TY - JOUR
T1 - Direct Visualization of Scale-Up Effects on the Mass Transfer Coefficient through the “Blue Bottle” Reaction
AU - Piccione, Patrick M
AU - Rasheed, Adamu Abubakar
AU - Quarmby, Andrew
AU - Dionisi, Davide
N1 - The authors would like to thank Guy Ramsay and Rob Courtney for their assistance in assembling various generations of the Syngenta experimental setup. Patrick M. Piccione and Andrew Quarmby acknowledge Syngenta for support for publishing this work, as well as George Hodges for helpful discussions on the chemical reaction mechanism, and Rob Lind for help with video processing. Davide Dionisi and Adamu Rasheed thank Elizabeth Hendrie, University of Aberdeen, for skillful assistance in the experimental work.
PY - 2017/6/13
Y1 - 2017/6/13
N2 - This paper summarizes the experience gained at Syngenta and at University of Aberdeen on visualization of gas–liquid mass transfer in agitated vessels. The aim is to show how simple experiments can be used to directly visualize the effect of vessel size, air flow rate, and agitation speed on the rate of mass transfer for gas–liquid reactions without the need for sophisticated probes or indirect calculations. The reaction used for visualization purposes is the “blue bottle” reaction, that is, the oxidation by oxygen of leucomethylene blue to methylene blue. This reaction produces a distinctive blue color, and its rate depends on the rate of oxygen mass transfer from the gas to the liquid phase. Therefore, this reaction can be used to visualize the rate of mass transfer and how this rate is affected by geometrical and operating parameters of agitated vessels. The described demonstration is furthermore highly convenient for educational purposes. This is the first demonstration visually illustrating scale-up effects in chemical processes.
AB - This paper summarizes the experience gained at Syngenta and at University of Aberdeen on visualization of gas–liquid mass transfer in agitated vessels. The aim is to show how simple experiments can be used to directly visualize the effect of vessel size, air flow rate, and agitation speed on the rate of mass transfer for gas–liquid reactions without the need for sophisticated probes or indirect calculations. The reaction used for visualization purposes is the “blue bottle” reaction, that is, the oxidation by oxygen of leucomethylene blue to methylene blue. This reaction produces a distinctive blue color, and its rate depends on the rate of oxygen mass transfer from the gas to the liquid phase. Therefore, this reaction can be used to visualize the rate of mass transfer and how this rate is affected by geometrical and operating parameters of agitated vessels. The described demonstration is furthermore highly convenient for educational purposes. This is the first demonstration visually illustrating scale-up effects in chemical processes.
KW - Upper-Division Undergraduate
KW - Demonstrations
KW - Chemical Engineering
KW - Hands-On Learning / Manipulatives
KW - Kinetics
KW - Industrial Chemistry
KW - Mechanisms of Reactions
KW - Transport Properties
KW - Organic Chemistry
U2 - 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00633
DO - 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00633
M3 - Article
VL - 94
SP - 726
EP - 729
JO - Journal of Chemical Education
JF - Journal of Chemical Education
SN - 0021-9584
IS - 6
ER -