ISCRE 24 Lab Scale-Up Notes

Sukaran S. Arora
06/12/2016
Stirred tank reactors - Stirred tank , Stirred cell - ideal for two phase systems.
Design of impellers:
1. Rushton turbine - for L systems, sizing of impeller - recommend 33% of reactor inner diameter.
Design of vessel:
1. Use of liquid height equal to the tank diameter or slightly higher.
2. Include baffles (preferably four) - as thin as practical and mounted a little away from wall (1.5
% of tank diameter) - minimizes dead zones where solids may accumulate.
Ensure that all characteristic mixing times are < 5% of the characteristic reaction time.
Rei = N dt2 / > 10, 000 for turbulent mixing - for 3-4 gallon reactors, it is easy to get to these
reynolds numbers - lab scale typical volume scales - 100 mL to 1.5 L.
Mixing scales:
1. Macromixing - mixing on the reactor scale
2. Mesomixing - occurs at the point of continuous addition of a feed to mixture and is therefore
only important for semi-batch and continuous stirred tank reactors. The incoming liquid forms a
jet that will deform and break up into small lumps of liquid. Important for fast reactions.
3. Micromixing by diffusion - KE of smaller eddies is dissipated as heat, no additional eddies are
created. Micromixing includes small- scale circulation (1-100 mm).
Protocol:
1. Load the reactor - change the impeller speed (by atleast an order of magnitude) - if no effect,
you are good- if yes then
2. Change the feed rate - if no then micromixing controlled - if yes then macro/mesomixing
controlled - change the feedpoint or impeller position
3. Change the catalyst concentration (if relevant)
4. Ensuring isothermal conditions
Hatta number - (diffusion time/reaction time)0.5
Carberry (Ca) number
Lewis cell - used for measuring interfacial areas b/w two phases
Falling Film Evaporator for measuring mass transfer coefficients
For larger scale reactors, since surface area to volume of reactor goes down, you typically run
under adiabatic conditions, so you switch from a batch system to con ad (concomitant addition add stuff slowly).

G-L-S systems:
1. Solid attrition becomes a problem
2. Mass transfer area is no longer a function of power input like the way in gas systems, more
power gives smaller bubbles but not in the case where solids are present as well
3. Impeller is placed lower into the reactor in the case of solids (typically 33% bottom clearance)
4. Gas sparger should be 80% of the inner diameter
G-S fixed bed reactor set up - Paul - a two legged problem
Types of reactors:
1. Integral fixed bed (PFR)
2. Gradientless fixed bed
Berty stationary bed
Caldwell stationary bed
Carberry spinning basket - cant measure the catalyst temperature directly
Plug flow criterion:

L
1
Gierman H., App. Catal., 43, 277, 1988
> 20 n ln
dp
1 x
Minimum recycle ratio of 25 is required for berty reactors and minimum size of catalyst particle
size is limited by the size of screen openings (1 mm).
Catalyst wetting - a high liquid velocity (2-5 mm/s) or higher is needed to achieve catalyst wetting.
Practical tips:
Heat transfer systems - recommended systems ( 500 W m2 K1 )
Heated metal block (with good block-reactor contact)
Jacketed reactor with circulating heat transfer oil (with sufficient circulation rates)
How to pack a bed? - Al Dahhan et. al, 1995
With 100 micron fines, use at least 2 cm min1 of liquid flow to ensure complete mixing.