Novel Reactor for Exothermic Heterogeneous Reaction Systems: Intensification of Mass and Heat Transfer and Application to Vegetable Oil Epoxidation

• Published in: Industrial & engineering chemistry research Vol. 56; no. 18; pp. 5231 - 5238
• Main Authors: Wu, Zhenyu, Zheng, Ting, Wu, Lihang, Lou, Hongfeng, Xie, Qinglong, Lu, Meizhen, Zhang, Lianzhong, Nie, Yong, Ji, Jianbing
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Chemical Society 10.05.2017
• ISSN: 0888-5885; 1520-5045
• DOI: 10.1021/acs.iecr.7b01186

A novel reactor for exothermic heterogeneous reaction systems was developed and used in a vegetable oil epoxidation process. When hydrodynamic cavitation is coupled with a static mixer, both mass and heat transfer in the reactor can be intensified effectively. The Sauter mean diameter of water/oil dispersion was 8.90 μm under hydrodynamic cavitation conditions with a relatively low inlet pressure (2.5 bar) as compared to 60.33 μm for conventional stirring approach at 500 rpm. The epoxidation temperature variation was controlled within ±1 °C even when the H2O2 was added at once, whereas the temperature rise was up to 19 °C in a stirred-tank reactor. The use of this reactor results in decreased reaction time and a simpler and safer process, with final products having quality similar to that obtained in a traditional process.