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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Jonathan McDonough, Professor Anh Phan, Professor Adam Harvey
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND).
The mesoscale oscillatory baffled reactor (meso-OBR) is a novel technology for reaction engineering and screening applications. The meso-OBR exhibits high degrees of plug flow at low and moderate net flow rates (0.3-8 mL/min). For example, central and integral baffle configurations give good plug flow at net flows of Re-n = 4.3-34 for psi = 4-8 and psi = 5-10, respectively using St = 0.4-0.8. Recently, the batch equivalency of plug flow has been exploited to screen multiple equivalent batch reactions in a single experiment, minimising waste generation and reducing process development time. In addition, good multiphase mixing has been demonstrated using a variety of baffle configurations, presenting a wide range of potential applications for the technology. In this review, the characteristics of the mesoreactor that are beneficial for rapid process screening are explained. The results of all public domain reports of the use of mesoscale OBRs for screening are reported and the outlook for the technology is discussed. Throughout, the technology is compared and contrasted with the findings for "conventional scale" (>15 mm diameter) OBRs. A variety of case studies are used for illustrative purposes. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Author(s): McDonough JR, Phan AN, Harvey AP
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Chemical Engineering Journal
Year: 2015
Volume: 265
Pages: 110-121
Print publication date: 01/04/2015
Online publication date: 18/12/2014
Acceptance date: 18/10/2014
ISSN (print): 1385-8947
ISSN (electronic): 1873-3212
Publisher: ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cej.2014.10.113
DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2014.10.113
