Methods for scale-up of continuous reactors

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10046295-B2
Application number	US-201214125720-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 7, 2012
Priority date	Jun 14, 2011
Publication date	Aug 14, 2018
Grant date	Aug 14, 2018

Abstract

A method for scale-up of a micro reactor process from lab to production scale comprises using a wall material for a lab reactor having thermal conductivity ≤3 W/m·K, and using a wall material for a production reactor having thermal conductivity ≥5 W/m·K. Desirably, flow velocity is kept constant, and the height of the production-scale process channel is determined by:
H G = 2 × ( A + B λ W + 1 C × ( D h ) ( b - 1 ) ) - 1 h = H G ⁢ ⁢ 0
wherein A B and C are constants; H G is the overall volumetric heat transfer coefficient, D h is the hydraulic diameter, λ W is the thermal conductivity of the wall, b is the empirically determined power to which the Reynolds number is raised in the equation for the Nusselt criteria (Nu=a·Re b Pr c ) for the type of flow used, and h is the height of the channel, all in the production-scale process; and H G0 is the overall volumetric heat transfer coefficient in the lab-scale process.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for a seamless scale-up of a continuous-flow microreactor process, to transfer reactions characterized or developed at a laboratory reactor directly to a pilot or production reactor, with limited or no additional experimentation, the method comprising the steps of:
processing a reaction, in a laboratory reactor using a wall material for the laboratory reactor resulting in a thermal conductivity across the laboratory reactor wall material lower than 3 W/m−K, and afterwards
processing the reaction in a pilot or production reactor using a wall material for the pilot or production reactor resulting in a total thermal conductivity across the pilot or production reactor wall material higher than 5W/m−K,
wherein a fluid velocity in the pilot or production reactor is kept the same as a fluid velocity in the laboratory reactor, and a channel height in the pilot or production reactor is determined, in order to keep volumetric heat transfer properties constant, according to the formula:

H
G

=

2
×

(

A
+

B

λ
W

+

1

C
×

(

D
h

)

(

b
-
1

)

)

-
1

h

=

H

G
⁢

⁢
0

wherein H G is an overall volumetric heat transfer coefficient in the pilot or production process; A, B, and C are constants; D h is a hydraulic diameter of the channel in the pilot or production reactor; λ W is a thermal conductivity of the wall in the pilot or production reactor; b is an empirically determined power to which the Reynolds number (Re) is raised in the equation for the Nusselt criteria (Nu=a·Re b Pr c ) for the type of flow in the pilot or production reactor; coefficients a and c have empirically determined values; Pr is the Prandtl number; h is the height of the channel in the pilot or production reactor; and H G0 is an overall volumetric heat transfer coefficient in the laboratory reactor.

2. A method for a seamless scale-up of a continuous-flow microreactor process, to transfer reactions characterized or developed at a laboratory reactor directly to a pilot or production reactor, with limited or no additional experimentation, the method comprising the steps of:
processing a reaction, in a laboratory reactor using a wall material for the laboratory reactor resulting in a thermal conductivity across the laboratory reactor wall material lower than 3 W/m−K, and afterwards
processing the reaction in a pilot or production reactor using a wall material for the pilot or production reactor resulting in a total thermal conductivity across the pilot or production reactor wall material higher than 5W/m−K,
wherein a pressure drop and volumetric heat transfer properties in the pilot or production reactor are kept the same as in the laboratory reactor, a channel height and a velocity in the pilot or production reactor being selected as calculated according to the simultaneous solution of the following two formulas:

H
G

=

2
×

(

A
′

+

B
′

λ
W

+

1

C
′

×
Ve
×

(

D
h

)

(

b
-
1

)

)

-
1

h

=

H

G
⁢

⁢
0

and

Δ
⁢

⁢
P

=

(

D

Assignees

• Guidat Roland
• Lobet Olivier
• Woehl Pierre
• Corning Inc

Inventors

• Guidat Roland
• Lobet Olivier
• Woehl Pierre

Classifications

• B01J2219/00831

  Glass · CPC title

• B01J2219/00015

  Scale-up · CPC title

• B01J19/0053 Primary

  Details of the reactor · CPC title

• Y10T29/49

  Method of mechanical manufacture · CPC title

• B01J2219/00995

  Mathematical modeling · CPC title