Heterogeneous reactions industrial noncatalytic

Heterogeneous reactions of industrial significance occur between all combinations of gas, liquid, and solid phases. The solids may be inert or reac tive or catalysts in granular form. Some noncatalytic examples are listed in Table 7-11, and processes with solid catalysts are listed under Catalysis in Sec. 23. Equipment and operating conditions of heterogeneous processes are covered at some length in Sec. 23 only some highlights will be pointed out here. 

Many industrially important reactions are characterized by an interface across which heat/mass transfer occurs. They are called heterogeneous reactions. They include fluid-fluid reactions, gas-solid catalytic reactions, gas-solid noncatalytic reactions, and solid-solid reactions. 

As must be evident from a previous section on classification, gas-liquid reactions can be carried out in a large number of reactor types. This is also true of other multiphase reactions in which a liquid phase is involved. For other reactions such as gas-solid, catalytic or noncatalytic, the choice of reactor is confined to a lesser number of variations. Therefore, although reactor choice is an important consideration for all reactions, particularly heterogeneous reactions, it is more so for gas-liquid, liquid-liquid, and slurry systems, all of which are widely used in industrial organic synthesis. We discuss below the cost minimization criteria for a rational choice of reactors for gas-liquid reactions. 

Polymerization can be catalytic or noncatalytic, and can be homogeneously or heterogeneously catalyzed. Polymers that form from the liquid phase may remain dissolved in the remaining monomer or solvent, or they may precipitate. Sometimes beads are formed and remain in suspension sometimes emulsions form. In some processes solid polymers precipitate from a fluidized gas phase. Polymerization processes are also characterized by extremes in temperature, viscosity, and reaction times. For instance, many industrial polymers are mixtures with molecular weights of 104 to 107. In polymerization of styrene the viscosity increased by a factor of 106 as conversion increased from 0 to 60 percent. The adiabatic reaction temperature for complete polymerization of ethylene is 1800 K (3240°R). Initiators of the chain reactions have concentration as low as 10-8 g-moFL, so they are highly sensitive to small concentrations of poisons and impurities. 

Wen, C.Y. (1968). Noncatalytic heterogeneous solid fluid reaction models. Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, 60, 34-54. 

---