Hydrodynamics and Mass Transfer of Multiphase Packed-Bed Microreactors

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Laboratory studies of catalyst and reaction performance are routinely performed in reactors that are orders of magnitude smaller than those in commercial practice. Reducing the scale of experimentation has several advantages, such as lower equipment costs, lower material amounts and intrinsically lower safety risks. When scaling down three-phase reactors, the hydrodynamics change significantly to those in industrial and laboratory reactors due to a shift in the dominant forces to viscous and surface tension forces. As a result, the hydrodynamics and correlations available in the literature for conventional scale trickle-bed reactors cannot be extrapolated. To this end, this project seeks to develop continuous flow microfluidic systems for the investigation of hydrodynamic and mass transfer behaviour in multiphase packed bed reactors. Novel on-chip analytical technologies for reactor characterisation will be developed and used to characterise reactor performance. This will involve the use of spectroscopy to determine residence time distributions, the results of which can be used determine axial and radial dispersion characteristics as well as develop mass transfer correlations applicable to micro-packed bed reactors. Simulation tools will also be used to effectively design micro-reactors for hydrodynamic and mass transfer purposes.