Use of metal mesh to assist the multi-phase reaction in a microreactor

Abstract

Glycerol is a by-product from biodiesel production. Glycerol can be further converted to glycerol carbonate by several reaction routes. One of the feasible routes that have been generally reported is the reaction between glycerol and urea, while ammonia gas is generated as one of byproducts. The reaction generally requires a heterogeneous catalyst, which causes mass transfer problem. Most researchers have applied this reaction in batch, continuous-stirred tank, or fixed bed reactors, in which the external mass transfer resistance is still dominant. Due to many advantages of microreactor including high surface area-to-volume ratio, short diffusion distance, small mass and heat transfer resistances, applying the microreactor can solve the problems and enhance the reaction, Therefore, in this work, microreactor was utilized in the production of glycerol carbonate from glycerol and urea, which one side of microchannel wall was coated by commercial catalyst. In addition, Metal mesh sheet with pores is used to separate ammonia gas from the reaction. This research studies the effect of residence time, microchannel thickness, shear stress of reactants and a quantity of generated gas on a catalyst slipping, and also investigates the effect of metal mesh size on yield of glycerol carbonate from reaction in microreactor.