The recovery of chemical byproducts from aqueous streams requires huge capital investments that can exceed $2.5 million per installation, even for small streams up to ~500,000 lbs/yr, typical of small to intermediate chemical manufacturing. These costs are driven by the need to use inefficient conventional chemical reactors and the need to separate the organic phase in a separate unit operation. This project will combine a novel reactor design with cost effective phase transfer catalysis (PTC) technology so that reaction and separation can be performed in one step. This approach will save capital and energy costs because of thermodynamically efficient phase contacting and inherently easier phase separation. Phase I built and demonstrated a new Taylor-Vortex countercurrent reactor in which phase transfer catalysis was combined with the enhanced fluid mechanics from counter-current Taylor Vortex flow, leading to enhanced processing capability. Phase II will improve on the processing attributes of the design by building several small prototypes to demonstrate the range of chemical systems the unit can handle. In addition, a large demonstration unit will be built to provide sound economic data for potential users.
Commercial Applications and Other Benefits as described by the awardee: PTC technology should allow the recovery of byproducts at small and intermediate sized companies in the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. By recycling previously wasted chemical species that normally would have generated a pollution load, both greenhouse gases and energy use should be reduced.
