What are the needs for Process Intensification?

• Main Authors: Gourdon Christophe, Elgue Sébastien, Prat Laurent
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: EDP Sciences 2015-03-01
• Series: Oil & Gas Science and Technology
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2516/ogst/2014051

Process intensification is now well known among the world of chemical engineers. The development of new chemical routes and of innovative modular technologies may lead to some breakthrough progress. Some successful stories have been nowadays demonstrated. Particularly, batch-to-continuous is one of the key issues for intensifying processes. But, the need of process intensification requires the need of collecting many new data of high quality relative to the chemical reaction and to the equipment as well, which represents sometimes a huge effort. This discussion is the opportunity to review the basic data and the metrology associated for the characterization of applications and technologies in order to guide the design of the intensified process. Concerning the chemicals, the stoechio-kinetics parameters, the phase equilibria data (for instance solubility) or the reaction enthalpies can be efficiently determined thanks to microfluidic devices. Concerning the equipment, benchmark studies have to be performed in view of comparing the technologies according to pressure drop, residence time distribution, heat and mass transfer performances, mixing efficiencies and so on. A way of capitalizing the background knowledge lies on simulation tools development, here called data processing tool. This presentation intends also to introduce some of the European network tools developed for diffusing the methodology of intensification, like the industrial club EUROPIC (European Process Intensification Centre) and the demonstration platform MEPI (Maison Européenne des Procédés Innovants).