Micro-structured reactor plant

Micro Reactor or Micro Structured Reactor Plant (MRP)... 

Miniplant Technology - A Model for the Micro Structured Reactor Plant Concept... 

As miniplant technology must be considered as a model for micro structured reactor plant technology, a closer look into its working principles is very illustrative. All characteristics of a miniplant were described by the inventors of this technology, Dow, in 1979 [28] and BASF [29], which also introduced the combined simulation/ experimentation concept (Figure 4.2). 

All these aspects also have to be taken into account in the conception and design phase of micro structured reactor plant technology, introduced in the following. 

There are a few micro structured reactor plants of table-top size on the market [21, 22, 34—42] and even one of larger scale for production purposes [43-45], Nevertheless, engineers do not have much experience in designing micro structured reactor plants and, of course, systematic tools for designing and control are also lacking[13]. 

In scouting work, Hasebe [13] described a concept for the application and design rules for a micro structured reactor plant. First the reasons for performing a chemical reaction in a micro device must be clear. Either the target product cannot be produced conventionally, or the production efficiency of the target product can be drastically improved. Currently many chemical reactions are performed in micro reactors (see, e.g., [9]), but it is not clear how many of them fit with the above-mentioned rules. 

The economic benefit is one of the dominant problems if a micro structured reactor plant is used for chemical production. Without any doubt, an overall flow rate through a micro structured device can be achieved that is comparable to that with a conventional batch process. However, the residence time is very short because of the dimensions of a microstructured device. If the reaction kinetics are slow, an additional device is necessary to increase a dwell time. Hence, much effort should be devoted to increasing the reaction rate instead of transferring the standard protocol to a micro structured reactor [13]. 

Design Problems of Chemical Micro Structured Reactor Plants... 

Instrumentation and control of micro structured reactor plants... 

The above-mentioned integrated process development combines simulation tools with miniplant equipment to bypass the set-up of a pilot-scale plant Similar to this combined approach, a micro structured reactor plant can bridge laboratory-scale and micro-scale development. One could think of a future micro-integrated process... 

The investment cost will be given, indicated as ISBL (inside battery limit plant, laboratories, process control system, etc.), OSBL (outside battery limit) or infrastructure costs. It is expected that the OSBL costs for a micro structured reactor plant will be a minor issue as here mainly costs for housing, cooling facilities, etc., are included. 

Based upon the process flow diagram and the investment costs, the product manufacturing costs or the necessary yield in the micro structured reactor plant to reach an overall profit of, for example at least 20%, will be calculated. 

Early Concepts for Micro Structured Reactor Plant Design... 

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