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Chart Energy & Chemicals, a world leader in the design and manufacture of aluminum plate fin heat exchangers, has developed two types of compact heat exchange reactors, ShimTec® and FinTec™. Each type provides compact multi-channel construction incorporating unique design features and high heat transfer capabilities. Chart Reactors can address the full range of processing volumes required in the chemical industry. Applications include pharmaceutical, fine chemical, bulk chemical, fuel processing and hydrogen production.

Process Intensification (PI) of reactors is the act of achieving the highest productivity from a given reactor volume, thereby significantly reducing the size of the chemical plant. Chart’s Compact Heat Exchange Reactors allow the application of PI to replace traditional stirred batch and column reactors, providing benefits that can include:

• Enhanced heat transfer
• Enhanced mixing
• Improved product quality
• Improved safety
• Reduced residence time
• Reduced reactant inventory
• Reduced energy consumption

The industry standard in measuring compactness is a surface area to volume ratio. Chart provides a wide range of compactness with FinTec® and Shimtec®. Typically the more exothermic a process, the more benefit is obtained with higher surface area to volume ratios.

Prototype testing measures reaction performance with a small number of channels. As the reactor size increases through pilot and commercial scaling, the compact design delivers consistent thermal performance per unit volume because the reaction and cooling streams maintain the same adjacent relationship within the structure. Chart techniques assure fluid distribution is maintained in scaling from prototype to commercial scale.

Both ShimTec and FinTec reactors are constructed with reactant and utility streams layered within the structure, ensuring there is only a short heat path between adjacent streams. In this way, heat is readily added or removed from where the duty is most required. Individual reactors can include three or more streams as the process may require.

The flexibility of the design creates options for controlled chemical additions into bulk streams through intermediate layers and channels. The specific injection arrangement matches the process requirements, thereby limiting the potential for hot spots to form when operating very exothermic reactions.

ShimTec heat exchange reactors have a highly versatile design capability, allowing the reactor to be matched to specific requirements of the customer’s process. Units are bonded assemblies of thin plates or shims that incorporate channels created within them. The diffusion bonding produces robust units capable of operating at very high temperatures and pressures. Materials of construction include stainless steel, nickel alloys and aluminum (brazed). ShimTec units are particularly suitable for prototype to smaller scale production for chemical reactions or heat exchange. ShimTec reactors have previously been manufactured under the name "Marbond".

FinTec heat exchange reactors are comparable to plate fin heat exchangers. Channels are formed from folded, corrugated fins which are brazed into the reactor structures. Materials of construction include aluminum, with development underway for manufacture in stainless steel and nickel alloys. FinTec reactors can be up to "cubic meters" in volume and are particularly suitable for commercial scale applications.

There are several options for catalyst incorporation within the reactor structure:

• Coated onto internal surfaces to facilitate heat transfer
• Packed for ease of removal and replacement
• Incorporated within a removable insert
• Injected along the reaction path

The patented ShimTec Pin-Fin geometry is an excellent surface for coating with catalyst. Pin-fin has a high surface area per unit volume and its mesh-like structure allows process fluids to pass through the catalyst, rather than only flowing over the surface.