Dissolution of Solids and Pressure Drop in a Cyclone Semibatch Reactor and a Two Impinging Streams Semibatch Reactor

A semibatch reactor, operated as a cyclone or as a two impinging streams (TIS) device, was employed for studying the effect of the following design parameters on the dissolution mass transfer of solid particles: the holdup of the particles, the diameter of the particles, and the water flow rate in which chemicals (e.g., urea, sodium nitrate, and sodium nitrite) were dissolved. In addition, the hydrodynamic behavior of the reactors was investigated. Correlations, based on dimensionless analysis, were developed, relating mass-transfer coefficients and pressure drop on the reactor to operating parameters. The cyclone reactor gave the highest mass-transfer coefficients when compared with the TIS reactor and other commonly used devices for dissolution of solids.