A method of short-circuiting comparison with mixing indexes

The improvement of reactor performance is being continuously studied and discussed. One of the most common phenomena is short-circuiting of reactor analysis. It is very difficult to compare the degree of short-circuiting from hydraulic indexes in reality. Mixing is one of the key mechanisms; accordingly it is possible to apply mixing indexes to compare the level of short-circuiting. Identification of reactor type was essential and necessary; we supplied several differentiation criteria to identify the reactor type to make the comparison achievable. Therefore, this study was to develop a simple and practical method for short-circuiting comparison with the ‘distance method’ through eight available mixing indexes. The results showed that all the indexes could correctly be compared. The ‘distance method’ was the method, considering the nature and type of studied reactor, using the distance between the study reactor and the identified type of ideal reactor on the axis of the index, and taking these values to differentiate the reactors for the degree of short-circuiting. This method could be applied to reactors from a lab scale to the field scale. We hope this process could further help us to understand the reactors better and to make the comparison possible.