Microreactor multiphase

Yunus K, Marks CB, Fisher AC, Allsopp DWE, Ryan TJ, Dryfe RAW, Hill SS, Roberts EPL, Brennan CM (2002) Hydrodynamic voltammetry in microreactors multiphase flow. Electrochem Commun 4 579-583... 

Quite new ideas for the reactor design of aqueous multiphase fluid/fluid reactions have been reported by researchers from Oxeno. In packed tubular reactors and under unconventional reaction conditions they observed very high space-time yields which increased the rate compared with conventional operation by a factor of 10 due to a combination of mass transfer area and kinetics [29]. Thus the old question of aqueous-biphase hydroformylation "Where does the reaction takes place " - i.e., at the interphase or the bulk of the liquid phase [23,56h] - is again questionable, at least under the conditions (packed tubular reactors, other hydrodynamic conditions, in mini plants, and in the unusual,and costly presence of ethylene glycol) and not in harsh industrial operation. The considerable reduction of the laminar boundary layer in highly loaded packed tubular reactors increases the mass transfer coefficients, thus Oxeno claim the successful hydroformylation of 1-octene [25a,26,29c,49a,49e,58d,58f], The search for a new reactor design may also include operation in microreactors [59]. 

Multiphase catalytic reactions, such as catalytic hydrogenations and oxidations are important in academic research laboratories and chemical and pharmaceutical industries alike. The reaction times are often long because of poor mixing and interactions between the different phases. The use of gaseous reagents itself may cause various additional problems (see above). As mentioned previously, continuous-flow microreactors ensure higher reaction rates due to an increased surface-to-volume ratio and allow for the careful control of temperature and residence time. 

Doku GN, Haswell SJ, McCreedy T, Greenway GM (2001) Electric Field-Induced Mobilisation of Multiphase Solution Systems Based on the Nitration of Benzene in a Microreactor. Analyst 126 14-20... 

In addition to absolute pressure measurements, pressure sensors can be used to determine flow rates when combined with a well-defined pressure drop over a microfluidic channel. Integration of optical waveguide structures provides opportunities for monitoring of segmented gas-liquid or liquid-liquid flows in multichannel microreactors for multiphase reactions, including channels inside the device not accessible by conventional microscopy imaging (Fig. 2c) (de Mas et al. 2005). Temperature sensors are readily incorporated in the form of thin film resistors or simply by attaching thin thermocouples (Losey et al. 2001). 

Hessel V, Hofmann C, Lob P, Lohndorf J, Lowe H, Ziogas A (2005) Aqueous Kolbe-Schmitt synthesis using resorcinol in a microreactor laboratory rig under high-P,T conditions. Org Process Res Dev 9 479-489 Inoue T, Schmidt MA, Jensen KF (2007) Microfabricated multiphase reactors for the direct synthesis of hydrogen peroxide from hydrogen and oxygen. Ind Eng Chem Res 46 1153-1160... 

Ruy et al. have performed a similar reaction under microreactor conditions in a multiphase solvent system containing an ionic liquid as the catalyst carrier and reaction promoter [35]. Their system consisted of two T-shaped micromixers (i.d. 1,000 and 400 pm) and a capillary stainless steel tube as an RTU (1,000 pm i.d. and 18 m length, giving a 14.1 ml volume), equipped with pumps and control valves. Under the optimized conditions, Pd-catalysed carbonylation of aromatic iodides in the presence of a secondary amine provided only the double carbonylated product, ot-ketoamide, while the amide obtained by the single carbonylation was observed in high quantities only when the reaction was performed in batch (Scheme 13). 

A further improvement of the multiphase reactor concept using lipase for enantioselective transformation has been recently reported, that is, an emulsion enzyme membrane reactor. Here, the organic/water interface within the pores at the enzyme level is achieved by stable oil-in-water emulsion, prepared by membrane emulsification. In this way, each pore forms a microreactor containing immobilized... 

The issues to be solved for direct fluorinations are heat release and mass transfer via the gas-liquid interface. Multiphase microstructured reactors enable process intensification [230,248-250,304—306]. Often geometrically well-defined interfaces are formed with large specific values, for example, up to 20 000 m2/m3 and even more. These areas can be easily accessible, as flow conditions are often highly periodic and transparent microreactors are available. For the nondispersing... 

Doku, G.N. Verboom, W. Reinhoudt, D.N. van den Berg, A. On-microchip multiphase chemistry— a review of microreactor design principles and reagent contacting modes. Tetrahedron. 2004, 61 (11), 2733-2742. 

These hmitations, which are associated with the use of molecular oxygen, might be overcome by the use of microreactor technology [7-15]. Due to their small inner dimensions, microreactors provide both high safety and enhanced process intensification [16-18]. The high surface-to-volume ratio properties of microchannels (inner diameter 100-1000 pm) are highly beneficial, especially for multiphase reactions. In addition to enhanced gas-hquid interfacial transfer, intense recirculation within the hquid slugs allows for fast renewal of the interfaces... 

Matsushita Y, Ohba N, Suzuki T et al (2008) Photocatalytic reduction of CO2 in a photocatalytic microreactor under gas-liquid-solid multiphase-flow condition excited by 365-nm UV-LEDs. Catal Today 132 153-158... 

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