Disadvantages Of Micro Process Engineering

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1. Process intensification Imagine a typical process in refinery industry. Chemical engineers want to have higher yield, higher selectivity, higher process rate or higher activity of catalysts so that they can make more profit. But with bulk volume of reactors, possibly explosive or combustible substrates, or precious metal nanoparticles immobilized on supporting materials that is sensitive to high temperature, there is little they can do. Naturally, researchers start working on a new area in chemical engineering termed process intensification. Process intensification (explaination). Its first goal is to build smaller, more compact, and cheaper production plants. It breaks the ceilings of conventional technology and boost synthetic chemistry on both lab and industry scale. Factors to be intensified includes temperature, pressure, reactant concentration, residence time and explosive conditions. One way to realize these intensified conditions is by miniaturize the existing units. The study of this is called micro process engineering. Micro process…show more content…
Advantages of Microreactors 3.1 Facile thermal management Heat transfer in microchannels plays an important role in microreactor systems in terms of heating the reacting fluids or the removal of the heat of exothermic reaction. Easy conduction of heat avoids sintering, thermal run-away and unwanted side reactions. For catalytic reaction, the ability to control the catalyst temperature, and therefore the selectivity, of partial reactions is the key factor determining reactor performance. In laminar flow, the heat transfer coefficient is inversely proportional to the channel width, which makes microchannels ideal for high performance. The increased surface-to-volume ratio makes microscale devices more appropriate for efficient heat transfer, which allows reactions to be carried out more aggressively which produces higher yields, and offers access to new synthetic pathways that are unachievable with conventional

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