Selection of Batch Reactor

Hii all ...!! 

Hope everyone is safe during this pandemic and doing well.

Recently developed an app for this site and it is available now on play store for free, here is the link : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pharmaengineering.app

And recently i've received some suggestions to make it better from my friends and some of them are 

i. Inclusion of basics which will be helpful for the beginners who enter Pharma industry directly after their graduation as the existing topics would require some basics to understand, hence decided to post some basic stuff - Thanks to Chaitanya P & Lalith Panwar for the suggestion

ii. Inclusion of automated calculators in current website and a separate app for these calculators, which will be helpful for many and can come in handy - Thanks to Jaisai Pilaka for the suggestion,

App is developed and available in play store. Here is the link for the app (Pharma Engg. Calculator) https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pharmacalculators.app

In the recent times, i was unable to respond to many of the comments / mails due to my work schedules, Inconvenience regretted. In future 'll try to create a forum page, where the visitors will be able to post their queries and will respond on weekly basis and some of the visitors who have knowledge on the query topics will respond and in that way we can improve our knowledge. Hope this will works.

Anyhow, lets start our current topic i.e., Selection of reactor:

Basically reactor is a jacketed agitated vessel which can be used for performing reactions through agitation/mixing of selected raw materials at various temperatures and pressures. Along with these, other operations like extractions, distillation, crystallisation etc.

Usually reactors shall be classified based on the MOC (Material of Construction) like SSR if the MOC is SS316, GLR if the MOC is MSGL (Mild Steel Glass Lined), Hastelloy, Monel etc

Now usually we'll short-list the reactors for usage based on MOC depending on the reaction mass pH i.e., acidic or basic or neutral, in simple based on the pH compatibility we'll select reactors primarily. If the mass nature is acidic / neutral then we have to proceed with MSGL / Hastelloy and if the reaction mass nature is basic / neutral then we have to proceed with SS316 / Hastelloy.

And then to further shortlist the reactor, we need to understand what type of mixing is required to attain desired product, based on the required mixing we have to select the agitator. 

The reactors will have various types of agitators and different agitator will have different mixing patterns, like anchor agitator will have tangential mixing, retreat curve impeller (usually called as propeller) & Pitched blade turbines will have axial flow, Flat blade turbine & Disk blade turbine / Rushton 6 blade turbine will generate radial mixing.

Simply Tangential mixing means the mass in the reactor should mix in round / circular pattern, Axial mixing means the agitator will be lifting the mass to top from bottom simply the flow shall be top pumping/lifting and coming to radial flow there will be both top pumping/lifting and bottom pumping/pushing. Below are the patterns for your reference:

Hope you got an idea of common mixing patterns.

Reminding you, all these agitators cannot be selected for handling all kind of reaction mass, there are some limitations for that. Most common limitation is selection of agitator is viscosity, as if the viscosity is high then the Axial & Radial mixing patterns are difficult for generation, so in such cases we have to proceed with tangential flow i.e., anchor agitator. 

Below is the basic flow chart for selection of reactor:

Abbreviates: 

PBT: Pitched Blade Turbine,

FBT: Flat Blade Turbine,

DBT: Disk Blade Turbine,

RCI: Retreat Curve Impeller,

About The Author

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Hi! I am Ajay Kumar Kalva, Currently serving as the CEO of this site, a tech geek by passion, and a chemical process engineer by profession, i'm interested in writing articles regarding technology, hacking and pharma technology.
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