Industrial Scale-Up and Use of Microreactors

Industrial Scale-up and Use of Microreactors

Monideepa Karmakar1, Nakul Parikh2, and Roushan Kumar Singh3

Department of Chemical Engineering, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat

Email: monideepa.kch11@sot.pdpu.ac.in, nakul.pch11@sot.pdpu.ac.in, roushan.sch11@sot.pdpu.ac.in

Abstract — Reactors are an integral part of a chemical synthesis industry. These conventional reactors lack fine degree of process control, portability, and require improvements in energy efficiency, reaction speed and yield, safety, reliability, and scalability. The modern methods of three dimensional microfabrication have lead to the development of extremely miniaturized systems called microreactors which offer many advantages. The technical feasibility of a microreactor has been demonstrated in the laboratory scale. This paper will focus on the scale-up and use of microreactors on the industrial scale. The distinctive scale-up strategies include device parallelisation/numbering-up approach and vertical scale-up using plate arrangement technology. The paper will elucidate some industrially applicable examples of fine chemical production.

Index Terms – Microreactors, fine chemicals, Parallelisation, Plate arrangement

Introduction

Technology advancements overtime have enabled developments in electronics to move us into a micro electronics age. Remarkable achievements have increased functionality while making devices smaller. Each decrease in device size has resulted in greater quality and efficiency [1]. Microreactor technology is the use of structured micro channels below 1mm to carry out continuous flow processing reactions (fig.1). They provide high area to volume ratio improving heat transfer efficiency, making it possible to supply or remove energy quickly and efficiently [2]. Other significant characteristics include enhancement of mass transfer, portability, high mixing power using ribs, customizable porosity depending on the materials with minimal...