Falling Film MicroChannel Contactor

Falling film contactors employ thin liquid films that are created by a liquid feed falling under gravitational puD. The liquid film is in contact with a solid support, which is 

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Figure 8.13 Disassembled falling film microchannel contactor and schematic showing the gas-liquid contacting. From [92].

Owing to the complex and often dedicated equipment required to perform gas-liquid phase reactions within research laboratories, this area of synthetic chemistry is somewhat underutilized. Over the past decade, however, numerous research groups have developed an array of continuous flow reactors capable of conducting such reactions in a safe and efficient manner, including microchannel contactors, falling film micro reactors, and packed-bed reactors [68, 69]. 

The fading film MSR is one of the most commonly used devices for gas-liquid reactions (examples are given in gas-liquid reactions section). The liquid flows downward because of gravity in the form of film and gas flows through the open space that lies in the top cover of the housing. The falling film contactor consists in general of a stainless steel plate with open channels, typically 300 pm deep, separated by about 100 pm thick walls. The role of open microchannels is to prevent the breakup of the liquid film. 

Figure 8.15 Disassembled and partially assembled helicoidal microchannel falling film contactor with path length 540 mm. From [97],...

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