Performance of Butterfly Impellers in

Stirred Tanks using Particle Imaging Velocimetry and Planar
Laser Induced Fluorescence
J A Ramsay1, M J H Simmons2, A Ingram3, A Tharakan4 and E H Stitt5
1. PhD Student, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Email: jxr867@bham.ac.uk
2. Professor of Fluid Mechanics, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston,
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Email: m.j.simmons@bham.ac.uk
3. Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT,
UK. Email: a.ingram@bham.ac.uk
4. Senior Scientist, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre Chilton, Billingham, Teeside TS23 1LB, UK.
5. Scientific Consultant, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre Chilton, Billingham, Teeside TS23 1LB, UK.
Email: ajay.tharakan@matthey.com
ABSTRACT
In the industrial processing of complex fluids, there is a need to process slurries which possess high solids
loadings (up to 60 per cent by volume). These slurries, which can exhibit either highly viscous or viscoelastic
behaviour, are a major component of formulated products such as inks and ceramic slurries. They are often
mixed at an industrial scale in batch stirred tanks using butterfly impellers, which typically operate at high
impeller diameter to tank diameter (D/T) ratios of up to 0.98; the design of the impellers is thought to
provide a uniform shear environment for viscous mixing and prevent the incorporation of air from the free
surface. Despite their relatively common use, there has been a lack of characterisation of their behaviour
from a mixing perspective and there is a dearth of literature describing their operation. The work described
in this abstract addresses this deficiency to generate process understanding for development of design
criteria on a sound theoretical basis.
The mixing performance of butterfly impellers has been assessed in cylindrical batch unbaffled vessels of
either T = 152 mm or T = 190 mm using particle imaging velocimetry (PIV). The influence of D/T has been
examined by altering the ratio between 0.48 to 0.98. The experiments have been carried out for a range of
fluids with different rheologies whose properties were chosen to mimic industrial formulations. The fluids
used include Newtonian fluids (water and aqueous glycerol solutions), inelastic non-Newtonian fluids
(carbopol-940 aqueous polymer solution, a shear thinning inelastic fluid) and Boger fluids which possess a
constant shear viscosity, measurable first normal stress difference and measurable relaxation time
(polyacrylamide polymer dissolved in aqueous glycerol solution). The rheologies of the fluids were carefully
characterised using a range of oscillatory and flow rheology experiments using a cone and plate rheometer.
Shear viscosities in the glycerol and Boger fluids range from 0.2 Pa s to 0.5 Pa s.
PIV has been used to obtain velocity fields for both axial (vertical) and tangential (horizontal) planes in the
vessel, providing a full three-dimensional description of flows. For the inelastic fluids, velocities in the axial
plane never exceeded 35 per cent of the tip speed, with tangential velocities reaching 50 per cent due to solid
body rotation. Due to the angle of the blades and direction of rotation, a down-pumping flow pattern is
observed; maximum velocities occur in the discharge from the lower impeller tip. The flow within the vessel
becomes less homogeneous as the fluid apparent viscosity increases, with toroidal cavern behaviour
observed in the shear thinning polymer solutions. Increasing the impeller D/T causes the flow to be
confined which prevents the formation of flow loops in the bulk of the vessel. Shear rate magnitudes in the
axial plane reach 6 s-1 with maxima observed between the impeller tips and confined flow at the vessel walls.
Tangential shear rates are approximately double this magnitude, again with maxima at the leading impeller
tip in the direction of rotation.
70
The velocity fields obtained for viscoelastic fluids display several notable differences. Though normalised
velocities in the axial plane have similar maxima, pseudo-caverns form with larger areas of constant
maximum velocity observed below the impeller tip. Tangential normalised velocities reach 60 per cent of the
tip speed, with more flow uniformity observed across different axial planes. Much larger vortices are formed
behind the impeller blades and they appear to decay more slowly, forming a much larger wake compared to
the inelastic fluid equivalents. The shear rates in the axial plane, however, appear lower than in inelastic
fluids, suggesting that elasticity inhibits shear and therefore mixing. Tangential shear rates and patterns
appear similar to those observed in the inelastic fluids.
Impeller power numbers were determined using direct torque measurements from the impeller shaft at a
range of rotation rates in the laminar regime. All power draw data collapses onto a single Reynolds number
versus Power number curve as expected, with the linear trend continuing well into the transitional Reynolds
regime due to turbulence damping by the polymer components. Metzner-Otto constants for obtaining tankaveraged shear rates were calculated from power draw data for the shear thinning inelastic fluid (carbopol940), and are consistent with reported values for a range of impeller types.
Planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) was utilised to obtain local concentration values of a dye tracer
(passive scalar) to obtain mixing and circulation times. Greyscale images reveal a lack of pumping within the
vessel, supported by velocity field data. Fluid mixing evolution follows the expected circulation of a downpumping impeller, albeit in a limited area around the impeller. Cavern development in the shear thinning
inelastic fluid shows a striated flow pattern and a range of fluid concentrations indicating a lack of
homogeneity within the cavern area. Circulation times were consistent with the expected flow rates
calculated from impeller pumping numbers obtained through analysis of PIV data.
71
Analysis of Mixing Performance of Viscoelastic Fluids in

