Abstract

Scalable Rapid Prototyped Porous Reactors for Liquid-liquid Reactions

Simon Kuhn, Associate Professor, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

For biphasic transformations, packed beds represent a versatile reactor system to improve mixing and mass transfer. However, the main drawbacks limiting their use, especially for scale-up applications, are their large associated pressure drop and flow mal-distribution resulting in non-uniform contact time. An alternative to overcome these drawbacks is the use of porous structures based on open cell metal foams, which combine the improved transport processes of the micro-scale with the throughput of milli-scale reactors [1]. In our previous work, we have investigated liquid-liquid flow hydrodynamics and mass transfer in various structured and well-defined porous media similar to open cell foams [2]. We have found that depending on the fluid properties, different design parameters of the porous structures play a crucial role in determining the overall mass transfer performance.

We extend this study to investigate the heat transfer performance of these structured porous reactors in single and two-phase flow. Furthermore, we apply these designed porous reactors for the amination reaction of aryl halides in the presence of a phase transfer catalyst. The performance is assessed by comparison with an equivalent void volume milli-scale packed bed reactor.