Compact and Efficient CO2 Reactor

[FC]

I saw this reactor at Eco Culture.





The clever part of this little reactor is that it incoporated a "pressure" chamber that sit between the end cap and the water inlet. This chamber is built to trap any undissolved CO2 that travelled up there. By doing so, the trapped CO2 will subject to water pressure that further (2nd attempt) dissolve it.

[FC]

Based on the slim body design, this reactor is best coupled with canister filter (or dedicated water pump) with pump rated at or less than 750 litres/hour. If I remember correctly, it is priced at S$20 which is a steal compared to other solutions around.

[PeterGwee]

Reactors does better with more flow especially external ones as there is a substantial loss of flow due to head/friction and etc. The more flow the reactor gets the more mixing. Less flow means less mixing and slower response time. (the idea is much like mixing syrup....the more flow the better mixed the syrup. How the CO2 enters a big long tank matters as well. Its easy to visualize using the syrup theory. )

Regards
Peter Gwee

[FC]

Hi Peter,

Thank you for your comments. I missed out that.

Yes, the fundamental requirement of reactor is having a good flow in the mixing chamber. That's half part of how to get it performs.

To get the reactor to it's peak performance where by every bubble of CO2 is force dissolved before it flow out of the chamber, it calls also for optimum flow rate that matches the chamber's design, cross sectional space and length (of water travel). Deploying lots of flow that exceed the said parameters would result in forcing the CO2 out of the chamber before it is given (sufficient) time to dissolve (in the chamber).

Ultimately, reactor peak performace clinches on:
1) getting the CO2 stay as long as the injection rate allows
2) having the ultimum water flow rate that the chamber can contain without CO2 flowing out prematurely (that were not dissolved)

Remarks
For point 1), if the CO2 happened to build up in the (upper) chamber despite given the ultmate flow rate, it indicates that the reactor cannot handle (due to under-sized or poor design) the given injection rate (needed to feed the target water volume). In such instance, a larger reactor is needed or one may choose to use more of the same reactors. This often happens to tank with volume exceeding 500/600 litres.