Static Mixers using Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence
J A Ramsay1, M J H Simmons2, A Ingram3, A Tharakan4 and E H Stitt5
1. PhD Student, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
Email: jxr867@bham.ac.uk
2. Professor of Fluid Mechanics, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston,
Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Email: m.j.simmons@bham.ac.uk
3. Senior Lecturer, School of Chemical Engineering, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT,
UK. Email: a.ingram@bham.ac.uk
4. Senior Scientist, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre Chilton, Billingham, Teeside TS23 1LB, UK.
5. Scientific Consultant, Johnson Matthey Technology Centre Chilton, Billingham, Teeside TS23 1LB, UK.
Email: ajay.tharakan@matthey.com
ABSTRACT
In the manufacture of complex fluid products such as inks, paints and ceramic slurries, there is a desire to
move towards continuous processing to reduce energy intensity, plant footprint and to improve overall
process control and thus reduce divergences in product quality. These products often possess complex flow
properties; the focus of this paper is the processing of products which exhibit viscoelastic behaviour. In-line
static mixers provide an intensified alternative to traditional processing routes such as the batch stirred
vessel. Therefore, there is a need to understand their interaction with viscoelastic materials in the context of
mixing performance, which has received comparatively little attention in the academic literature.
Viscoelastic fluids with tightly controlled properties are required to accurately isolate the effects of varying
fluid viscosity and elasticity in process equipment. Boger fluids, which are composed of a dilute polymer
solute within a viscous Newtonian solvent, have a constant shear viscosity determined by the base solvent
concentration and an elastic response determined by polymer concentration. Fluids with a range of shear
viscosities and elastic responses were developed to closely mimic the properties of industrial materials.
Rheologies were carefully measured using a cone and plate rheometer, with a range of oscillatory and flow
rheology experiments performed. Viscosities were found to be constant across the measured range (0100 s-1)
and were in the range of 0.05 to 0.5 Pa s.
Elastic responses were determined through normal stress difference (N1) measurements. An experiment was
devised to measure the height of the observed Weissenberg climbing effect around a metal rod rotating
between 100 and 2000 rev/min. A high-speed camera and image analysis software was used to determine
fluid climb heights; first normal stress coefficients (1 = 1 2 ) and relaxation times were thus obtained.
First normal stress coefficients conformed to the expected relationship, increasing linearly as polymer
concentration increased. Values of 1 were found to be between 5 and 20 mPa s2. Relaxation times were
calculated to be in the range of 0.0100.022 s.
The mixing performance of these characterised Boger fluids in the laminar flow regime in a Kenics KM static
mixer was investigated using planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF). A secondary stream containing a dye
tracer (passive scalar) was injected into the main stream at the mixer inlet, with the concentration of dye
observed through analysis of images obtained across the pipe cross-section at the mixer outlet. The effect of
varying number of mixer elements, fluid viscosity, fluid elasticity, apparent viscosity ratio and main stream
to secondary stream flow ratio has been investigated at a constant superficial velocity of 0.3 m s-1. The data
are compared to previous work by Alberini et al (2013, 2014) carried out using inelastic shear-thinning nonNewtonian fluids which exhibit both pseudoplastic and viscoplastic behaviour to assess the effects of
viscoelasticity on mixing performance.
72
Initial studies show that mixing quality decreases when a viscoelastic fluid is used compared to Newtonian
and shear-thinning rheologies. Unmixed striations of almost consistently uniform concentration form within
the main flow, leaving large regions of unmixed material. Isolated islands of dyed fluid exist in viscoelastic
fluids which are not present in Newtonian fluids when processed at the same average viscosity, suggesting
the effect is caused by the presence of elastic forces binding fluid within individual striations together.
Previous work on shear-thinning fluids appears to display a much greater range of striation sizes and local
concentrations across an identical number of mixing elements, with an even greater range of striation sizes
and concentrations observed in Newtonian fluids.
Initial position of injection can have a large effect on final mixing quality. Due to extrusion die swell effects
causing a small thrust force on the side stream injection nozzle, there is potential for injection misalignment
in the flow. This can cause bypassing of mixer elements, which drastically reduces the quality of the mixture
at the outlet. This also causes an apparent time variance of the final mixing quality, which was not observed
previously. However, though the position of striations varies with time, it appears that there is not an
associated variation in fluid concentration within a striation, nor a change in overall mixing quality.
REFERENCES
blending of non-Newtonian fluids in a Kenics KM static mixer using PLIF, AIChE J, DOI: 10.1002/aic.14237.
Alberini, F, Simmons, M J H, Ingram, A and Stitt, E H, 2014. Assessment of different methods of analysis to characterize
the mixing of shear-thinning fluids in a Kenics KM static mixer using PLIF, Chem Eng Sci, 112:152-159.
73
Enhancing Solid-liquid Mass Transfer Using Ultrasound in

