Toward a competitive process intensification: A new generation of heat exchanger-reactors

Process Intensification (PI) in chemical production is a major concern of chemical manufacturers. Among the numerous options to intensify a process, the transposition from a batch reactor to a continuous plug flow reactor is a good alternative when the selectivity and the thermal exchange are an issue. In this context, the RAPIC R&D project aims to develop an innovative low-cost component (in the 10 kg/h range). This project deals with the design from the local to the global scale and with testing, from elementary mock-ups to pilot scale. The present paper gives a detailed description of this research project and presents the main results on specification and definition of the reaction channel and the first simple mock-ups. © 2010, IFP Energies nouvelles.