SFTR: Development of the new segmented flow tubular reactor (SFTR) for powder synthesis in an industrial pilot plant

• Unité de recherche: PCRD EU
• Numéro de projet: 99.0449-2
• Titre du projet anglais: SFTR: Development of the new segmented flow tubular reactor (SFTR) for powder synthesis in an industrial pilot plant

Mots-clé (Anglais)

Powder; synthesis; process; precipitation; crystallization; scale-out; pilot plant; continuous

Autre Numéro de projet (Anglais)

EU project number: G5RD-1999-00123

Programme de recherche (Anglais)

EU-programme: 5. Frame Research Programme - 1.3.1 Innovative products, processes and organization

Description succincte (Anglais)

See abstract

Partenaires et organisations internationales (Anglais)

Coordinator: Kemgas ltd (F)

Résumé des résultats (Abstract) (Anglais)

The current approach of scaling-up batch precipitation processes first elaborated at the laboratory scale in small vessels is time consuming, risky and, often leads to high development costs. A new tubular reactor, the Segmented Flow Tubular Reactor (SFTR), has been developed to overcome the problems often encountered when using batch reactors. The SFTR is composed of a mixer-segmenter and a tubular reactor. A supersaturation is created in the mixing chamber inducing the precipitation of particles. The precipitating suspension is then segmented into identical small volumes by a non-miscible fluid. This succession of micro-volumes is fed into a tube of small diameter, the residence time being determined by the tube length and the immiscible fluid flow rate. The SFTR achieves a quasi-plug flow and avoids the mixing problems encountered in batch reactors leading to inhomogeneous reaction conditions and resulting in broad particle size distributions. Compared to large batch volumes, the micro-volumes created in the SFTR are more homogeneous and each has an identical pathway, the precipitated product is consequently more homogeneous. Narrower particle size distributions, enhanced control of particle morphology, polymorph selectivity and better stoichiometry control are the advantages of the SFTR process. The goal of this project is to build a pilot scale multi-channel Segmented Flow Tubular Reactor where each individual reactor is run in exactly the same way as those at the laboratory-scale, eliminating the scale-up process.
Our task in this project is to develop and construct the multi-channel SFTR, which incorporates the micromixers developed by IMM. The design of a prototype for the multi-channel SFTR has been prepared on a modular concept. The primitive module will be made of 6 tubular reactors, the number of modules being then adapted to the process needs. Particular attention will also be paid on the compaction of the design. The construction of a first prototype of this reactor is already finished. The preliminary experiment seems to indicate the effectiveness of this concept.

Références bases de données (Anglais)

Swiss Database: Euro-DB of the
State Secretariat for Education and Research
Hallwylstrasse 4
CH-3003 Berne, Switzerland
Tel. [phone]
Swiss Project-Number: 99.0449-2