Reaction Engineering Benefits

The methods of enzyme reaction engineering have already shown their benefits in numerous industrial processes which are being established successfully. Hopefully it can be concluded from this article that process development for the application of enzymes in organic synthesis can be performed on a rational basis. 

Process engineering benefits are not as well investigated and proven as their reaction engineering counterparts, as the latter deal with pilot processes and plants, usually performed at an industrial site, which are less frequent and rarely reported in detail. Process engineering occurs at a later stage of the value-added chain and is more complex in information and more difficult to quantify (not by using just one property) (4). Hence it remains to future investigations to provide more information here. 

Traugott and co-workers [41] place the emphasis on aspects of PP, acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and polycarbonate (PC) blends with ABS or impaa modifiers. Material development benefits from a host of recent technical advancements such as catalysis, reaction engineering, impact modification and compatibilisation. Some examples of these are fourth generation Ziegler-Natta and metallocene polyolefin catalysts, highly efficient solution processes (PP and ABS) and copolymer modifiers. 

Guy B. Marin is senior full professor in Catalytic Reaction Engineering and is head of the Laboratory for Chemical Technology at Ghent University. He was educated in the tradition of the thermodynamic and kinetic school of the Low Countries as well as of the American school, with Michel Boudart as a postdoctoral adviser, and benefited from the Dutch school of catalysis. The investigation of chemical kinetics, aimed at the modeling and design of chemical processes and products all the way from molecule up to full scale, constitutes the core of his research. 

One way of forcing the reaction toward high conversion is to combine the catalyst and membrane technologies. The reaction is carried out in a porous membrane tube covered with the catalyst material. The principal concept is shown in Figure 9.18. The reaction proceeds on metal spots deposited on the membrane material. Simultaneously, the smallest product molecules (in this case H2) diffuse out of the system through the membrane. In this way, the equilibrium limitation is removed, and the process proceeds almost as an irreversible reaction in the ideal case. The additional benefit is that the components of the product gas are directly separated, and the construction of a specific separation unit is avoided. For the reactor construction, see Figure 9.19. From the reaction engineering... 

The utilization of classical reaction engineering and reactor technology has established itself long ago as a standard policy in the bulk industries. However, many other fields of chemical industries, such as pharmaceutical, alimentary, or paper and pulping industries, are only slowly beginning to discover the benefits of it. The reasons for this are several, such... 

The benefits of SCF reaction engineering are supposed to be highest for liquid-phase oxidation processes with mass transfer limitations for molecular oxygen. The reported results show some inconsistency with regard to a possible improvement by setting the SCF conditions. 

The last and longest stop in my travels has been my present position in the Department of Chemical Engineering (now Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering) at North Carolina State University. This phase of the journey led to four important collaborations that extended and deepened my experience in chemical reaction engineering. I have benefited greatly from stimulating interactions with Professors Eduardo Saez, now at the University of Arizona, James (Jerry) Spivey, now at Louisiana State University, Ruben Carbonell, and Joseph DeSimone. 

The book does not focus on occupational safety and health issues, although improved process safety can benefit these areas. Detailed engineering designs are outside the scope of this work. This book intends to identify issues and concerns in batch reaction systems and provide potential solutions to address these concerns. This should be of value to process design engineers, operators, maintenance personnel, as well as members of process hazards analysis teams. While this book offers potential solutions to specific issues/concerns, ultimately the user needs to make the case for the solutions that provide a balance between risk... 

Pentene oxidation over TS-1 catalyst is a fast reaction and hence fulfils a basic requirement for being suited to micro-channel processing [30]. Thus, it can serve as a model reaction to demonstrate the benefits of micro chemical engineering, particularly for zeolite-catalyzed reactions. Apart from this, epoxidations are an important class of organic reactions, also of industrial importance. 

One feature that distinguishes the chemical engineer from other types of engineers is the ability to analyze systems in which chemical reactions are occurring and to apply the results of his analysis in a manner that benefits society. Consequently, chemical engineers must be well acquainted with the fundamentals of chemical kinetics and the manner in which they are applied in chemical reactor design. This textbook provides a systematic introduction to these subjects. 

---