#achema2018 - We have often heard people say, “Nature is the best rector”, but the fascinating fact that it has also offered the optimal design for a micro-reactor has stunned many scientific minds. The “Corning Advanced Flow Reactors” offer a wide variety of heart shaped reactors for a broad spectrum of commercially crucial reactions.

The reactor geometry is made out of heart-shaped individual micro-reactors, mounted on glass or silicon carbide (SiC) support plates. The design allows scope for efficient mixing while the plate and frame arrangement reduces the footprint and allows enhanced heat transfer provisions. This reactor geometry is suited for multiphase reactions in continuous manufacturing. The inherently safe technology offers a better control and minimizes the use of hazardous chemicals, thereby simplifying the production process. The reactor geometry can sustain temperatures in the range of 60-1,200°C and up to 18 bar pressure. In addition to this, the glass interface paves way for appropriate illumination, thereby turning out to be an ideal alternative for photochemical reactions. However, the limitation of the solid particle size (suited for solid particles up to 200 microns) and its applicability to instantaneously fast reactions seriously limits its applications in the bio-chemical industry.

However, with intensive research and development teams across the globe, the “Corning Advanced Flow Reactors” will soon find its own significant place in the bio-chemical industry analogous to nitration, oxidation (e.g.: methonine oxidation), hydrogenation and the polymerization industry.