There is a lot of stirring and mixing in industry - in the chemical, pharmaceutical, paint, plastics or food sectors as well as in biotechnology. It is estimated that half of all chemical products undergo at least one stirring and mixing process. Although these operations are among the most important technical processes, there is a catch: most industrial stirrers have only a single stirring stage, because so far design data are only available for this.
The Faculty of Chemistry at the Hochschule Niederrhein (HSNR) is now addressing this problem. This is because it has long been shown that a multi-stage design has many advantages: it saves energy and resources, which in turn has a positive effect on the economic efficiency, sustainability and competitiveness of companies and the manufacturing processes concerned. HSNR also wants to bring about such an improvement - and is starting here with the three-year research and cooperation project "Multi Stage Stirrers" (MISS).
The project, which is being funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection to the tune of 275,000 euros, is being led by Prof. Heyko Jürgen Schultz. His research group has been working on stirring and mixing technologies for years.
Cooperation partners in the project include small and medium-sized enterprises. "Our goal is to strengthen these companies in their competitiveness, also in the international market. Mixing processes should consume less energy and resources and thus become more sustainable in German industry," says the professor of chemical engineering. Together with his two Krefeld doctoral students Lena Kögel (24) and Carina Zube (27), who previously studied chemical engineering and chemistry and biotechnology, respectively, at HSNR, Schultz is getting to work.
"The challenge will be to use modern, laser-based measuring methods to examine multi-stage agitating systems without contact, i.e. without disturbing the system by the measuring device itself," explains Lena Kögel. The collected measurement results can later be used to describe complex manufacturing processes in terms of their flow and mixing, to find weak points and to suggest improved setups.
Another difficulty is that there are several measuring systems in different variations - depending on the type of stirrers, their distances or the geometric conditions in the stirred vessels.
At the end of the project, a sophisticated measurement and evaluation program is to be created with the help of huge amounts of data. "Companies from industry will be able to use the extensive findings to decide on the optimal arrangement, selection and combination of agitator elements and thus have the opportunity to adapt and transform their processes safely, economically, sustainably and efficiently," says Schultz.
Twelve well-known companies from the chemical, process, measurement and mixing technology sectors are already involved in "MISS": They are contributing their know-how on various production processes and testing the findings from the project in their plants.
