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Chapter 8
Liquid mixing

8.1 Introduction

Mixing is one of the most common operations in the chemical, biochemical, polymer
processing and allied industries. Almost all manufacturing processes entail some sort of
mixing, and the operation may constitute a considerable proportion of the total process-
ing time. The term ‘mixing’ is applied to the processes used to reduce the degree of non-
uniformity or gradient of a property such as concentration, viscosity, temperature, colour
and so on. Mixing can be achieved by moving material from one region to another. It
may be of interest simply as means of reaching a desired degree of homogeneity, but it
may also be used to promote heat and mass transfer, often where a system is undergoing
a chemical reaction.
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At the outset, it is useful to consider some common examples of problems encoun-
tered in industrial mixing operations, since this will not only reveal the ubiquitous nature
of the process, but will also provide an appreciation of some of the associated difficul-
ties. One can classify mixing problems in many ways, such as the flowability of the final
product in the mixing of powders, but it is probably most satisfactory to base this clas-
sification on the phases present: liquid–liquid, liquid–solid, gas–liquid, etc. This permits
a unified approach to the mixing problems in a range of industries.

8.1.1 Single phase liquid mixing

In many instances, two or more miscible liquids must be mixed to give a product of a
desired specification, as for example, in the blending of petroleum fractions of different
viscosities. This is the simplest type of mixing as it does not involve either heat or mass
transfer, or indeed a chemical reaction. Even such simple operations can, however, pose
problems when the two liquids have vastly different viscosities, or if density differences
are sufficient to lead to stratification. Another example is the use of mechanical agitation
to enhance the rates of heat and mass transfer between a liquid and the wall of a vessel,
or a coil. Additional complications arise in the case of highly viscous Newtonian and
non-Newtonian materials.

8.1.2 Mixing of immiscible liquids

When two immiscible liquids are stirred together, one liquid becomes dispersed as drop-
lets in the second liquid which forms a continuous phase. Liquid–liquid extraction, a
process using successive mixing and settling stages, is one important example of this
type of mixing. The two liquids are brought into contact with a solvent that selectively
dissolves one of the components present in the mixture. Agitation causes one phase to
disperse in the other and, if the droplet size is small, a high interfacial area is created
for interphase mass transfer. When the agitation is stopped, phase separation may occur,
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Liquid mixing 377

but care must be taken to ensure that the droplets are not so small that a diffuse layer is
formed instead of a well-defined interface; this can remain in a semi-stable state over
a long period of time and prevent the completion of effective separation. The produc-
tion of stable emulsions such as those encountered in food, brewing and pharmaceutical
applications provides another important example of dispersion of two immiscible liquids.
In these systems, the droplets are very small and are often stabilized by surface-active
agents, so that the resulting emulsion is usually stable for considerable lengths of time.

8.1.3 Gas–liquid dispersion and mixing

Numerous processing operations involving chemical reactions, such as aerobic fermenta-

tion, wastewater treatment, oxidation, hydrogenation or chlorination of hydrocarbons and
so on, require good contact between a gas and a liquid. The purpose of mixing here is to
produce a large interfacial area by dispersing bubbles of the gas into the liquid. Generally,
gas–liquid mixtures or dispersions are unstable and separate rapidly if agitation is
stopped, provided that a foam is not formed. In some cases, a stable foam is needed (such
as fire fighting foam); this can be formed by injecting gas into a liquid using intense agi-
tation, and stability can be increased by the addition of a surface-active agent.
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8.1.4 Liquid–solid mixing

Mechanical agitation may be used to suspend particles in a liquid in order to promote

mass transfer or a chemical reaction. The liquids involved in such applications are usu-
ally of low viscosity, and the particles will settle out when agitation ceases. There is also
an occasional requirement to achieve a relatively homogeneous suspension in a mixing
vessel, particularly when this is being used to prepare materials for subsequent processes.
At the other extreme, in the formation of composite materials, especially filled
polymers, fine particles must be dispersed into a highly viscous Newtonian or non-
Newtonian liquid. The incorporation of carbon black powder into rubber is one such
operation. Because of the large surface areas involved, surface phenomena play an
important role in these applications.

