The original disc blade turbine invented in the 1950’s, the standard Rushton Turbine model features 6 flat vertical blades, however, 4 and 8 blade options are common, depending on the application. In low to medium duty gas dispersion applications, the Rushton power input will drop due to the gas presence up to 60% requiring a variable frequency drive, or two-speed motor.

The Rushton Turbine should not be utilized for solid-liquid mixing applications, as radial flow turbines do not suspend solids for the least power input. However, in three-phase reactors with both a high gassing duty and solids suspension requirement, the gas dispersion demand is more critical to process success and a Rushton Turbine must be used. In this case, the process success dictates the agitator design and the power input does not factor when deciding on the optimum impeller-mixer configuration.