Shorter Time‐to‐Market with Micro‐Conti Processes

Abstract

Traditional process development consists of four main phases resulting in time‐consuming and cost‐intensive launches for new products and processes. By employing microprocess technology, transferring batch to continuous processes or setting up a continuous process for low to medium production capacities from scratch becomes technically feasible. Since volumetric flow rates on lab‐scale are often similar to production rates, the scale‐up factor is low. Thus, individual development phases can be omitted reducing the time‐to‐market for new products and/or processes. Based on two case studies, the development phase of micro‐conti processes is described and conclusions are drawn regarding the 50 % idea as laid down in the Tutzing theses.

Modeling Fouling Factors for Microscale Heat Exchangers

“…The slope of the curves is identical to those of Figure 6a, which is also the case if removal occurs and the evolution of the surface coverage does not follow Eq. (13). Table 4 points out the importance of the appropriate value of the thermal conductivity of the fouling layer as well as the degree of fouling in terms of surface coverage.…”

“…(13) was suitable in this case: Figure 6a shows the obtained evolution of the surface coverage together with the regression parameters, and Figure 6b gives the accordant integral mean coverage as a function of the initial values of the saturation index from Table 2 at bulk phase outlet conditions. It can be seen that the surface coverage develops more slowly at higher flow rates since the surface temperatures are lower, and thus the reaction rate corresponding to Eq.…”

“…Besides the possible advantages of process intensification, redundant systems are easy to install; moreover, high capacities can be accomplished by the use of appropriate numbering of micro heat exchangers [13]. In what follows, the performance of micro heat exchangers under hard water fouling conditions and possible fouling mitigation techniques are discussed.…”

“…Three major flow arrangements exist in indirect heat transfer: co-current, counter-current, and cross-flow. There are several advantages micro heat exchangers do offer: directed heat transfer and product protection through small residence times [11], high mass transfer rates [12] in the case of additional chemical reactions, portability through a simple modular design [13], and facilitation of heat transfer in situations where little space is available, such as computer servers and aviation systems. Despite this, the process conditions are quite different; due to the small dimensions, surface roughness can have a stronger impact on the heat transfer [12,14], residence times are very small [15,16], and flow regimes are most often laminar even at high flow velocity.…”

Design of a Continuous Tubular Cooling Crystallizer for Process Development on Lab‐Scale

“…While the manufacturing of those products is conventionally carried out in batch mode, continuous processing offers multiple advantages to improve product quality [2], cost efficiency [3], safety [4,5], and to reduce timeto-market [6]. In renowned research projects with the collaboration of both industry and academia innovative continuous production concepts have been successfully demonstrated [7][8][9].…”