RESUMO
The true potential of microprocess technology for process intensification is not yet fully clear and needs to be actively explored, although more and more industrial case stories provide information. This paper uses a shortcut cost analysis to show the major cost portions for processes conducted by microstructured reactors. This leads to predicting novel chemical protocol conditions, which are tailored for microprocess technology and which are expected to highly intensify chemical processes. Some generic rules to approach this are termed new process windows, because they constitute a new approach to enabling chemistry. Using such process intensification together with scaled-out microstructured reactors, which is demonstrated by the example of gas-liquid microprocessing, paves the road to viable industrial microflow processes. Several such commercially oriented case studies are given. Without the use of new process windows conditions, microprocess technology will probably stick to niche applications.
Assuntos
Química Farmacêutica/instrumentação , Química Farmacêutica/métodos , Tecnologia Farmacêutica/instrumentação , Tecnologia Farmacêutica/métodos , Reatores Biológicos , Desenho de Fármacos , Radicais Livres , Íons , Técnicas Analíticas Microfluídicas , Modelos Químicos , Nanopartículas , Nanotecnologia/métodos , Nitroglicerina/química , Oxigênio/química , Polímeros/química , Solventes/química , Tecnologia Farmacêutica/economia , TemperaturaRESUMO
A second generation micro-mixer, being a further optimised version of a first prototype, relying on the consequent utilisation of the split-and-recombine principle is presented. We show that the mixing can be characterized by a positive finite-time Lyapunov exponent although being highly regular and uniform. Using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) we investigate the mixing performance for Reynolds numbers in the range of about 1 to about 100. In particular for low Reynolds numbers (Re < 15) the CFD results predict an almost ideal multi-lamination. Thus, the developed mixer is especially suited for efficient mixing of highly viscous fluids. Furthermore, the numerical results are experimentally validated by investigations of mixing of water-glycerol solutions. The experimental results are found to be in excellent agreement with the numerical data and prove the high mixing efficiency.
