Rapic project: toward a new generation of inexpensive heat exchanger-reactors for process intensification

Process intensification (PI) in chemical production is a major concern of chemical manufacturers. This alternative technology involves transposing syntheses into continuous plug flow reactors with process intensification, leading to a multifunctional heat exchanger-reactor. In this context, the RAPIC R&D project aims to develop an innovative low-cost component (in the 10 kg/hour range). This project deals with the design from the local to the global scale and with testing, from elementary mock-ups to pilot scale. The present paper gives a detailed description of this research project and presents the main results on specification and definition of the reaction channel and the first simple mock-ups