The separation of a heterogeneous catalyst, an adsorbent, or an ion-exchange resin from a liquid product is a time-consuming unit operation that often makes the use of these materials impractical. The rotating bed reactor is a more efficient technology for deploying catalysts for manufacturing or adsorbents for purification.
Fixed bed reactors (FBRs), also known as packed bed reactors (PBRs), are frequently used for purification, ion-exchange processes or heterogeneous catalysis. Though relatively easy to construct, they are tedious to charge with solids in an effective way. A poorly packed FBR is subject to channelling, where passages are formed in the bed. These passages offer less resistance for the liquid phase, which will preferentially travel through those regions. In this document, the robustness with respect to channelling of a packed bed reactor was compared to a rotating bed reactor (RBR) using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
As a tool for heterogeneous catalysis, or purification of liquids using materials like activated carbon, the rotating bed reactor provides high throughput capability exceeding traditional technologies.
Large volumes of liquid waste will often accumulate at industrial sites. It may be very time-consuming and resource-intensive to adequately treat these waste streams for release, so the problem often compounds over time.
Video showing how a SpinChem® rotating bed reactor (RBR) was charged with solid particles, followed by draining and replacing the reaction liquid without escape of solids. Lastly, the solid phase was removed without opening the RBR. This procedure illustrates a concept for automatic handling of solid phases in production scale equipment without opening the reaction vessel. Keywords: Easy handling, Seamless scaleup, Technology
Learn how SpinChem rotating bed reactors (RBR) can eliminate poor mass transfer in heterogeneous reactions during chemical synthesis and biotransformations. Preserve activity and facilitate recycling of solid phases with the RBR. This brochure shows technology and applications. Keywords: Biotransformation, Brochure, Fast reaction, Immobilized enzymes, Molecular sieve, Preserved activity, Simple cleanup, Synthesis, Technology
Poster on a case study of applying the rotating bed reactor for the lipase-mediated stereoselective acetylation of a racemate amine as a model reaction for the manufacturing of pharmaceutical building blocks. The results showed that enzyme recycling and synthesis scale up was easy to achieve with preserved yield, enantioselectivity and catalytic activity. Keywords: Biotransformation, Easy handling, Immobilized enzymes, Quick recycling, Seamless scaleup
Stirred vessels tend to damage soft heterogeneous catalysts, like enzymes immobilized in agarose or alginate beads, with activity loss and tedious workup as consequence. In a fixed bed reactor, these materials are easily compressed by the pressure gradient, leading to a loss of flow rate. Overcoming these challenges opens up the possibility to use biocatalysis as a tool for greener processes and more sustainable manufacturing.
When using of solid-phase catalysts or adsorbents in reactors, the physical degradation of the materials is a common problem. The traditional stirred tank reactor inflicts mechanical damage to the particles, which causes attrition, fines that are difficult to separate, and loss of the functionality of the solid-phase.
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. Many heterogeneous processes (e.g. adsorption or catalysis) are made faster by increasing the solid-to-liquid ratio. Studying scale-up effects can also help to predict full-scale performance. For these reasons it’s wise to invest in equipment that can handle different operating conditions such as liquid volume, solids loading, pH and temperature. The RBR S3 Plus is the most modular rotating bed reactor for laboratory use. Made from two stacked rotating bed reactors, the S3 Plus quickly converts to a single RBR S3 for use with smaller liquid volumes. When used in the dedicated glass reactor system, this yields an operating range of 250 - 1500 mL of liquid and 0 - 140 mL of solids. This application note investigates the effect of solids loading on the reaction rate of two applications: the adsorption of a dye and a biocatalytic esterification reaction. These two reactions are mass-transport limited and relatively fast. In the first case, an RBR S3 and an RBR S3 Plus were filled with 50 mL and 100 mL respectively of the ion-exchange resin Purolite® NRW1160. Methylene blue was dissolved in water, and the solution was decolorized by spinning an RBR at 600 RPM (reaction conditions in the details below). The results were clear; each case followed 1st order kinetics with a rate constant for the RBR S3 Plus that was twice that of the RBR S3. Note that the solid-to-liquid ratio for the RBR S3 Plus was also twice that of the RBR S3. For the enzymatic esterification, the same rotating bed reactors (RBR S3 and RBR S3 Plus) were filled with 40 mL and 80 mL respectively of the biocatalyst Purolite® immo PS. The rotating bed reactors were used in separate reactions in mixtures of lauric acid, 1-propanol and water. Also in this case the reaction rate was proportional to the solid-to-liquid ratio, yielding twice the productivity with the RBR S3 Plus compared to the RBR S3. The conclusion is that with a rotating bed reactor you are making the most out of the solid-phase. Doubling the amount of catalyst or adsorbent will generally double the reaction rate constant, which makes scaling up straightforward. Contact us today to discuss how we can scale your process.
