Microreaction Engineering

We can optimise your reaction with the aid of innovative micro components. To achieve this, we are in close contact to the developers and manufacturers of those components. After optimising your reaction in the laboratory, we will develop a concept for transferring the results into production. A&D AS Solutions Process Industries has successfully tested a micro mixer with short mixing time for a very fast reaction. In a laboratory set-up, 3,5 kg/h of the product could be produced. If the laboratory set-up would be numbered-up by a factor of 5 for example, approximately 120 metric tons per year could be produced.

Source: IMM, Mainz

Micro components – a question of scale

Micro components for example are micro-mixer, micro-heat-exchanger, micro-reactor, micro-filter and micro-pumps. With those components, a new micro-dimension is coming into process engineering.

Source: IMM, Mainz

Important parameters for a chemical reaction like mixing and heat transfer are significantly influenced by the scale. The smaller the dimension of the apparatus and therefore the ratio of surface to volume, the better the heat transfer and the better the mixing is. In micro-equipment the heat transfer can be increased or the mixing time can be decreased by one to two orders of magnitude. An other advantage of micro components is the small volume itself, which minimises the hazard-potential when dealing with toxic or explosive chemicals.

Micro components are especially suited for “tricky” reactions :

• for reactions with high demand for heat exchange
• for reaction which are influenced by mass-transfer
• for reactions with toxic and explosive chemicals

Micro components offer the possibility to run reactions under very exact conditions. They can be used as “diagnostic tool” to maximise conversion and selectivity and to determine an exact kinetics of the reaction. If the process optimisation is successful in the laboratory, then the transfer into production is very easy by numbering-up the components instead of scaling them up. This way, production processes with product capacities of 100 through 1000 metric tons per year are absolutely possible.

A&D AS Solutions Process Industries increases their knowledge in this promising field of work through own investigations and through participation in research and industrial corporations (right now in the field of gas/liquid reactions and catalysed gas-phase reactions) as well as through active involvement in scientific associations.

Publications:

• Micro mixing effects in continuous radical polymerization, Th. Bayer, D. Pysall, O. Wachsen, 3rd International Conference on Microreaction Technology, March 1999, Frankfurt, Germany
• Emulsification of Silicon Oil in Water – Comparison between a Micromixer and a Conventional Stirred Tank, Th. Bayer, H. Heinichen; T. Natelberg, 4th Inter-national Conference on Microreaction Technology, March 2000, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
• Using A Micro Heat Exchanger as Diagnostic Tool for the Process Optimisation of a Gas Phase Reaction, H. Heinichen, I. Leipprand, Th. Bayer, Micro.tec 2000, Hannover, Germany