Multifunctional reactor engineering

Membrane-assisted reaction engineering Multifunctional reactor engineering... 

Smart chemical reaction engineering can also solve the separation problem. Multifunctional reactors based on distillation or membrane separation wil gain importance in the future (see also Chapter 6). 

Pangarkar VG. 2004. Lecture notes for Science Engineering Research Council School on Multifunctional reactors for Process Intensification. Funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Mumbai University Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai, India, July 12-16. 

NikaCevid, N., Jovanovid, M. and Petkovska, M. (2011) Enhanced ammonia synthesis in multifunctional reactor with in situ adsorption. Chemical Engineering Research and Design, 89 (4), 398-404. 

Multifunctional reactors. Apart from the applications exclusively in the reaction engineering field, fixed beds can also be found integrated in apparatus with separation purposes. Two major classes can be identified membrane [16, 17] and chromatographic (adsorptive) reactors [18]. In both cases, a familiar configuration involves a packed bed with a permeable, selective wall and/or packed with a catalyst/ adsorbent. The latter is found in simulated moving bed reactors [19, 20], which can be seen as an arrangement of several of these beds. The overall effect from the coexistence of reaction and separation functionalities is the increase of conversion in equilibrium-limited systems, which are shifted due to the simultaneous separation of the products. 

Several authors have shown the industrial profit in the development of chemical engineering equipment based on the integration of different functions in a single device (Taylor et al., 2000 Stankiewicz et al, 2000). Multifunctional reactors are processes that combine reaction with other operations like heat exchange or separation in order to enhance chemical conversion. Reactive distillation is certainly one of the most significant example. It presents several benefits (such as reduction of energy consumption, overcome of the limitation of the thermodynamic chemical equilibrium, limitation of side reactions, decrease of waste production) and it is applied in various... 

Halloin VL, Wajc SJ. A multifunctional catalytic reactor suitable for the exothermal synthesis of condensable products. Chemical Engineering Science 1994 49 4691-4698. 

As seen from the above discussion, PI has a very wide scope and several books have been published on the subject. They include Re-engineering the chemical process plant - process intensification by Stankiewicz and Moulijn [1], Modeling of process intensification by Kiel et al. [11], Process intensification for green chemisty engineering solutions for sustainable chemical processing by Boodhoo and Harvey [12], Reactive distillation by Simdm-acher and Kienle [13], Micro-reactors by Ehrfeld et al. [14], etc. The discussion in this chapter is limited to selected topics on multifunctional operations, novel devices and alternate PI configurations, which are dealt with more details in the next three sections. 

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