Pulsed Equipment — Problems of Conversion

The scale of modern chemical industry places progressively more stringent requirements upon the apparatus which is used. The high efficiency and reliability of equipment that provides for the specified production in a single line must be also associated with high effectiveness. The latter circumstance requires a turbulent motion to be established in a reactor which permits the removal of an external diffusion barrier between reagents and conversion of the process to the sphere of chemical kinetics. It is a pity, but it is only in a liquid-gas system that it is possible to establish conditions of this type; in liquid-liquid, liquid-solid and even liquid-solid-gas systems the rates of reagents do not permit the above regime and additional power must be supplied to the reactor. For this purpose mechanical energy is used. In most cases an agitator is introduced into a reactor and pneumatic mixing is also sometimes employed. The principal disadvantage of these methods is a nonuniform distribution of power across the section which limits the volumes and efficiency of the reactor.