A new and original microwave continuous reactor under high pressure for future chemistry

Abstract : A new and original high pressure reactor has been designed and developed for continuous flow chemistry under micro-waves at industrial scale. The reactor originality is that the microwave applicator is the reactor itself. It allows then theuse of metallic and thick walls for the reactor adapted to a use at high pressures and high temperatures. Wave propaga-tion coupled to heat transfer was simulated using COMSOL MultiphysicsVRand the design was optimized to minimizewave reflections and maximize energy transfers in the reacting medium. This leads to extremely good energy yields.Experiments confirm that the microwave energy is fully absorbed by the reacting medium. The reactor allows continuouschemical reactions at a kg/h scale, under microwave heating, up to 7 MPa and 2008C. The double dehydration of hexy-lene glycol has been performed under various operating conditions demonstrating then the operability of this new reac-tor.VC