Abstract A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation method was developed to study the scale-up characteristics of the oxo-synthesis reactor with three-lay impellers and the optimization of impellers. The variations of flow field, gas distribution and power consumption of the gas-liquid stirred tank before and after scale-up were investigated. The results showed that the flow distribution and gas distribution were similar when the tank diameter increased from 4 600 mm to 5 200 mm, which indicated that the difference in mixing was negligible after the impellers scale-up, and the selected scale-up criteria was reasonable. In addition, the new blade showed higher mixing efficiency than the straight blade and the power consumption was decreased by 51%.
