II. Objectives of the EFCE-WPM

Memorandum defining the main objectives of the WPM has been formulated:

• information exchange about the main trends in research on mixing performed by the EFCE member countries , i.e. countries having delegates in the WPM;
• information about conferences held or planned to be held in those countries;
• information about activities of national working parties on mixing of the EFCE member countries ;
• standardisation of mixing devices (e.g. main types of impellers, recommended sizes of vessels, definition of mixing terms, symbols and units);
• comparison of the main types of mixers used in the member countries of the EFCE (e.g. in terms of power characteristics of the impellers, blending effects of agitators, effects of agitation on the interfacial area, mixing performance of motionless mixers, suspension of solids during mixing, intensification of heat transfer during mixing, etc.);
• comparison of scale-up rules, both batch and continuous mixing systems;
• comparison of the effects of turbulence in batch and continuous mixed systems, studied in various centres of the EFCE member countries;
• stimulation of the studies of boundary problems between the areas of investigation of particular Working Parties of the EFCE, e.g. mechanical mixing in crystallisers, mechanical extruders, interfacial area in extraction columns with impellers, intensification of heat transfer in stirred-tank reactors, mixing and rate of chemical reaction, efficiency of mixing in the food industry.

Fig.: Schematic diagram showing the complexity of mixing problems in a mechanically agitated vessel.