System and method for performing a chemical experiment
AssigneeAvantium International B.V.
InventorsMartin Smit, Gerardus Johannes Maria Gruter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a system for performing parallel chemical experiments. The system comprises an array of parallel flow through reactors each comprising a reaction chamber, a reactor inlet and a reactor outlet connected to the reactor chamber. Downstream of each reactor a corresponding active pressure regulating arrangement is provided for actively regulating the reactor pressure. The pressure regulating arrangement comprises a passage for reactor effluent with an inlet connected to the reactor outlet and an outlet for discharging reactor effluent at a reduced pressure with respect to the reactor pressure.
Claims11
A system for performing parallel chemical experiments, said system comprising an array of parallel flow through reactors each comprising a reaction chamber, a reactor inlet and a reactor outlet connected to the reactor chamber, wherein downstream of each reactor an individual active pressure regulating arrangement is provided for actively regulating the reactor pressure, the pressure regulating arrangement comprising an actively tunable passage for reactor effluent with an inlet connected to the reactor outlet and an outlet for discharging reactor effluent at a reduced pressure with respect to the reactor pressure;
- wherein the active pressure regulating arrangement comprises an actively tunable passage arranged at the passage for reactor effluent of each reactor, wherein the actively tunable passage has a movable member to cause variations of the effective cross-section of the passage, wherein the movable member is in contact with a common pressure chamber which is filled with a control gas, such that the movable member is moved towards the closed position if the reactor pressure is lower than the control gas pressure and is moved towards the open position if the reactor pressure exceeds the control gas pressure, and wherein the system further comprises a pressure controller to control the pressure of the control gas in the pressure chamber.
Method for performing chemical experiments, wherein an array of parallel flow through reactors is used, one or more flows of reactant(s) being fed from one or more common feed lines to each of the reactors, the flow from each feed line being divided over the reactors by providing between each reactor and the feed line a flow restrictor, said flow restrictor producing a pressure drop (ΔP1) between the feed line and the reactor, the pressure in the reactors being actively regulated by a backpressure regulator that is provided downstream of the reactors, which backpressure regulator controls the reactor pressure in multiple reactors whereby the reactor pressure is the same for all reactors, which backpressure regulator comprises downstream of each reactor, an individual active pressure regulating arrangement for actively regulating the reactor pressure, the pressure regulating arrangement comprising an actively tunable passage for reactor effluent with an inlet connected to the reactor outlet and an outlet for discharging reactor effluent at a reduced pressure with respect to the reactor pressure, wherein the active pressure regulating arrangement comprises an actively tunable passage arranged at the passage for reactor effluent of each reactor, wherein the actively tunable passage has a movable member to cause variations of the effective cross-section of the passage,
- and wherein the movable member is in contact with a common pressure chamber which is filled with a control gas, such that the movable member is moved towards the closed position if the reactor pressure is lower than the control gas pressure and is moved towards the open position if the reactor pressure exceeds the control gas pressure, and wherein the system further comprises a pressure controller to control the pressure of the control gas in the pressure chamber, which backpressure regulator has a passage for reactor effluent connected to the reactors, said passage having a discharge outlet for discharging reactor effluent, the backpressure regulator producing a pressure drop (ΔP2) between each reactor and the discharge outlet which is greater than the pressure drop (ΔP1) between the feed line and the reactor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.