Continuous Flow Reactor for Reacting an Educt

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This patent describes a continuous flow reactor featuring channels whose surfaces are micro-structured with features of 10-100 micrometers. The micro-structured surfaces can be directly catalytically active or coated with catalysts, and are produced using advanced laser techniques. This design greatly increases the total effective surface area, enhances heat transfer, and improves the efficiency of catalytic chemical reactions, particularly those involving gas or liquid reactants. The reactor is particularly suitable for processes like hydrogen release from liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHC).

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• Hydrogen production and release from LOHCs for energy storage and fuel cells.
• Chemical synthesis in continuous industrial reactors, especially where precise control and high throughput are needed.
• Dehydrogenation and hydrogenation reactions in petrochemical or pharmaceutical industries.
• Improved catalytic converters in chemical plants seeking higher efficiency and lower catalyst consumption.
• Efficient heat and mass transfer applications, such as in micro-reactor systems for research or specialty chemicals production.

BenefitsContent extracted from patent full text and abstract with AI.

• Greatly enhances reaction rates and yields due to dramatically increased catalytic surface area.
• Improves heat management and uniformity within the reactor, boosting process control and safety.
• Reduces expensive catalyst usage by localizing catalyst only where needed, lowering operational costs.
• Enables high throughput and continuous processing, which is valuable for industrial scalability.
• Micro-structured surfaces can be engineered for hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity to optimize liquid/gas distribution and reaction efficiency.
• Laser-based manufacturing of the microstructure allows flexible, efficient, and scalable production without pollutant emissions.

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Patent Abstract

The invention relates to a continuous flow reactor (1) having a wall (10) which delimits a channel (15), wherein at least one sub-area (105) is arranged in the channel that has micro-structuring (2) which includes individual structures, the diameter of which on a base is between about 10 µm to about 100 µm. The invention further relates to methods for reacting a gaseous or liquid educt under the action of a catalyst.