Agitated Solid-liquid Systems
D Stoian1, R Parthasarathy2, N Eshtiaghi3 and J Wu4
1. PhD Student, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic 3000.
Email: s3167454@student.rmit.edu.au
2. Associate Professor, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic
3000. Email: rchrp@rmit.edu.au
3. Senior Lecturer, School of Civil, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne Vic 3000.
Email: nicky.eshtiaghi@rmit.edu.au
4. Principal Scientist, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering Division, Graham RD 37, Highett Vic 3190.
ABSTRACT
Solid-liquid agitated vessels are utilised in a wide range of industrial processes for carrying out
operations such as leaching, adsorption, dissolution and solid catalytic reactions. The efficiency of
agitated vessels in these unit operations is dependent on the chemical and physical properties of
solid and liquid phases, and mass transfer between the phases. Achieving an optimum solid-liquid
mass transfer rate in these vessels is determined by the solid-liquid mass transfer coefficient, k SL
and degree of solids suspension. It is essential to operate solid-liquid agitated vessels at just offbottom solid suspension stirred speed (N js ) because the entire particle surface area is exposed and
available for mass transfer with minimal energy input (Kasat and Pandit, 2005). Currently, mineral
processing operations are facing many challenges and there is a strong demand to increase the
leach recovery from mineral ore and plant throughput. It has been shown that mineral extraction
by leaching can be improved with the assistance of ultrasound (Swamy and Narayana, 2001).
However, there are many conflicting explanations of the mechanism by which ultrasound
enhances solid-liquid mass transfer, even though cavitation is the most widely accepted (Breitbach,
Bathen and Schmidt-Traub, 2003). This paper investigates the effect of ultrasound on k SL in solidliquid systems operated at N js and attempts to understand the mechanism involved in the
ultrasonic enhancement of k SL .
Experiments were carried out in a 0.2 m diameter, cylindrical, flat bottom agitated vessels
equipped with a six-bladed Rushton turbine and an ultrasound generation device. Cation
exchange resin was used as the solid phase and aqueous NaOH was used as the liquid phase. The
mass transfer rate was determined by measuring the changes in conductivity due to the movement
of cations from the liquid phase to solid. The mass transfer rate was used to determine the
volumetric solid-liquid mass transfer coefficient, k SL a p , from which the solid-liquid mass transfer
coefficient, k SL was calculated using the interfacial surface area, a p . Experiments were carried out
using a range of solids concentration (C v ) and ultrasonic intensity.
Experimental results of k SL determined at various C v and ultrasonic intensity in a baffled vessel
are shown in Figure 1. It is clear that k SL values for combined agitation and ultrasonic irradiation
are greater than those for agitation only for all C v . The average increase in k SL due to ultrasonic
irradiation is around ten per cent, with a greater increase at lower C v . Although k SL increases with
increasing C v under silent conditions, it decreases with increasing C v under irradiated conditions.
For a given C v , ultrasound intensity does not have any effect on k SL (except for C v = 2.5 per cent
v/v). These results indicate that ultrasound has the greatest impact on k SL at lower solid
concentrations and that ultrasonic intensity does not affect k SL in the system studied.
74
FIG 1 Effect of C v and ultrasonic intensity on mass transfer coefficient k SL (baffled tank).
Experimental results for k SL under unbaffled condition are seen in Figure 2 for various C v and
ultrasonic intensity values. As in the baffled system, k SL values for combined agitation and
ultrasonic irradiation are greater than those for agitation only for all C v . However, k SL values
under unbaffled condition are found to be lower than those under baffled condition, which could
be attributed to the further enhancement of k SL due to the increased turbulence in the baffled tank.
It is also clear from Figure 2 that the k SL value for irradiated systems increases with increasing C v .
In this case also, the ultrasonic intensity does not have a significant effect on k SL . It is also clear that
k SL increases with an increase in C v for silent systems. The influence of combined agitation and
ultrasound in increasing k SL is the greatest at lower C v values. These results also show that k SL
values for silent conditions become equal to those for irradiated conditions at higher solid
concentrations. More experiments need to be carried out to determine the mechanism by which
ultrasonic irradiation increases k SL in the chosen system.
FIG 2 Effect of C v and ultrasonic intensity on mass transfer coefficient k SL (unbaffled tank).
REFERENCES
Breitbach, M, Bathen, D and Schmidt-Traub, H, 2003. Effect of ultrasound on adsorption and desorption processes,
Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Research, 2:56355646.
Kasat, G R and Pandit, A B, 2005. Review on mixing characteristic in solid-liquid and solid-liquid-gas reactor vessel,
Canadian Journal of Chemical Engineering, 83:618643.
Swamy, K M and Narayana, K L, 2001. Intensification of leaching process by dual-frequency ultrasound, Ultrasonics
Sonochemistry, 8:341346.
75
Effect of Vertical Inner Coiler on Bioreactors Power

