AUTHOR=Salique Florian , Musina Ancuta , Winter Marc , Yann Nedelec , Roth Philippe M. C. TITLE=Continuous Hydrogenation: Triphasic System Optimization at Kilo Lab Scale Using a Slurry Solution JOURNAL=Frontiers in Chemical Engineering VOLUME=3 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/chemical-engineering/articles/10.3389/fceng.2021.701910 DOI=10.3389/fceng.2021.701910 ISSN=2673-2718 ABSTRACT=

Despite their widespread use in the chemical industries, hydrogenation reactions remain challenging. Indeed, the nature of reagents and catalysts induce intrinsic safety challenges, in addition to demanding process development involving a 3-phase system. Here, to address common issues, we describe a successful process intensification study using a meso-scale flow reactor applied to a hydrogenation reaction of ethyl cinnamate at kilo lab scale with heterogeneous catalysis. This method relies on the continuous pumping of a catalyst slurry, delivering fresh catalyst through a structured flow reactor in a continuous fashion and a throughput up to 54.7 g/h, complete conversion and yields up to 99%. This article describes the screening of equipment, reactions conditions and uses statistical analysis methods (Monte Carlo/DoE) to improve the system further and to draw conclusions on the key influential parameters (temperature and residence time).