Characteristics of Gas–Liquid Slug Flow in Honeycomb Microchannel Reactor

Youkai Jiang, Yaheng Zhang, Jie Zhang and Zhiyong Tang
Additional contact information
Youkai Jiang: CAS Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science and Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
Yaheng Zhang: CAS Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science and Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
Jie Zhang: CAS Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science and Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China
Zhiyong Tang: CAS Key Laboratory of Low-Carbon Conversion Science and Engineering, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 201203, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-14

Abstract: The gas–liquid slug flow characteristics in a novel honeycomb microchannel reactor were investigated numerically and experimentally. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling was carried out with Comsol finite element software using the phase-field method, and the simulation results were verified by micro-particle image velocimetry (micro-PIV) analysis. The breakups of liquid slugs at the bifurcations of current honeycomb microchannel followed a complex behavior, leading to non-uniformity in each branch. The pressure distribution inside the microreactor was closely related to the phase distribution. The increasing inlet gas velocity increased the gas phase volume fraction, as well as the gas slug length. Higher gas velocity resulted in stronger turbulence of the liquid phase flow field and a deviation of residence time distribution from normal distribution, but it was favorable to even more residence time during the liquid phase. There also exists a secondary flow in the gas–liquid interface. This work reveals the intrinsic intensified effect of honeycomb microchannel, and it provides guidance on future microreactor design for chemical energy conversion.

Keywords: honeycomb microreactor; gas–liquid slug flow; CFD simulation; micro-PIV (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/4/1465/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/4/1465/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:4:p:1465-:d:751284

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().