Consumption and Mass Transfer Coefficient
X Wan1 and K Takahashi2
1. Department of Biochemical Engineering, Yamagata University, 4-3-16, Jyonan, Yonezawa-shi, Yamagata
992-8510, Japan. Email: wanxunrid@yahoo.co.jp
2. Department of Biochemical Engineering, Yamagata University, 4-3-16, Jyonan, Yonezawa-shi, Yamagata
992-8510, Japan. Email: koji@yz.yamagata-u.ac.jp
ABSTRACT
For the modern industrial bioreactor, in order to promote heat transfer, besides the outer jacket, the designer
must use the inner coiler also to supply the enough heat transfer capacity. Highly efficient heat transfer
capacities, easy cleaning and baffle function, these characteristics make the vertical inner coiler become more
and more popular.
This paper investigates the power consumption and volumetric mass transfer coefficient in a gas-liquid pilot
plant vessel equipped with triple Rushton turbines (Felix Garcia-Ochoa, 2009; Gogate, Beenackers and
Pandit, 2000; Oldshue, 1983). The diameter of vessel is 0.29 m and four kinds of T/10 thick baffles are used in
this work, including common four baffles, four groups of inner coilers, six groups of inner coilers and eight
groups of inner coilers. Taking one group of inner coilers as an example, we use 12 vertical metal bars (outer
diameter is 2 mm) to represent the vertical tubes of the coiler, the each angle between the adjacent bar is 60,
and neglect the connecting U-tubes on the top and bottom of the coilers (Figure 1). Ambient temperature tap
water is used as a liquid phase. And the k L a data is measured by the classical dynamic method (Michel and
Miller, 1962).
FIG 1 Diagram of the bioreactor with six groups of inner coilers

and the detail of one group of inner coilers.
The results show that the inner coilers have lower Np numbers (ungassed condition, Table 1) than the
common baffles do and when the gas flow increases the P g /P 0 do not drop so drastically (Figure 2).
Although the inner coilers power consumptions are lower than common four baffles, the k L a coefficients of
the coiler types are almost the same or better than the common four baffles (Figure 3). But the disadvantage
is that the flooding is easier to happen.
76
TABLE 1
Np number under ungassed conditions.
Baffle type
Common four
baffles
Four groups of
inner coilers
Six groups of
inner coilers
Eight groups of
inner coilers
12.09
7.65
8.38
9.62
100
63.3
69.3
79.6
Np
Percentage (%)
N=200rpm
1.0
4 groups' coilers
8 groups' coilers
6 groups' coilers
common 4 baffles
0.9
Pg/P0
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.00
0.02
0.04
0.06
0.08
0.10
0.12
0.14
Flg
FIG 2 Reduction in power consumption with gassing of four kinds of baffles.

100
90
80
70
kLa(h-1)
60
50
40
Vg=9L/min
4 groups' inner colilers
common 4baffles
30
20
10
0
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Pg/V(W/m )
FIG 3 Comparison of the mass transfer coefficients at Q g = 9L/min (Vg = 0.00227 m/s) of four different baffles.
REFERENCES
Felix Garcia -Ochoa, E G, 2009. Bioreactor scale-up and oxygen transfer rate in microbial processes: An overview,
Biotechnology Advances, 27:153176.
Gogate, P R, Beenackers, A A C M and Pandit, A B, 2000. Multiple-impeller systems with a special emphasis on
bioreactors: A critical review, Biochemical Engineering Journal, 6(2):109144.
Michel, B J and Miller, S A, 1962. Power requirements of gas-liquid agitated systems, AIChE J, 8(2):262266.
Oldshue, J Y, 1983. Fluid Mixing Technology (McGraw-Hill: New York).
77
Transport of Finite-sized Particles in Stirred Tanks

S Wang1, R Stewart2, G Metcalfe3 and J Wu4
1. CSIRO, Australia. Email: steven.wang@csiro.au
2. CSIRO, Australia.
3. Research Scientist, CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering, Normanby Rd, Clayton Vic 3168.
4. CSIRO Process Science and Engineering Division, Graham RD 37, Highett Vic 3190. Email: jie.wu@csiro.au
ABSTRACT
The motion of finite-sized particles in fluids is common phenomenon encountered in nature and
engineering. It is well known that the dynamics of finite-sized particles can differ remarkably from the
infinitesimal particle dynamics and it has been widely studied in numerical and analytical approaches.
However, not many experimental studies have been conducted to research the dynamics of finite-sized
particles in laminar flows. We were thus motivated to conduct a series of experimental work, aiming to
uncover the mechanisms which control the transport of finite-sized particles in laminar flows. Some
preliminary results on this topic will be discussed.
78
Dynamically Enhanced Dispersive Mixing of Shear Sensitive