8.1.5 Gas–liquid–solid mixing

In some applications such as catalytic hydrogenation of vegetable oils, slurry reactors,

three phase fluidized beds, froth flotation, fermentation and so on, the success and effi-
ciency of the process is directly influenced by the extent of mixing between the three
phases. Despite its great industrial importance, this topic has received only scant atten-
tion and the mechanisms and consequences of interactions between the phases are
almost unexplored.

8.1.6 Solid–solid mixing

Mixing together of particulate solids, sometimes referred to as blending, is a very

complex process in that it is very dependent, not only on the character of the particles –
density, size, size distribution, shape and surface properties – but also on the differences
between these properties of the components. Mixing of sand, cement and aggregate to form
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378 Non-Newtonian Flow and Applied Rheology: Engineering Applications

concrete, and of the ingredients in gun powder preparation, are longstanding examples
of the mixing of solids.
Other industrial sectors employing solids mixing include food, drugs, agriculture and
the glass industries, for example. All these applications involve only physical contacting,
although in recent years, there has been a recognition of the industrial importance of solid–
solid reactions, and solid–solid heat exchangers. Unlike liquid mixing, fundamental research
on solids mixing has been limited until recently. The phenomena involved are very differ-
ent from those when a liquid phase is present, so solid–solid mixing will not be discussed
further here. However, most of the literature on solid–solid mixing has been reviewed
elsewhere (Lindley, 1991; Harnby et al., 1992; van den Bergh, 1994; Xuereb et al., 2006).

8.1.7 Miscellaneous mixing applications

Mixing equipment may be designed not only to achieve a predetermined level of homog-
enity but also to improve the rates of heat and mass transfer, and the yield of chemi-
cal reactions. For example, if the rotational speed of an impeller in a mixing vessel is
selected so as to achieve a required rate of heat transfer, the agitation may then be more
than sufficient for the mixing duty. Excessive or over-mixing should be avoided. For
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example, in biological applications, excessively high impeller speeds or power input are
believed by many to give rise to shear rates which may damage micro-organisms. In a
similar way, where the desirable rheological properties of some polymer solutions may
be attributable to structured long-chain molecules, excessive impeller speeds or agita-
tion over prolonged periods, may damage the structure particularly of molecular aggre-
gates, thereby altering their properties. Similarly, the texture and structure of many
products (such as food, pharmaceutical, house-hold products, fermentation broths, etc.)
are extremely shear sensitive and obviously in such applications, the prediction and con-
trol of distribution of shear rates in the mixing vessel are much more important than the
estimation of power consumption (Benz, 2003, 2004). Yet in certain other applications,
the viscosity evolves with time thereby adding to the degree of difficulty to achieve the
desired level of homogenization. For instance, lubricating greases are produced by car-
rying out in situ saponification of glyceride fatty acids, followed by dehydration, heat-
ing it to the phase transition temperature of the soap, cooling it down to achieve soap
crystallization, milling and mixing various additives. At each stage, the contents of the
reactor–mixer vessel possess different rheological characteristics. Obviously, no sin-
gle impeller will be equally efficient under all conditions. Similarly, lignin-based slurry
fuels offer a promising alternative to fossil fuels in kraft pulp processes. The prepara-
tion of the so-called lignogels entails effective mixing of lignin, fuel oil, water and sur-
factant, and indeed their non-Newtonian characteristics determine their atomization and
burning characteristics. In turn, the non-Newtonian characteristics are influenced by the
size of oil droplets produced during the mixing stage. As our final example, similarly,
the quality of bread is strongly influenced by the gluten network present in the dough.
When wheat flour and water are mixed, the protein in the dough forms gluten which is
a highly elastic cohesive mass. About 20% of the wheat protein is soluble (albumen and
globulin), and the remaining 80% is made up of gliadin and glutenin. The glutenin is
responsible for the extensibility, strength and firmness of the dough while gliadin is soft,
fluid-like and it imparts cohesiveness and elasticity to the dough. Dough consistency
(measured in terms of its elasticity and mouldability) is therefore strongly influenced
 Chapter extract

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