Scale-up of an RF heated micro trickle bed reactor to a kg/day production scale

The scale-up of a radiofrequency (RF) heated micro trickle bed reactor for hydrogenation of 2-methyl-3-butyne-2-ol (MBY) over a Pd/TiO₂ catalyst has been performed. The axial and radial temperature profiles were calculated using a 2D convection and conduction heat transfer model. The effect of the reactor length, tube diameter and number of parallel tubes on the temperature non-uniformity parameter has been studied. The axial scale-up was achieved by repeating a single periodic unit consisting of one heating and one catalytic zone along the reactor length. The catalyst loading can be increased by an order of magnitude following this approach. A radial temperature difference of 2 K was developed in a reactor with an inner diameter of 15 mm. The scale-up by numbering up allows the accommodation of seven parallel tubes inside a single RF coil. It creates a 7 K difference in the average temperature between the central and the outer tubes which results in a 5% difference in MBY conversion. An overall scale-up factor of near 700 is achieved which corresponds to a production rate of 0.5 kg of product/day.