Microstructures with Rotating Membrane Devices Applying
Micro-engineered Membranes
E J Windhab1 and S Holzapfel2
1. Head of Institute IFNH, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zrich (ETH), Schmelzbergstrasse 9, CH-8092
Zrich, Switzerland. Email: erich.windhab@hest.ethz.ch
2. PhD, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zrich (ETH), Schmelzbergstrasse 9, CH-8092 Zrich, Switzerland.
Email: sebastian.holzapfel@hest.ethz.ch
ABSTRACT
Dispersive mixing of a complex structured stress-sensitive fluid phase in another immiscible fluid phase is
widely applied in the food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. An optimised process may allow for
achieving tailor-made technofunctional product properties. In applications targeting controlled release of
active ingredients such as drugs or nutrients, multiple emulsion or capsule systems with tailored release
kinetics are of specific interest. Control of such release kinetics can be achieved by adjusting the
drop/particle size distributions of dispersed phases as well as by the type and morphology of interfacial
layer structures.
Membrane emulsification is generally expected to deliver emulsion systems with narrow drop size
distributions. In such a process the disperse fluid phase is pushed through membrane pores into a cross
flowing continuous liquid. Drops form at the membrane pores and are detached by the cross flow. The
conventional process is however, limited due to the direct coupling of drop size determining wall shear
stress and continuous liquid phase throughput rate. To overcome this restriction and in addition optimise
dispersive mixing for highly shear-sensitive multiple emulsion and capsule systems, dynamically enhanced
membrane (DEM) emulsification applying micro-engineered controlled pore distance (CPD) membranes has
been introduced and studied. This method overcomes the limitation of conventional membrane
emulsification by introducing an additional shear flow field perpendicular to the throughput flow direction
across the membrane surface by rotating the membrane or a member placed with a defined gap distance to
the membrane (Holzapfel, Rondeau and Windhab, 2013).
So far a detailed quantitative description of the functional relationships between DEM-emulsification
process parameters and the resulting drop size distribution characteristics was missing. The present results
manage to close this gap based on the additional consideration of microscopic interfacial and flow
phenomena close to the membrane pore surface.
Drop detachment from various CPD-membranes was studied in a visualisation flow cell on lab scale and at
similar flow conditions on a pilot scale device. Well-defined laminar shear flow across a flat circular
membrane was achieved by choosing a cone-plate arrangement of membrane and rotor with a narrow gap of
50100 microns. This set-up enabled us to use flat micro-engineered CPD-membranes and observe the
membrane surface during processing in close detail. The micro-engineered membranes were used to study
the impact of pore size, adjusted inter-pore distance, surface wetting properties and pore shape in detail. The
fabrication and design of the micro-engineered membranes was part of the reported research, because
membranes with precise adjustment of the investigated properties were commercially not available. Two
types of such micro-engineered membranes on silicon and silicon nitride basis were developed. Fabrication
was performed by lithographic techniques followed by a sequence of dry and wet etching steps. This it was
possible to fabricate membranes with a pore size down to 0.4 m and with adjusted
hydrophilic/hydrophobic surface characteristics.
Systematic experimental work was supported by CFD simulations of the drop formation and detachment
processes at the membrane surface under acting rotational and superimposed axial (Couette gap) or radial
(cone/plate gap) flow fields.
79
As expected, the acting wall shear stress governed distinct drop detachment, if the membrane was not
wetted by the disperse but well wetted by the continuous fluid phase. Increase of the wall shear stress
decreased the drop size according to a functional relationship derived. Some results also suggested that a
high pore opening aspect ratio (length/width) coupled with a high pore aspect ratio (height/width) could
induce spontaneous drop detachment in case of sufficiently high interfacial tension.
Drop detachment was well controlled when the pores were sufficiently apart from each other (controlled
inter-pore distance). The drop detachment was classified by two different regimes: dripping and jetting. A
transition from dripping to jetting was induced when the wall shear stress and/or the trans membrane
pressure exceeded a critical threshold. The recommended regime for achieving narrow drop size
distributions is the dripping regime. However, a decrease in drop size distributions width was also observed
at intermediate to large wall shear stresses, which suggested that also in the jetting regime the width of the
drop size distribution can be controlled to a certain extent.
REFERENCES
Holzapfel, S, Rondeau, E and Windhab, E J, 2013. Drop detachment from a micro-engineered membrane surface in a
dynamic membrane emulsification process, Chem Eng & Technol, 36:17851794.
80
Swirl Flow Agitation to Reduce Tank Down-time for

