Investigation of a rotating disc reactor for acetone stripping and asymmetric transfer hydrogenation: Modelling and experiments

Abstract

Asymmetric transfer hydrogenation of acetophenone with isopropanol as hydrogen donor in the presence of a homogeneous catalyst was investigated in a rotating disc reactor. Initially, acetone stripping from binary mixtures acetone–isopropanol with nitrogen as inert gas was studied, since its removal is a key issue in improving reaction performance. The reactor consisted of a stainless steel disc mounted on a horizontal shaft, accommodated in a cylindrical shell. The disc was partially immersed in the liquid phase. Its rotation generated a thin liquid film on its upper part, which could be brought in contact with a gas phase used for stripping. A mathematical model was formulated to simulate the reactor and showed good agreement with experimental data for acetone stripping. It was observed that the efficiency of acetone removal from the liquid phase increased with the gas flowrate per initial liquid volume ratio. The effect of disk rotation was found to be small when the stripping gas was introduced in the liquid bulk. The reactor model agreed well with experimental data of the asymmetric transfer hydrogenation. An advantage of the rotating disk reactor is that the hydrodynamics of the phases can be decoupled and the gas flowrate can be increased without constraints in the liquid phase, unlike conventional agitated reactors that are limited by flooding. Simulations using high stripping gas flowrate per initial liquid volume, unachievable in stirred reactors, showed significant reduction of the residence time required to achieve > 99 % conversion.