Development and hydrodynamic characterization of a modular mini-plant photoreactor

The development of a modular mini-plant photoreactor is presented. This reactor is designed to enable scale-up by bridging the gap between small scale laboratory and industrial scale photoreactors. To enhance the overall efficiency of the photoreactor and enable a scale-up, the acceleration of mass transport along the direction of light propagation through different static mixers is experimentally and numerically investigated through utilizing the modularity of the photoreactor. The results reveal a significant narrowing of the residence time distribution as well as enhanced mass transport along the ray trajectory.