Continuous Reactors
Introduction
While many chemical processes start development in the laboratory batch reactors the direction in all the process industries is to move to continuous reactors for commercial manufacture. The reactors are the core component of any chemical process. In a continuous reactor the raw materials are continuously fed into the reactors and the products, plus any by-products, exit the reactors. Achieving reaction may involve the use of catalysts, high temperature and pressure or a combination of all three.
The advantages of continuous reactors derive from the fact that, unlike a batch reactor, the reaction conditions are controlled at a fixed set of conditions allowing improved control of the reactions. In addition less energy per unit of output is used as it is not necessary to warm up, cool down, fill and empty the reactors every batch. The measurement challenges include monitoring conditions within the reactors and the exit streams.
Process Tomography Solution
Process tomography provides significant benefits to characterising batch processes (such as mixing) and also delivering information on flowing processes. These capabilities mean that process tomography can be used to understand the dynamics of a batch process and define the time taken for many process steps. This can be used to determine statistical variability of process steps and so determine control points when moving from batch to continuous.
Process tomography can also be used to measure – and so control – continuous reactions. For example in identifying end points of reactions, ensuring that process conditions are kept within control points through monitoring spatial variations across the full process volume.
Both our p2+ and z8000 instruments can be used to monitor continuous reactors.
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