Time lapse video demonstrating a prototype vehicle capable of processing two cubic metres of coloured water within five minutes. The raft was carrying two rotating bed reactors that neutralized the basic surface water in a square pond by ion exchange.
Activated carbon is a common choice for removing impurities or capturing compounds from a product batch. However, the carbon may itself foul the product and be difficult to separate. The rotating bed reactor offers a clean way to deploy activated carbon that removes the need for time-consuming filtration and extends the lifetime of the solid phase.
Soudabeh Saeid, Pasi Tolvanen, Narendra Kumar, Kari Eränen, Janne Peltonen, Markus Peurla, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola, Andreas Franz, and Tapio Salmi Appl. Catal. B, 2018, 230, pp. 77-90.
The rotating bed reactor (RBR) is a combined tool for chemical transformations and liquid transfer operations, reducing or eliminating the need for external pumps. Filled with a catalyst or adsorbent, and rotated by a motor, the RBR brings the liquid to be processed in contact with the solid-phase at high flow rates. Due to the high flow rate generated, the RBR can not only treat the liquid in the reaction vessel, but also transfer it into the vessel for processing.
Automation of large-scale processes is often a requirement for economically viable chemical processes. The benefits of scale are best harvested at high throughputs and 24/7 operation. This leads to the demand for process automation, and the elimination of hands-on work.
Hilde Larsson, Patrick Alexander Schjøtt Andersen, Emil Byström, Krist V. Gernaey, and Ulrich Krühne Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2017, 56, 14, pp. 3853-3865.
Removing ions from liquids is common in industry and society. Ions are remediated in applications ranging from the production of pharmaceuticals to the treatment of communal waste streams. Likewise, the nuclear energy sector deals with the removal of ionic radioactive substances from water on a daily basis.
A fixed bed reactor (FBR), also known as a packed bed reactor or column, is a traditional technology for processes such as adsorption or heterogeneous catalysis. Achieving the required level of purification or conversion means running the liquid through the reactor at a sufficiently low flow rate, and the throughput of a fixed bed reactor is therefore often limited.
Mass transfer limited reactions can create problems for applications like the synthesis of chemical products or the manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Poor yields, high side-product formation or impractically long reactions are potential issues. Efficient reactor design can greatly improve the mass transfer and remove the limitation to a minimum.
Adsorption of methylene blue (3 g, 5 mg/L) onto Purolite® NRW1160 (4.2 L) placed in a SpinChem® S5 RBR operated at 147 rpm. The SpinChem® S5 RBR was placed within a 600 L IBC tank, using the ProRBR IBC add-on, where the tank was filled with water. The data was acquired using a UV-VIS spectrophotometer.
A large scale decolourization experiment using the SpinChem® rotating bed reactor (RBR) S100, packed with 79 L of activated carbon. The vessel contained 7000 L of water with added methylene blue dye. In under 40 minutes, 95% of the initial concentration of methylene blue was removed from the water, which shows that the RBR S100 can achieve fast reaction times in large scale processes.
Valerie Eta and Jyri-Pekka Mikkola Carbohydr. Polym., 2016, 136, pp. 459-465.
The SpinChem® rotating bed reactor (RBR) S100, with a solid phase capacity of 100 L, was used to deionize 7000 L of tap water. The RBR S100 was operating at 160 rpm and filled with 36.5 L of mixed bed ion exchange resin. The results show that the RBR S100 can efficiently process large liquid volumes. As shown by the successful deionization, the performance of the RBR remains high even when it is partially filled, which proves the extreme robustness of the RBR technology.
Valerie Eta, Ikenna Anugwom, Pasi Virtanen, P. Mäki-Arvelaa, and Jyri-Pekka Mikkola Ind. Crops Prod., 2014, 55, pp. 109-115.
Ran Duan, Bo S. Westerlind, Magnus Norgren, Ikenna Anugwom, Pasi Virtanen, and Jyri-Pekka Mikkola BioRes., 2016, 11(4), pp. 8570-8588.
Ikenna Anugwoma, Luis Rujana, Johan Wärnå, Mattias Hedenström, and Jyri-Pekka Mikkola Chem. Eng. J., 2016, 297, pp. 256-264.
