Assessment of the Dispersion of Glycerol in Dimethyl Carbonate in a Stirred Tank

Glycerol carbonate has gained attention as a value-added product from reacting glycerol and dimethyl carbonate. This work studies the dispersion in nonreacting conditions of the two compounds under conditions relevant to the production of glycerol carbonate. Images were acquired to obtain droplet size distributions and Sauter mean diameters (d3,2), which increased with dispersed phase volume fraction and viscosity, whereas the difference of interfacial tension with changing conditions could be neglected as its value remained very similar at all conditions. d3,2 was correlated with available theoretical models based on the Weber number and energy dissipation rate, and two further correlations were proposed for high and moderate viscosities to describe the effect of viscosity, concentration of dispersed phase, and hydrodynamic parameters. The predicted value of d3,2 correlated well with experimental data, with the accuracy of both correlations reaching at least 93%.