Annular Centrifugal Contactors—A Review

• Published in: Chemical engineering research & design Vol. 84; no. 7; pp. 522 - 542
• Main Authors: Vedantam, S., Joshi, J.B.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rugby Elsevier B.V 01.07.2006; Institution of Chemical Engineers
• Subjects: Applied sciences; centrifugal extractor; CFD; Chemical engineering; dispersion; EFD; Exact sciences and technology; Heat and mass transfer. Packings, plates; Hydrodynamics of contact apparatus; Taylor—Couette flow; CFD; centrifugal extractor; EFD; Taylor—Couette flow; dispersion; Biotechnology; Correlation; Mixing; Taylor vortex; Multiphase flow; Computational fluid dynamics; Axial mixing; Flow field; Dispersion; Mass transfer; Drop; Design; Bubble; Particle size distribution; Correlation analysis; Instability; Heat transfer; Taylor-Couette flow
• ISSN: 0263-8762; 1744-3563
• DOI: 10.1205/cherd.05219

The annular centrifugal contactors based on the Taylor-vortex flow have a great potential in chemical, nuclear, metallurgy and biotechnology industry. This equipment has been extensively studied during the past 80 years. However, most of the research has been focused on the flow instabilities. Relatively scanty information is available on the detailed quantitative flow pattern in single and multiphase flows, mixing and axial mixing, mass and heat transfer coefficients, drop and bubble size distribution, and so on. The published literature on these aspects has been critically analysed and presented in a coherent manner. Recommendations have been made for correlations which can be used for design purpose; lacunae in the available literature have been delineated and specific recommendations have been made for further work.