New flow reactor

The tubular reactors are used extensively in the chemical process industries in the fields of petroleum, petrochemical, and alternative energy. It is the most important type of reactor for the synthesis of large-scale basic chemicals and intermediates by hydrogenation, deoxygenation, aldol condensation, hydrogenolysis, etc. Currently, we have finalized new a unit for catalytic testing.

In the new flow unit, catalysts from 0.1 to 10 g could be tested. The flow unit is equipped with an electrical oven with two heating zones. Two types of the reactor could be used – a stainless-steel high-pressure reactor (pressure up to 5.0 MPa) and a glass reactor for testes at ambient pressure. The first one could be heated up to 800 °C at low pressure and 450 °C at high pressure with an external electric furnace, while the glass reactor can be heated up to 150 °C with a circulating fluid using the thermostat. To deliver gases (e.g. N₂, H₂, O₂, CH₄) to both reactors, the electronic mass flow controllers are used (0-500 ml/min) with a maximum pressure of 10 MPa. The HPLC pump (0.6-600 ml/h) is used to inject liquids into a pressurized reactor operating in continuous flow mode, while the syringe pump (0.73 µL/h to 2100 mL/h) is used for the glass reactor. Reactor pressure is maintained by an Equilibar® back pressure regulator installed downstream of the stainless-steel reactor. The advantage of this Equilibar® back pressure regulator is that the high-pressure separator vessel can be replaced with a low-pressure liquid product collector, providing easier access to near real-time liquid samples.