Comparative study of sonochemical effects in an ultrasonic bath and in a large-scale flow-through sonoreactor

The potential of future industrial ultrasound applications has prompted scientists to scale-up their laboratory processes. However, to implement such processes, many technical limitations remain as reported in the literature. The objective of this study was to compare the sonochemical effects of a batchwise and a continuous ultrasonic system using the same transducer technology. KI oxidation was used in the assessment of sonochemical and mechanical effects on aluminum erosion. It was observed that the glass reactor had a strong effect on the attenuation of sonochemical effect. In the flow-through sonoreactor the sonochemical effects at 170 kHz were 20% higher than those at 68 kHz. A mix of sonochemical and mechanical effects existed at 68 kHz. The full-scale flow-through sonoreactor exhibited 33% superior sonochemical effect to the ultrasonic bath for an irradiation time of 11.2 s per min of operation. Besides, the time corrected flow-through was 683% better than the bath experiments. The sonochemical effect of the full scale setup is superior to the laboratory unit under the same ultrasonic conditions, which is not very common in the field.

► Glass reactor strongly attenuates the ultrasound irradiation in the bath.
► Radical production in the bath is maximum at 170 kHz but reduce by 20% at 68 kHz.
► Unique sonochemical effects at 170 kHz were found in the bath.
► Both sonochemical and mechanical effects at 68 kHz were observed in the bath.
► Sonochemical effect of the full scale setup is superior to the laboratory unit.