(399c) Flow Reactors: Development and Applications

Flow Reactors: Development and
Applications

Anh N. Phan^*, Adam P. Harvey, Valentine Eze and
Martin Rawcliffe

School of Chemical Engineering &
Advanced Materials, Claremont Road, NE1 7RU, Newcastle University

Corresponding: anh.phan@ncl.ac.uk

Several unique intensified reactors were constructed
and characterised at low net flow rates (µl/min to ml/min, corresponding to net
flow Reynolds number, Re_n <50) that would be in the laminar flow
regime if they were in steady (non-oscillatory) flow. It was demonstrated that
that these reactors can easily achieve high degrees of plug flow at these net
flow rates over a wide range of oscillation conditions. The oscillation conditions had a strong
influence on the residence time distribution (RTD) at net flow Reynolds numbers,
Re_n < 10, but little effect on the RTD behaviour at Re_n
above 25. This leads to
their niche application by converting long batch reactions to continuous
operation with greatly reducing ratios of length to diameter.

Two phase liquid reaction such as biodiesel production
was chosen as a case study for continuous screening. Methyl ester (biodiesel) was produced
at a consistent quality and there were clear responses to variations in input
conditions. A clear step-change between various steady state molar ratios of
methanol to oil and dynamic screening was observed in these reactors. Rapid
screening such as this has the potential to significantly reduce process
development, operating costs and environmental impact. The methyl ester was
above 96.5% within less than 10mins when operating in these intensified reactors
compared to approximately 1hour when operating in conventional stirred tank
reactors.

These reactors can be used in their own right as very
small production platforms for high added-value chemicals, or to provide
information for scale-up to pilot and industrial scale. These novel new designs
are the basis of a revolutionary ?process platform? that is being developed as
a product to allow rapid continuous screening of processes at laboratory scale,
with a view to reducing time-to-market for products and minimising usage of
(perhaps expensive) feedstocks and production of waste. The platform is
expected to be particularly useful in bioprocessing and pharmaceutical
applications, such as fermentations, crystallizations and biotransformations.