Additive Manufacturing as the Future of Green Chemical Engineering

Abstract

AbstractChemical sciences and engineering have made outstanding contributions in fulfillment of the needs of our technological society and upliftment of the quality of human life by enabling critical technologies for processing and manufacturing of high-volume essential commodities such as detergents, creams, sanitizers, pharmaceuticals, textiles, plastics, rubbers and so on. The global models of chemical manufacturing have been continuously evolving since the colonial rule to adapt to the socio-economic and political climate. In the face of the twenty-first century, chemical manufacturing is experiencing global challenges of different kinds ranging from depletion of natural resources, climate change and growing population to sustainable living, environmental compliance, and personalized healthcare. Thus, a great need has been felt for reinvigoration of the chemical processing and manufacturing industry in response to which the philosophies of industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing have seen global acceptance and recognition. However, this transcendence from the existing state of chemical manufacturing to smart manufacturing heavily relies on the availability and development of advanced manufacturing and sophisticated equipment, process intensification and efficient micro reaction technologies. Study, design, and engineering of equipment to manipulate chemical and physical phenomenon is at the heart of chemical engineering since equipment and reactor design directly governs process and energy efficiencies, performance, and process economics. Conventional subtractive and casting based manufacturing technologies are proving inadequate to meet the needs of modern chemical engineering demanding capabilities to fabricate sophisticated equipment with complex internal geometries, rapid prototyping, and performance testing. These manufacturing related issues can be effective phased out with the adoption and integration of additive manufacturing with chemical processing and manufacturing industries. While the automotive, aerospace, engineering and biomedical industries have hastily adopted AM technologies for associated benefits, the chemical industries have been lagging behind in the uptake due to lack of agility and adaptability in industrial chemical processes. Integration of AM with chemical industry is anticipated to bring widespread process automation, improved feedstock and product inventories, digital process control and process intensification. Future chemical reactors will be complex tailor-made devices with design optimized for fluid and particle flow, heat and mass transport and reaction thermodynamics. When reactions are catalytic in nature, the performance of the reactor becomes critically dependent on several of the catalyst properties, both physical and chemical. While the intrinsic chemical properties in terms of selectivity and activity are dependent on the choice of catalyst, other important considerations related to reactor efficiencies and design, are related to the structural properties of the catalyst, i.e., on how the active phase of the catalyst is dispersed in the support, that influences the available surface area, porosity, heat, and mass transfer characteristics as well as the hydrodynamic pressure dissipations. This aspect of structured catalytic reactor design, that is based on a functional integration of the catalytic as well as reactor design steps, is also receiving increasing focus from an advanced manufacturing viewpoint towards achieving higher efficiencies and lower energy consumption. In this chapter the role of additive manufacturing in chemical reactor and equipment design ranging from simulation and reactor modelling to demonstrated examples of additively manufactured micro mixers, micro heat exchanges and microreactors are elaborated which distinctly project additive manufacturing as the future of green chemical engineering.KeywordsIndustry 4.0Smart manufacturingProcess intensificationMicro reaction technologyAdditive manufacturingGreen hydrogen