Development of intensified reactors : a process intensification methodology perspective

The use of intensified equipment, heavily advocated by academia, encounters several hurdles to break through in the chemical industry. This has several reasons, such as the high capital expenditures and the associated long depreciation times, the strong focus on robustness/availability, preferably 8000 h per year, or the fact that benefits are only incremental. Next to the fact that all chemical companies are anxious to be the first to demonstrate new technology, a methodology or a road map for process intensification implementation in the chemical industry is beneficial. The presented work makes an attempt to bridge this gap by proposing a methodology perspective based on coupling: (1) lab-scale fundamental experiments, (2) computational fluid dynamics simulations & optimization, and (3) process simulations & assessment. This could enable low-cost process intensification innovation and help to bring the targeted process intensification technology to technology readiness level 5 and higher at a faster pace.