How can this process be scaled up? This is perhaps the most important question to consider when developing a chemical process. If it cannot be done on large scale, all the time and resources invested in laboratory work will be unrewarded. Pumping liquids through massive columns or separating solids from a large batch can be unsurmountable challenges that bring a halt to a new project before it has even left the starting blocks.
The SpinChem rotating bed reactor (RBR) can eliminate poor mass transfer in heterogeneous reactions during chemical syntheses and biotransformations, preserve catalyst activity, and facilitate recycling of solid phases. This brochure presents our technology and its applications.
Roger A. Sheldon, Alessandra Basso, and Dean Brady Chem. Soc. Rev., 2021, 50(10), pp. 5850-5862.
Pesticide residue can ruin a batch of a botanical extract, creating large problems for producers. Curated adsorbents, specifically chosen for your situation, can be used to remediate the pesticides. With a rotating bed reactor, you are equipped to respond to contaminants showing up on your test results.
Alexandra V. Chatzikonstantinou, Αrchontoula Giannakopoulou, Stamatia Spyrou, Yannis V. Simos, Vassiliki G. Kontogianni, Dimitrios Peschos, Petros Katapodis, Angeliki C. Polydera, and Haralambos Stamatis Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res., 2022, 29, pp. 29624-29637.
Pobitra Halder, Sazal Kundu, Savankumar Patel, Adi Setiawan, Rob Atkin, Rajarathinam Parthasarthy, Jorge Paz-Ferreiro, Aravind Surapaneni, and Kalpit Shah Renewable Sustainable Energy Rev., 2019, 105, pp. 268-292.
Contaminations in liquids can often be removed using an adsorbent, such as granular activated carbon (GAC). The best choice of adsorbent is unique for each contaminant, and the effectiveness depends on many parameters. Failing to investigate these can lead to unnecessarily high material costs and long processing times.
Research and development quickly takes new directions, and the requirements on a laboratory may vary with every new project. Limiting yourself to equipment with a narrow scope of conditions and applications may become expensive, since new equipment must be acquired for anything out of scope. With budgets quickly consumed by other projects, the need for new equipment may mean significant delays and a reduced capability to take on emerging opportunities.
The synthesis of products, such as active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), often involves multiple steps using heterogeneous catalysts or adsorbents. Thus, the simultaneous use of multiple solid phases either during synthesis or downstream processing is frequently highly advantageous.
Sometimes you don’t want to pack the entire rotating bed reactor full with your solid-phase material. Fully loading might simply be wasteful, or you may want to experiment with your reaction conditions. But how does the amount of solids in the rotating bed reactor influence the reaction performance? Can you use only 10% of the full capacity?
Tapio Salmi, Kari Eränen, Pasi Tolvanen, J.-P. Mikkola, and Vincenzo Russo Chem. Eng. Sci., 2020, 215, 115393.
Soudabeh Saeid, Matilda Kråkström, Pasi Tolvanen, Narendra Kumar, Kari Eränen, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola, Leif Kronberg, Patrik Eklund, Markus Peurla, Atte Aho, Andrey Shchukarev and Tapio Salmi Catalysts, 2020, 10(1), 90.
Adriana Freites Aguilera, Jani Rahkila, Jarl Hemming, Maristiina Nurmi, Gaetan Torres, Théophile Razat, Pasi Tolvanen, Kari Eränen, Sébastien Leveneur, and Tapio Salmi Ind. Eng. Chem. Res., 2020, 59(22), pp. 10397-10406.
Robert Kourist and Javier González‐Sabín In: Biocatalysis for Practitioners: Techniques, Reactions and Applications
Enric Brillas Chemosphere, 2022, 286, Part 3, 131849.
Soudabeh Saeid, Matilda Kråkström, Pasi Tolvanen, Narendra Kumar, Kari Eränen, Markus Peurla, Jyri-Pekka Mikkola, Laurent Maël, Leif Kronberg, Patrik Eklund, and Tapio Salmi Catalysts, 2020, 10(7), 786.
Doddy Denise Ojeda-Hernández, Ana Daniela Vega-Rodríguez, Ali Asaff-Torres, and Juan Carlos Mateos-Díaz 3 Biotech, 2023, 13, 13.
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