Large-scale Minerals Processing Applications
J Wu1, B Nguyen2, G Lane2, I Livk2, J Farrow3, L Graham2, S Wang2 and D Harris2
1. Fluids Engineering Laboratory, CSIRO Mineral Resources Flagship, Graham Rd 37, Highett Vic 3190.
2. CSIRO Process Science and Engineering Division, Graham Rd 37, Highett Vic 3190.
3. FAusIMM, CSIRO Process Science and Engineering Division, Graham Rd 37, Highett Vic 3190.
Email: john.farrow@csiro.au
ABSTRACT
Production loss through tank downtime is common in the mineral process industry. Slurry processing tanks
are regularly taken off-line for maintenance including de-scaling, removal of sediment after tank bogging,
repairing of erosion damage on impellers and other tank internal structures. As the tank downtime often
contributes to a significant part of the production loss, reducing the tank downtime is critical for minerals
plant production and profitability.
Scale formation in slurry vessels has been a serious ongoing problem for the mineral processing industry.
Scale growth is a major cause of lost production as de-scaling operations are often labour intensive and time
consuming. Scale is probably a more serious problem in the minerals industry than any other process
industries.
CSIRO and Queensland Alumina Limited (QAL) in Australia developed Swirl Flow Technology (SFT) based
on an invention by Welsh (2002) to address the scaling problem within precipitation tanks used in the
alumina refineries. Wu et al (2011, 2012a, 2012b) and Wang, Boger and Wu (2012) state that the swirl flow
configuration provides more uniform shear stress than the draft tube agitator system. The swirl flow was
found being more energy efficient in providing high uniform velocities over the tank surface, compared with
conventional agitations. Highwall shear stress and velocity are advantageous for scale suppression, through
increased flow erosion effect. At the time of writing this paper, QAL has converted 21 gibbsite precipitation
tanks (28 m high 11 m diameter, ~3000 m3) to SFT agitation since the first installation in 1997. Based on a
decade of full-scale operational experience at QAL, it can be reported that SFT agitation roughly halves the
scale growth rate as compared to that measured in the conventional draft tube agitator system. This means
reduced tank downtime and hence increased throughput.
REFERENCES
Wang, S, Boger, D V and Wu, J, 2012. Energy efficient solids suspension in an agitated vessel-water slurry, Chemical
Engineering Science, 74:233243.
Welsh, M C, 2002. Method and Apparatus for Mixing, US Patent 22 Oct, 6467 947 B1.
Wu, J, Wang, S, Graham, L, Parthasarathy, R and Nguyen, B, 2011. High solids concentration agitation for minerals
process intensification, AIChE Journal, 57(9):23162324.
Wu, J, Lane, G, Livk, I, Nguyen, B, Graham, L, Stegink, D and Davis, T, 2012a. Swirl flow agitation for scale suppression,
International Journal of Mineral Processing, 112113:1929.
Wu, J, Nguyen, B, Lane, G, Wang, S, Parthasarathy, P and Graham, L J, 2012b. Process intensification in minerals
processing stirred tanks, CET Journal, 35(7):11251132.
81
Mixing Effect on Undesirable Coagulation in Emulsion

Polymerisation
R Yatomi1, H Nishimi2 and K Takahashi3
1. Engineering Department, Sumitomo Heavy Industries Process Equipment, Imazaike 1501 Saijo Ehime, Japan.
Email: ric_yatomi@shi.co.jp
2. Engineering Department, Sumitomo Heavy Industries Process Equipment, Imazaike 1501 Saijo Ehime, Japan.
3. Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Yamagata University, Japan.
ABSTRACT
The aim of this study is to investigate the mixing effect on undesirable coagulation in emulsion
polymerisation mixing reactor of 25 m3 acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) latex process. The impeller
adopted is a large paddle impeller that we developed and named Maxblend and a conventional three-stage
pitched paddle. There are two different mechanisms of formation of undesirable coagulation in emulsion
polymerisation. One is the monomer coagulation caused by the incomplete dispersions of acrylonitrile,
butadiene and styrene monomer when the mixing efficiency is not enough. However, when the mixing
speed has been increased in order to get a homogeneous dispersion of A, B and S monomer with a high
mixing efficiency, at that time, the micelle of emulsion was damaged and broken by the high mixing shear,
and then another mechanism, that is the shear coagulation shall be appeared. Therefore, the homogeneous
monomer dispersion with minimum shear is required for the emulsion polymerisation in the process
industries. As a result, it has been found that the homogeneous dispersion with low shear can be obtained
by Maxblend at 25 litre laboratory test. The commercial reactor was retrofitted from PBT to Maxblend and
then the undesirable coagulation has been reduced from 150 kg to 70 kg. More than 50 per cent reduction of
undesirable adhesion was obtained in agreement with our estimation based on the minimum shear concept.
82
Effect of Lift Force on Solid Particles for Complete

