Modelling Approaches of the Dispersion Process for Conductive Slurries in Chemical Process Industries

In this article, the review on different modeling approaches used for the dispersion of conductive slurries is presented. It comprises three parts: state-of-the-art dispersion process, physiochemical properties, and different modelling approaches. The first part explains the physical mechanism involved in the mixing process and gives an in-depth understanding of the applicability of the current techniques available commercially with respect to lab-scale, pilot plant, and industrially upscaled production of these conductive slurries. The main challenges in slurry formulation prevent the formation of agglomerates and breaking down the preexisting agglomerates. It can be understood by studying the role of process parameters such as mixing time and stirring speed involved in the dispersion process. The second part focusses on the important physiochemical properties such as solid content, particle size distribution, and rheology that influences the electrode performance. The third part focusses on the available modelling approaches based on computational-fluid-dynamics- and coarse-grained-molecular-dynamics-based on the need as well as the complexity involved. The important aspects such as accuracy, computational cost, advantages, and limitations for both these approaches are discussed that will help the readers to select an appropriate technique in the modelling paradigm to reduce the energy consumption in the dispersion process.