#achema2018 - An inherent yet efficient heat exchange system that will neither add on to the physical stresses of the material of construction nor stress the economics of the process: Sounds like a Magic Lamp from the Aladdin’s Fable? Athco Engineering has presented a manifestation of this possibility in the form of its tubular plate reactor.

Two plates with embossed surfaces to have alternate crests and troughs are welded against each other such that the crest of one corresponds with the trough of the other, resulting in a tubular arrangement in the plates. These tubes serve the purpose of an inherent heat exchanger. A subsequent arrangement of many such plates together (number depends on the volume of the catalyst to be used) analogous to the plate and frame type heat exchanger, represents the tubular plate reactor.

This assembly allows optimal contact for appropriate heat transfer between the catalyst packed between these ensembles, thereby avoiding all the possibilities of the occurrence of a hotspot and consequently a runaway reaction. On the contrary, the reactor can only be operated as a fixed bed reactor and is therefore limited by the size of the particles (approximately in the range of 1-10 mm) or by the flow rate of the educts.

Thanks to the technology introduced by Athco Engineering, the Prater number will no longer fundamentally influence the design of catalytic reactors.