Abstract

Scalability of Multiphase Transport Processes using Advanced Flow Reactors

Simon Kuhn, Associate Professor, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Using microstructured devices in chemical engineering provides several advantages over conventional, and mostly batch, reaction systems. Due to the decrease in length scale an increased surface-to-volume ratio is obtained, which is beneficial to lead to enhanced mass and heat transfer coefficients. In addition, the typically small volumes allow for safer handling of hazardous materials. Consequently, microchemical devices are widely applied as tools for rapid experimentation, reaction screening, and shortening of product development cycles. However, in terms of economical production, microsystems lack sufficient throughput which might not be solved by scaling-out (numbering up) due to fluid maldistribution issues and the resulting distribution of residence times across devices. Thus it is desirable to develop continuous mini reaction systems on the millimeter scale, which combine the advantages of microreactors with the throughput of conventional batch reactor systems. To perform this step detailed knowledge about the mass and heat transfer mechanisms in these devices is needed. This talk will present a detailed experimental heat and mass transfer study of micro- and milli-scale reactors to predict the scalability of heat and mass transfer coefficients across several orders of length scale. Furthermore, a modelling strategy based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is presented which enables further design improvements of advanced flow reactors.