Suspension in a Stirred Tank
Z Zamzam1,2, S Yoshikawa3, S Ookawara4,5 and Y Kato6
1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of
Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan. Email: zauyahz.aa@m.titech.ac.jp
2. Mixing Technology Laboratory, Satake Chemical Equipment MFG Ltd, 227-1 Niizo Toda-shi, Saitama 335-0021,
Japan. Email: zauyah@satake.co.jp
Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan. Email: syoshika@chemeng.titech.ac.jp
Technology, 2-12-1 Ookayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan. Email: sokawa@chemeng.titech.ac.jp
5. Department of Energy Resources and Environmental Engineering, Egypt-Japan University of Science and
Technology, New Borg El-Arab, Alexandria, Egypt.
Japan. Email: kato01@satake.co.jp
ABSTRACT
Solid liquid mixing in a stirred tank is a common unit operation in chemical, mineral and other process
industries. In many processes, such as dissolution, leaching, ion-exchange and adsorption, solid-catalysed
reaction and others, the main objective is to provide maximum surface contact area of solid-liquid available
for chemical reaction or transport processes. This can only be achieved by operating at complete suspension,
where all particles are move freely inside stirred tanks and no particle remains in contact with the tank base
for more than one to two seconds (Zwietering, 1958).
Since the pioneering work by Zwietering there has been much work reported in literature pertaining on
solids suspension. Empirical and semi-empirical correlations of the just suspension speed (N js ) for complete
suspension are also been proposed. Many of the workers often followed Zwietering correlation, or modified
the Zwietering correlation by extending the range of variables including impeller design, impeller diameter,
impeller clearance from the tank base, baffles or tank base design, and studied the effect of each variable
independently of the others (Nienow, 1968; Rao, Rewatkar and Joshi, 1988; Armenante and Nagamine, 1998;
Ayranci et al, 2013). Although extensive works has been studied on this subject, Zwietering correlation still
the most commonly referred. However, the method used by Zwietering for characterising just suspension
speed does not allow an understanding of the mechanism of particles suspension for attainment of complete
suspension. Moreover, characterisation method using visual technique to determine the just suspension
speed is very subjective which require careful and skilled observation (Jafari, Tanguy and Chaouki, 2012).
This method seems less applicable and may lead to high uncertainty in high solids concentration or when
using fine particles (Ibrahim et al, 2013). This makes the experimental results in terms of accuracy and
reproducibility of data becomes very challenging even with a single observer. The Zwietering correlation
would not be also as reliable if falls out of interest parameter studied.
To overcome these limitations, some workers attempted further investigation by proposed semi-theoretical
models for determination of the just suspension speed for complete suspension. One of the first and most
successful models was developed by Baldi, Conti and Alaria (1977). According to this model, the suspension
of particles being at rest is mainly due to the turbulent eddies of a scale of the order of the particles size.
However, this hypothesis does not offer sufficient relevant physical meaning on the relationship between the
force exerted by liquid flow and suspension of solid particles.
This work is first to propose a new model which has clear physical meaning in regards to understand the
mechanism of particle suspension for attainment of complete suspension. We analysed flow velocity near
the tank base qualitatively in order to further verify the solids suspension characteristics using conventional
impeller (4PP) and novel SATAKE impeller (HS604). Measurements were made at radial and tangential
83
directions using laser doppler velocimetry (LDV). From the results, it is understood that the contribution of
strong radial and tangential flows near the tank base for the HS604 impeller that provide dramatic effect to
clear particles sufficiently from accumulating at the tank base. Subsequently, this leads to the lowest power
demand and stability with respect to the changes in solids concentrations and particles size for attainment of
complete suspension, compared to the 4PP impeller. Based on this investigation, we considered a simple
model of shear flow with a piecewise linear velocity profile to characterised flow near the tank base, with a
single spherical particle stationary at the bottom is taken as a case study. In order to determine the lift force
component acting on the particle, numerical simulation using commercial software computational fluid
dynamics (CFD) was performed. The lift force acting on the particle arises due to the shear flow and acts
perpendicular to the subjected relative flow. Our model suggested that, if the lift force acting on the particle
is greater than the gravitational force, the particle is lifted from being at rest on the tank base. It is make clear
that the intensity of flow velocity at parallel direction near the tank base that caused the minimum lift force
which is necessary to lift off particles from the tank base. In addition, the relationship between the impeller
speed, impeller design and tank geometrical that determined such flow velocity is clarified.
REFERENCES
Armenante, P M and Nagamine, E U, 1998. Effect of low off-bottom impeller clearance on the minimum agitation speed
for complete suspension of solids in stirred tanks, Chem Eng Sci, 53:17571775.
Ayranci, I, Ng, T, Etchells III, A W and Kresta, S M, 2013. Prediction of just suspended speed for mixed slurries at high
solids loading, Chem Eng Res Des, pp 277233.
Baldi, G, Conti, R and Alaria, E, 1977. Complete suspension of particles in mechanically agitated vessels, Chem Eng Sci,
33:2125.
Ibrahim, S, Wong, S D, Zamzam, Z, Kato, Y and Sato, M, 2013. Geometric effects on solids suspension characteristics for
a range of particle size and concentration, in Proceedings Fourth Asian Conference on Mixing, Beijing, China.
Jafari, R, Tanguy, P A and Chouki, J, 2012. Characterization of minimum impeller speed for suspension of solids in
liquid at high solid concentration using Gamma-Ray densitometry, Int J of Chem Eng, pp 115.
Nienow, A W, 1968. Suspension of solid particles in turbine agitated baffled vessels. Chem Eng Sci, 23:14531459.
Rao, W, Rewatkar, V B and Joshi, J B, 1988. Critical impeller speed for solid suspension in mechanically agitated
contactors, AIChE J, 34:13321340.
Zwietering, T N, 1958. Suspending of solid particles in liquid by agitators, Chem Eng Sci, 8:244253.
84
Dished-base Tank as an Alternative Geometry for

