StarLam Microstructured Mixer-reactors

The first start-up of the plant was in June 2005 [67]. A temperature diagram shows that most of the heat is released in the retention time tube (see Figure 5.33). The temperature measured directly at the outlet of the microstructured mixer-reactor StarLam 3000 was below 50 °C even at higher throughputs. During the retention time, tube temperatures up to about 130 °C were reached. The throughputs for this first test mn were increased in three steps to up to 3600 kg/h. 

Figure 5.32 StarLam 3000 microstructured mixer retrofitted to existing plant peripherals and tank reactor (by courtesy of Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH) [67],...

The inlet pipes of the two starting reactants to the batch vessel were simply connected to the StarLam mixer [67]. The only difference to the previous feed lines was the installation of filter cartridges before the entries to the microstructured mixer, necessary to avoid blocking of the reactor. The pressure drop in the lines was lower than 3 bar so that it was possible to keep the pumps used before in the plant. At the outlet of the reactor, a tube reactor was installed. During optimization it was found that it is sufficient to insulate this tube to reach the temperature needed to finish the reaction. The pipe ended directly in the batch vessel where the second endothermic reaction step was carried out as before. 

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