The performance of a reactor for heterogeneous chemistry depends on the liquid flow it creates, and the mass-transfer rates it can achieve. Simulations help us investigate in high detail how a rotating bed reactor performs in any configuration.
The synthesis of products, such as active pharmaceutical ingredients, often involve multiple steps using heterogeneous catalysts or adsorbents. The need often arises for simultaneous use of multiple solid phases.
Two dyes were selectively extracted onto different adsorbents within the same run using a SpinChem® rotating bed reactor (RBR) and an EasyMax™ 102 Advanced synthesis workstation. This experiment illustrates performing cascade reaction for one-pot multi-step synthesis. Keywords: Cleantech, Decolouration, Extraction, Ion exchange, One-pot multistep, Organic molecules, Polymeric resin, Technology
SpinChem Assembly Guide: Laboratory Stand
Instruction video for the MagRBR and stirrer
Assembly guide for Rotating Bed Reactor S2
Assembly guide for SpinChem RBR S3 and S3+
SpinChem RBR S4, S5 and S14 Assembly Guide
SpinChem RBR Tips ‘n’ Tricks
Assembly Guide: V2 Reaction Vessel
baffle (noun) : a device (such as a plate, wall, or screen) to deflect, check, or regulate flow or passage (as of a fluid, light, or sound) Can you use a rotating bed reactor (RBR) in any type of vessel? Absolutely. Would the performance be higher with baffles in the vessel? Definitively. A vortex, which forms due to the rotation of an agitator, is detrimental to the mixing in a reactor vessel. If the agitator is a rotating bed reactor, it also disrupts the flow through the RBR. Baffles are features in the reactor vessel that break the circulating flow pattern, preventing vortex formation and improving overall mixing. The importance of baffles has long been established for stirred tank reactors with agitation by impellers, and baffling is equally important for vessels with an RBR installed. You don't need to take our word for it; customers that have investigated the effect of baffling on their mass-transfer limited reactions have found the same result. The most recent data comes from research at the Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology IGB. They started out with the RBR S3 in a smooth glass vessel. After observing a deep vortex, drawn down into the RBR, and the resulting disappointing performance, one simple flat-blade baffle was installed. The performance for the enzymatic reaction was quantified with and without the flat-blade baffle, and the result is presented in the figure below. As seen in the data, installing one simple baffle resulted in a doubled yield at each time point on average. The double-walled glass vessels (V2 and V3) that SpinChem offer are custom-made to fit the RBR S2 and S3 respectively. The vessels have structured inner glass walls that serve as "flower-shaped" baffles, which do not take up the same space as traditional flat-blade baffles. This minimizes the required volume of reaction medium, and maximizes mixing performance. Some non-baffled vessels perform as if they had flow breakers installed, just through the shape of their vessel walls. For instance, any non-round geometry such as rectangular IBC-tanks may provide satisfactory mixing and prevention of a deep vortex forming. On benchtop scale, the round beaker is appealing with its simplicity, but a baffled reaction vessel will yield much better performance. If you have more questions about this contact us.
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.
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?
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