Recovery of short-lived chemical species in a couette flow reactor

Journal Article · Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 EST 1992 · AIChE Journal (American Institute of Chemical Engineers); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/aic.690380404· OSTI ID:5257525

Ouyang, Q; Swinney, H L ^[1]; Roux, J C; Kepper, P; Boissonade, J ^[2]

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1. Center for Nonlinear Dynamics, Dept. of Physics, Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (US)
2. Centre de Recherche Paul Pascal, Univ. de Bordeau I, Chateau Brivazac, F-33600 (FR)

This paper reports on a new technique for studying and recovering short-lived chemical intermediate species that has been developed using a Couette reactor, which is an open one-dimensional reaction-diffusion system. Reaction occurs in the annulus between concentric cylinders with the inner one rotating and the outer one at rest. Fresh reagents are in contact with the ends of the annulus, but there is no net axial flow. The axial transport arising from the hydrodynamic motion is effectively diffusive, but has a diffusion coefficient 3 to 5 order of magnitude larger than that of molecular diffusion. The oxidant (ClO{sub 2}{sup {minus}}) and reductant (I{sup {minus}}) of an autocatalytic reaction are fed at opposite ends of the reactor. The reactants diffuse toward each other and react, forming a steady, sharp chemical front and a stable spatial concentration band of unstable intermediate species (HOCl) in the front region. Unstable intermediate species are thus stabilized at a well-defined spatial position where they can be recovered and studied. The experiments and numerical simulations demonstrate that the faster the reaction rate, the stabler the chemical front and the more effective the recovery of unstable intermediate species.

• OSTI ID: 5257525
• Journal Information: AIChE Journal (American Institute of Chemical Engineers); (United States), Vol. 38:4; ISSN 0001-1541
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
COAXIAL FLOW REACTORS
CHEMICAL REACTION KINETICS
COUETTE FLOW
FLOW MODELS
DIFFUSION
EXPERIMENTAL DATA
HYDRODYNAMICS
NUMERICAL SOLUTION
DATA
FLUID FLOW
FLUID FUELED REACTORS
FLUID MECHANICS
GAS FUELED REACTORS
HOMOGENEOUS REACTORS
INFORMATION
KINETICS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MECHANICS
NUMERICAL DATA
REACTION KINETICS
REACTORS
VISCOUS FLOW
420400* - Engineering- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow