(83af) Investigation of Different Mixers in a Micro Reactor

Typical applications for microreactors are very fast exothermic reactions as for example Ritter reactions. Other areas are reactions with safety issues. A production scale microreactor has already been successfully implemented in the commercial production of an organic intermediate at DSM Linz in 2005. [1]

For further improvement of this Ritter reaction in the microreactor five different mixer types have been studied in the lab. The original cyclone mixer is compared with a double cyclone mixer, a Y-type mixer, a bi-laminating mixer and a five fold cyclone mixer. Additionally the effect of the mixing quality is studied to demonstrate the assumption that higher mixing quality will increase selectivity and thus the yield of the reaction.

The investigation gives a detailed idea of the impact of different flow rates and the effect of the temperature control in the first highly exothermal reaction step.

[1] Poechlauer, Peter; Kotthaus, Martina; Vorbach, Martin; Deak, Martin; Zich, Thomas; Marr, Rolf. Stepwise execution of exothermic reactions with participation of carbon cations. PCT Int. Appl. (2006) WO 2006125502 A1