Solid-liquid Suspension
Z Zamzam1, M Sato2, Y Kato3, S Ibrahim4 and S D Wong5
Japan. Email: zauyah@sataka.co.jp
Japan. Email: m.sato@satake.co.jp
Japan. Email: kato01@satake.co.jp
4. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia. Email: shaliza@um.edu.my
5. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur 50603, Malaysia.
Email: sdwong.cat@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
A flat-based and a dished-based stirred tanks with internal diameter, T = 155 mm were used to study the
just-suspension condition of poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) particles. PMMA particles of 18.0 m,
75.3 m and 195.5 m Sauter mean diameters, and concentrations ranging from 540 per cent in weight, are
suspended in water using four different impellers, namely a four-bladed pitched turbine (4PBT), threebladed propeller (3P), and SATAKE Supermix HR100 all of diameters, D = 0.52 T, and the HS604 with
D = 0.50 T. The HR100 is a three-blade impeller for which the blades are bent at various angles to create
higher axial motion. The HS604 is a radial impeller with four large blades of unique design. The axial and
mixed-flow impellers were placed at four clearances of C/D = 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, 1.0, while the HS604 was used
at a single low clearance of C/D = 0.04.
The sequence of particles suspended from the tank base until achieving just-suspension speed (N js ) is found
to be dependent on the bulk flow pattern in the stirred tank, which is in turn predominantly governed by the
impeller to tank geometry. The bulk flow pattern is similar for both tanks in a given reactor configuration
and impeller geometry. A different shape of tank base interacts with impeller, producing slight differences
in the flow close to base thus resulting in differences in energy efficiency for solids suspension.
In comparing the specific energy at just suspension, the flat-base tank fares better for most cases with the
75.3 m and 195.5 m particles. The main issue with the dished-base is the central region since it is the
lowest point in the vessel, thus the tendency for the particles to accumulate in the area and requiring higher
energy to be lifted off. This is particularly enhanced by the fact that the impeller diameter used in this work
is more than half of the tank diameter. It has been reported by Ibrahim and Nienow (1996) that larger
impellers with downward axial pumping cause central accumulation that take longer to clear. Ibrahim and
Nienow (1996) has also shown that a cone-and-fillet base was less efficient than a flat-base when impeller
diameter is larger than 0.4 of the tank diameter.
However, the dished-based tank is not always a poorer option for solid-suspension. It is interesting to note
in this work that when the 18.0 m particles were being suspended, less power was required to suspend the
particles in the dished-base tank. Furthermore, these smallest particles require the least energy for
suspension in the dished-base, whereas when used in the flat-based tank, the 18.0 m particles consistently
required higher just-suspension specific energy than the medium-sized 75.3 m. It thus appears that the
optimum particle size for suspension is affected by tank geometry, and in order to improve suspension
efficiency subject to the different sizes of particles, it is essential to choose the right impeller, impeller-totank-geometry, and clearance from the base to produce sufficient flow patterns inside the stirred tank. This
motivated the development of the HS604 impeller which promotes good bulk circulation inside the stirred
tank, which substantially improved suspension efficiency without depending on the size of particles.
The radial HS604 appears to pair well with dished-base tank, as suspension efficiency is improved by up to
100 per cent in this combination. This outcome was also reflected in the work of Ibrahim and Nienow (1996)
85
which showed that the Rushton turbine with D/T = 0.5 had a reduction of specific energy by 57 per cent in
using the cone-and-fillet base compared to the flat-base tank. The reason for the favourable performance
with a radial impeller could be due to the fact that the impeller pumps from the centre outwards, and in the
case of the HS604, extremely low clearance clearly has the effect of efficiently pushing particles to the side
without them straying to other directions. Thus the dished-base tank is a possible option to consider in solidliquid suspension provided it is used with the right impeller geometry, diameter and very fine particle size.
REFERENCES
Ibrahim, S and Nienow, A W, 1996. Particle suspension in the turbulent regime: The effect of impeller type and
impeller/vessel configuration, Trans IChemE, 74(Part A):679688.
86
87

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INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON

Proceedings International Symposium on

The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy

The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy 2014

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