M.Sc. Thesis Project Proposal - Investigations of Micromixing in Alfa Laval’s ART® Plate Reactors

Project Description
Environmental, regulatory and competitive pressures are increasing pushing chemical manufacturers to develop more efficient chemical reaction processes for both new and existing products. One area of activity is the conversion of small and medium scale batch reaction processes to continuous flow operations. New, small scale, continuous flow reaction equipment e.g. the Alfa Laval ART® Plate Reactors, are becoming commercially available for lab and production.

When two or more chemicals are reacted, it is important that the molecules comes into contact with each other in order to react. This will ultimately happen on the smallest scale of mixing, i.e. the molecular scale, it is therefore important to know the mixing characteristics of a chemical reactor.

The influence of the reactor itself, the flow regime and the characteristic of the chemicals reacted are important factors and will be examined. A survey of experimental techniques and methodologies useful in reactive mixing flow studies will be performed and their applicability to the Alfa Laval ART® Plate Reactor product range will be evaluated. The work builds upon a pre-study, together with a Dutch University, which identified a possible test apparatus and methodology for measuring micromixing in some of the ART® Plate Reactors. We now intend to explore this further and apply for the Alfa Laval ART® Plate Reactor range.

Conclusions from the characterisation work may then be used in a number of ways:
• New designs for optimising mixing performance of ART® Plate Reactors
• Reactions suitable for operation in ART® Plate Reactor determined
• Marketing material for the ART® Plate Reactor business

The successful candidate will work with Alfa Laval to develop this knowledge for operations within the companys ART® Plate Reactor technology group. There will also most probably be an opportunity to become a team member of the Reactor Teachnology team after the end of the M.Sc. thesis if there is mutual interest.

Requested Competence
Engineering or Chemical Engineering Students. Knowledge of Fluid Dynamics, Heat Transfer and Reaction Engineering. Modelling of Chemical Reactions and Mixing. Fluent in English, spoken and written, preferrably in Swedish as well.
Persistence, willingness to work unsupervised for short periods, and be a proactive communicator. Good laboratory skills and confidence.

Application deadline: 20th of November 2011. Please provide CV and a short personal letter, using our webbpage www.alfalaval.com/career

Proposed starting date: January 2012, (20 weeks). You will be based at Alfa Laval in Tumba.

Contact: Linus Helming, Alfa Laval Reactor Technology: +46 8 5306 54 51