Abstract

Excellent heat and mass transfer capabilities of micro reactors, made it possible to safely run demanding chemistries at 3-4 orders of magnitude increased space time yield. Despite its wide spread success in the lab, there are just a few micro reactor applications on industrial scale (>1000 T/a). The development of industrial micro reactors, encounters significant hurdles in minimizing the complexity originating from the numbering-up strategy, while achieving a performance cost ratio capable of competing with existing reactor technologies. Viable solutions were found in the combination of an adapted design strategy and a new manufacturing technology.

3D-metal printing answers perfectly to the needs in design freedom and cost efficiency. It enables micro reactor performance in mm sized channels. Challenging systems such as slurries or viscous fluids, which pose serious problems in micrometer sized channels, can be handled in such 3D printed flow reactors by tweaking the channel design. Metal, as construction material, is easily accepted in process industry. Its ductility, tensile strength, heat conductivity, make it possible to create high performing flow reactors capable of operating a wide process window (T -100°C to 300°C, P -1 to 200 bars). The low hold-up translates in low consumption of construction material, which becomes especially a benefit when corrosive media call for costly alloys or metals.