Blockage Detection and Diagnosis of Externally Parallelized Monolithic Microreactors

To realize stable operation of a microchemical system, it is necessary to develop a process monitoring method that can detect and diagnose blocked microreactors. In this study, a system composed of five monolithic microreactors and a split-and-recombine-type flow distributor (SRFD) was developed for...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCatalysts Vol. 9; no. 4; p. 308
Main Authors Tonomura, Osamu, Taniguchi, Satoshi, Nishi, Kazuki, Nagaki, Aiichiro, Yoshida, Jun-ichi, Hirose, Katsuyuki, Ishizuka, Norio, Hasebe, Shinji
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.04.2019
Subjects
blockage
Catalysts
Chemical reactions
Design optimization
Diagnosis
Distributors
flow distributor design
Microreactors
monolithic microreactor
numbering-up
Optimization
Performance degradation
Performance evaluation
Pressure drop
process monitoring
Reactors
Sensors
Stainless steel
Suzuki–Miyaura coupling
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Summary:To realize stable operation of a microchemical system, it is necessary to develop a process monitoring method that can detect and diagnose blocked microreactors. In this study, a system composed of five monolithic microreactors and a split-and-recombine-type flow distributor (SRFD) was developed for Suzuki–Miyaura coupling. Firstly, the effects of operating conditions on the yield was examined by using a single microreactor. After that, an optimal design problem was formulated to maximize the blockage detection performance by adjusting the channel resistances of the SRFD and the sensor locations in the SRFD under the design constraints. To efficiently solve the problem, a pressure drop compartment model, which is analogous to electrical resistance networks, was used. The optimally designed system was experimentally evaluated from the viewpoint of the capability of continuous operation and the blockage detection and diagnosis performance. The evaluation results show that continuous operation was successfully carried out for one hour, and that the artificially generated blockage of each microreactor was accurately identified. The developed system minimized the process performance degradation due to blockage.
ISSN:2073-4344
2073-4344
DOI:10.3390/catal9040308