Novel packed bed reactor designed for Prileschajew epoxidation of fatty acid methyl ester: Intensification of mass/heat transfer

In this work, a packed bed reactor with orifice plates (PBR@OP) was designed and applied to Prileschajew epoxidation. The reactor performance such as mass/heat transfer and reaction characteristics were studied and compared with packed bed reactor (PBR) and stirred-tank reactor (STR). In PBR@OP, the periodical dynamic variation of droplet size was characterized. Liquid-liquid two phases were well mixed at a low flow velocity, resulting in a significant reduction of total reactor length and pressure drop as compared with PBR. The heat transfer coefficient and thermal stability of PBR@OP were analyzed and a method to determine the critical diameter of the reactor for the epoxidation was developed. The continuous epoxidation of fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) in PBR@OP was carried out with a simpler and safer process, and the rate of transfer process and reaction were greatly enhanced as compared with that in STR. This reactor presents an economic choice for the process intensification of continuous epoxidation.