Supercritical microwave reactor

Fig. 1.15 The supercritical microwave reactor applicator The two cones are cylindrical waveguides for microwave power supply (courtesy of M. Delmotte).

Process intensification can be considered to be the use of measures to increase the volume-specific rates of reaction, heat transfer, and mass transfer and thus to enable the chemical system or catalyst to realize its full potential (2). Catalysis itself is an example of process intensification in its broadest sense. The use of special reaction media, such as ionic liquids or supercritical fluids, high-density energy sources, such as microwaves or ultrasonics, the exploitation of centrifugal fields, the use of microstructured reactors with very high specific surface areas, and the periodic reactor operation all fall under this definition of process intensification, and the list given is by no means exhaustive. 

Only recently, chemists in industry as weU as in academia have begun to focus on the development of flow devices for laboratory use and hence for industrial apphcations by combining new chemical technologies with flow reactors [3]. These technologies include microwave assistance, the use of immobilized reagents and catalysts, and new fluids such as supercritical CO2 and ionic Uquids. 

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