NEW EMERGING TECHNOLOGY

1. MICRO REACTORS
 INTRODUCTION
 CATALYTIC PLATE REACTOR
 HEX REACTORS
 OPEN PLATE REACTOR(ALFA LAVAL PLATE)
 HELIX REACTOR
 PCR
 CHART COMPACT HEAT REACTOR
 CONSTANT POWER REACTOR(VCR,ACR)

2. INTRODUCTION
• Micro heat exchangers are reactors with channel sizes of the order of micrometers,
at which diffusion is dominant phenomenon
• They are constructed from a channel of miniaturised channels
• They gained more importance in the field of chemistry , microbiology and
pharmaceutical chemistry etc
• They house chemical reactions to the scale of 5-100ml
• They can tolerate high temperatures and prsesure upto 650c and 25bars

3. ADVANTAGES:
• Efficient heat transfer
• Efficient mixing
• Control of reaction parameters
• Handling hazardous material and highly exothermic materials
• Requires minimal amounts of reagents and samples
• Better yield and high selectivity
DISADVANTAGES:
• Cost issues
• Challenges in membering up
• Clogged tubes
• Corrosion

4. CATALYTIC PLATE REACTORS

5. • In a catalytic plate reactor (CPR), metal plates with channels or
grooves appearing in a crisscross manner
• These grooves are coated with a suitable catalyst
• These plates are arranged such that exothermic and endothermic
reactions take place in alternate channels.
• These channels typically have a height of the order of millimetres and
a catalyst thickness of the order of microns.
• The heat transfer mechanism within a CPR is conduction from the
exothermic to the endothermic region.

6. k
• advantages
• high heat transfer coefficients
• minimal intra-catalyst diffusion resistance.
• The catalyst layers within a CPR are thin, which results in minimal
diffusion limitations and thus high catalyst utilisation.
 Applications
 Steam reforming
 Methane reforming
 Fischer tropsch synthesis

7. HEX REACTORS
• Heat exchanger reactor is a kind of plug flow
chemical reactor which combines high heat
transfer ability and chemical performance
• Industrial examples include nitrations,
polymerisations, hydrogenations,
halogenations and aminations.
• These processes have byproduct outputs of
rates between 1–5 kg/kg of desired products
(in bulk chemicals), and 5–50 kg/kg of product
for fine chemicals.

8. OPEN PLATE REACTOR
• The open plate reactor, designed by Alfa Laval, is based on the concept of the
plate heat exchanger.
• It consists of reactor plates, inside which the reactants mix and react, and
cooling plates, inside which cold water flows.
• There is one cooling plate on top of each reactor plate and one below

9. • Reaction plates are filled with specific inserts which force the
reactants to flow in changing directions.
• The primary reactant, A, flows into the reactor from the inlet
on the upper left. Between the inlet and the outlet, the
reactants are forced by inserts to flow in horizontal channels
of changing directions
• Secondary reactant can be injected in many points
• temperature, pressure or conductivity sensors can be added
along the reactor.
• The OPR is specifically designed to handle highly exo- or
endothermic and fast reactions

10. CHART COMPACT HEAT
EXCHANGER

11. • An alternative to coating the surface of a compact heat
exchanger with a catalyst is to put small catalytically-
coated pellets in the fluid channels
• They are manufactured from thin plates/shims and
stacked to form assemblies
• The ‘ pins ’ which join the hot stream separating plates to
the cold stream separating plates accommodate the
mechanical loads resulting from the internal pressure
within the layer, provide heat conduction paths and
promote turbulence for increased heat transfer.
• They are closed off with solid separating plates in the case
of the coolant, and perforated in the case of the reactant.

12. easier catalyst replacement
resulting in high values of heat transfer surface area per
unit volume, enhanced heat transfer coefficients and good
mixing efficiency,
Applications
• production of hydrogen for powering fuel cells;
• Provides basis for reactor design for catalytic ‘ clean up ’
of hydrogen rich streams for low temperature fuel cell
applications
• Provides basis for design of gas-shift units that can be
used in conjunction with a hydrocarbon reformer to
increase the hydrogen content of the reformed fuel.

13. HELIX REACTOR
• The HELIX heat exchanger was developed by TNO
• It consists of two helical wound tubes, usually around a straight tube.
• The very small radius results in significant secondary flows in the wound
tubes.
• This leads to a great degree of radial mixing, enhancing the heat transfer.

14. ADVANTAGES OF HELIX REACTOR
 Very good mixing
 Very high heat transfer rate
 Narrow residence time distribution
 Good multiphase handling , especially solids
 No internals – less clogging, fouling

15. PRINTED CIRCUIT REACTOR

16. Heatric has used the inherent plug flow characteristics of the printed circuit heat
exchanger (PCHE) to develop the ‘ In passage printed circuit reactor ’ (IP PCR),
which merges chemical reaction, fluid mixing and heat transfer into one
simultaneous operation.
ADVANTAGES:
• Reduced residence time
• Close temperature control, enabling: Increased reaction temperature
• Suitability for design pressures in excess of 600 bar – opportunity to operate at
supercritical conditions.
• Facility to perform a sequential series of reactions in a single IP reactor
• Compatibility with oscillatory flow reaction systems, providing extended
residence time in a small volume.

17. CONSTANT POWER
REACTORS
• Constant power reactors developed by Ashe Morris employ variable
geometry flow channels to regulate the process power at different stages
within the reactor.
• This is achieved by breaking up the reactor into a series of stages, each
stage having an optimised ratio of heat transfer area to channel volume
for the desired reaction scheme.
• High surface ratios (area to volume) are used where the reaction is fast
and low ratios where the reaction is slow. This approach offers significant
advantages for fast and slow reactions alike. Ashe Morris has developed
two types of constant power reactors to cope with both fast and slow
reactions.

18. VCR
• The variable channel reactor (VCR) design allows the employment of
temperature monitoring and control on each plate, increasing the
flexibility of the reactor
• Mixing within the VCR relies on diffusion mixing in the narrow channel
sections and static mixing in the wider channel sections.
• The VCR is ideal for fast reactions, given its very high heating/cooling
capabilities, low pressure drop and reduced tendency to block.
• The channel width of the variable channel reactor, however, has a limited
operating range.

19. ACR
• For slower reactions a different kind of constant power reactor is used,
known as the agitated cell reactor.
• IN ACR the product flows through a series of agitated cells.
• The ACR reactor consists of a series of cells within a block. Product flows
between the cells via small channels.

20. • A cooling/heating plate seal forms the sealing
face on one face of the cell block.
• A cooling/heating plate can be fitted to the other
face of the cell block. the second plate can be
used for sampling and measuring temperature
along the reactor.
• Agitation elements are located within the reaction
cells. When the cell block is mounted on a
vibrating platform, the agitation elements
promote mixing without the need for individual
stirrer

21. corning