Two-phase Taylor-Couette contactors: Holdup, axial dispersion and droplet size

The simple and robust design of Taylor–Couette contactors has been attracting interests of research and industry since it was invented in the nineteenth century. Taylor–Couette contactors provide flexible operation under harsh operation conditions, as needed in liquid–liquid extraction. Nevertheless, industrial application is rather scarce, probably dating back to the historical limitation of Taylor–Couette flow being a gap phenomenon with limited hydraulic performance.

In order to improve the hydraulic performance of two-phase Taylor–Couette contactors, a research program was performed in pilot scale. Therefore, various parameters like dispersed phase holdup, residence time distribution as well as mean droplet size for varying radius ratio were related to the shaft centrifugation number.