Tuning of Particle Size in a Helical Coil Reactor

This study investigates the effect of initial reactant concentration, residence time, and flow on the particle size and particle size distribution produced by single-phase reactive precipitation between BaCl₂ and Na₂SO₄ in a helical coil reactor. Helical coils offer enhanced mixing due to the secondary flow generated by the imbalance of centrifugal forces. The particles produced in a helical coil reactor are found to have smaller sizes and narrower size distribution compared to a straight tube reactor under similar process conditions. It is shown that the average particle size in a helical coil reactor decreases with increasing Dean number, and particle size distribution becomes narrower at higher Dean number. For a reactant concentration of 0.5 M with the reactant concentration ratio of one, the average size changed from 580 to 263 nm when Dean number changed from 64 to 370. The initial reactant concentration is defined in terms of supersaturation ratio, and a decreasing trend in size is also observed with increasing supersaturation ratio. The particle size distribution curve also became narrower at higher supersaturation ratio. The residence time is observed to have no visible effects on the particle mean size and particle size distribution for the range of residence time, from 6 to 34 s, studied for the helical coil in this work.