(73a) Microstructured Reactors for the Production of Commodities by Heterogeneously Catalysed Gas Phase Reactions: Potentials and Limits

Plants produce base chemicals in quantities larger than 10,000 metric tons per year up to several 100,000 metric tons per year. When having fast highly exo- or endothermal processes mainly multi tubular reactors more seldomly fluidised bed reactors are used. The economy of these processes is driven by a minimization of production costs. Using micro structured reactors two alternative potentials for optimization are given: if the conversion rate of traditonal reactors is kept constant, using micro structured reactors can increase selectivities which reduces feedstock costs. This can have a large impact on cost savings considering the portion of the production costs allocated to feedstock is typically 75% of total production costs. On the other hand when keeping the selecitivity constant while increasing the conversion a reduction of the recycle can significantly reduce the production costs. To exploit the full economical potential compared to a multi tubular reactor it is adequate not to have higher investment costs for the new reactor technology than for the old one. In terms of acceptability the micro structured reactor should not be larger than a conventional multi tubular reactor.

In the presentation these issues will be discussed for two examples: the propene oxide an the vinyl acetate production.

E. Klemm, H. Döring, A. Geißelmann, S. Schirrmeister,

Microstructured Reactors in Heterogeneous Catalysis,

Chem. Eng. Technol. 2007, 30, 1615.

E. Klemm, E. Dietzsch, T. Schwarz, T. Kruppa, A. Lange de Oliveira, F. Becker, G. Markowz, S. Schirrmeister, R. Schütte, K.J. Caspary, F. Schüth, D. Hönicke,

Direct Gas Phase Epoxidation with Hydrogen Peroxide on TS-1 Zeolite in a Microstructured Reactor,

Ind. Eng. Chem. Res. 2008, 47, 2086.