THE STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING TWO PHASE FLOW SEPARATION IN MICRO-REACTOR

Separation is basically a process that convert mixture of chemical substances into its pure constituents. The methods of separation can be varies depending on suitability and nature of the substance that are needed to be separated. In a macroscale of multiphase liquid-liquid separation, it is commonly affected by gravity or density. However, gravity effect has not become the main effect in microscale. This is due to capillary effect has much more effect overcoming the gravity effect. To get clear understanding of the capillary effect, the focus of this study is on liquid-liquid separation within a microfluidic device with four different design which will be varying the position and orientation of the separator channels together with the number of separator channels by the means of experiment. The fabrication of different designs of micro-reactor using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is carried out starting with the fabrication of mould using epoxy with its resin using the ratio of 2:1. The PDMS solution prepared using 10:1 weight ratio of PDMS and its curing agent is then poured into the mould to get the microchannel device. In the experiment each design is tested using three different flow rate of oil which are 2 uL/min, 5ul/min and 10uL/min. The effectiveness of the separation between oil-methanol system is tested by measuring the percentage of oil recovery. From the experiment, it is found that the best position for the outlet is at the end of separator channel, orientation of outlet is best when it is parallel with oil feed inlet direction and the increment in number of separator channels enhance the percentage of oil recovery.