»
»
Batch Reactors
Chart 1 : Comparison of heating rates for PI QFlux Reactor™ and JIS Reactor for 1000l water
Chart 2 : Comparison of heating rates for PI QFlux™ Reactor and JIS Reactor for 1000l of corn oil
QFlux™ being able to cool product temperatures by 3 ° C in 250 seconds or 5 ° C in 300 seconds whereas the standard batch reactor took more than 640 second for a 3 ° C product temperature change and over 810 seconds for a 5 ° C product temperature change . In terms of heat flux the performance of the PI QFlux™ reactor was restricted and only operating at less than 55 % of its operational cooling capacity temperature range , this being due to the higher ambient cooling water temperatures and limited chiller capacity available for the test , this did not affect the standard vessel as its heat flux was not limited to the same extent by the services . Despite this the PI QFlux™ maximum heat flux on cooling of the products was 170kW ( 0.17kWkg -1 ) vs the standard reactor of 55kw ( 0.055kWkg -1 ). With a higher available cooling capacity , the PI QFlux™ reactor will achieve well in excess of 300kW in cooling capacity . One of the design features of the PI QFlux™ is its lack of Delta T restrictions ; even on the glassed vessel , this allows a much higher than normal services and product temperature differential in both heating and cooling , enabling rapid and instantaneous temperature control changes .
Conclusion The adoption of single thermal fluids for heating and cooling applications varies between different sectors of the chemical production industries and the use of conventional mixed services such as steam and cooling water remains .
A contributing factor to this has been the non-availability of process production equipment which has been designed from the off-set to utilize thermal fluid services and so those using thermal fluids have been constrained , by lack of alternatives , to use process equipment designed for steam and cooling water services . PTSC has launched the next generation batch reactor , the PI QFlux™ reactor , available in glass steel or alloy , which has been designed for integration with thermal fluids , stepping out in a completely different direction from what has been available for chemical producers . The reduced “ U values ” historically present when using thermal fluid in place of steam that chemical producers have had to consider has been overcome by the novel design of the PI QFlux™ . In summer of 2022 , a purpose built test centre was constructed for performance testing of a 1m 3 PI QFlux™ in a back to back basis against a conventional batch , where all of the site service infrastructure driving both vessels was the same . In these tests the PI QFlux™ achieved a heat flux of four times that of the conventional batch reactor , whilst using up to 50 % less primary fuel consumption ; the results from this are shown in the above charts 1 and 2 . The PI QFlux™ “ fast batch ” concept is challenging the industrial trend towards flow chemistry , offering a solution that has the comfort of batch processing coupled with radical productivity improvement .
References
1 . Table 12.10 . Novel Concepts in Catalysis and Chemical reactions – Andrezej Cybulski , Moulijn , Stankiewicz
About the company
PTSC and its sister company Thermal Fluid Systems Ltd ( TFS ) provide specialized expertise in the design , construction and execution of high productivity batch and continuous thermal transfer process equipment and systems , within the chemical , pharmaceutical and industrial segments , drawing on some 30 + years of experience in this field .
50 Heat Exchanger World October 2022 www . heat-exchanger-world . com