Patent Issued for SRI International's Novel Chemical Reactor that Eliminates Waste by a Factor of 20; New Reactor Design Has Broad Application in the Chemical Process Industries.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 20, 1997--A proprietary, novel reactor technology has been demonstrated to improve the ratio of desired product to waste product by a factor of 20 over comparable current technology.

In addition to reducing or eliminating waste disposal and increasing product quality, the technology also increases yields and thus decreases the cost of raw materials.

The technology is applicable to both grassroots and retrofit applications. SRI views the reactor retrofits as "heart transplants" for increased yields and profit margins. Chemical reactors are the heart of chemical manufacturing, determining raw materials, products, byproducts, energy consumption, and capital and operating costs.

"One of the major technical challenges facing chemical companies is the minimization of waste production during highly exothermic, or heat-producing, reactions," said William J. Asher, Principal Chemical Engineer in SRI's Chemical Engineering Development Center.

"To identify prospective solutions to this challenge, SRI assembled a multidisciplinary group of chemical engineers, chemists, process economic analysts and business consultants. The resulting novel reactor invented by SRI has the potential to improve product yields and minimize waste generation in a broad range of applications."

The American Institute of Chemical Engineers' Center for Waste Reduction Technologies (CWRT) is facilitating and funding the project. CWRT brought together the corporations (Air Products and Chemicals, Eastman Chemical Co., Monsanto Co., Olin Corp. and Rhone Poulenc) for this collaborative research project. The U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies is providing matching funds.

The proprietary SRI reactor is simple, small and low cost. It is essentially a heat exchanger with commercially available porous metal tubes. The permeability of the tubes is reduced by filtration of a fine particle slurry, and the interiors of the tubes are filled with a packing to enhance mixing.

One reactant is passed through the tube side, and the other reactant enters the shell side and passes into the tubes through their porous walls. The product leaves from the tube side. The design uses uniform mixing, which enhances heat and mass transfer, and controlled feed of key reactants to provide highly uniform radial temperature and concentration profiles, improved yields and minimized waste generation via side reactions.

The patent covering the reactor process (U.S. 5,583,240, issued December 10, 1996) is exceptionally broad. The process is applicable to noncatalyzed and many catalyzed reactions, and it can be used with liquid and gas phases in batch and continuous operations. Candidate reactions include alkylations, carbonylations, carbamylations, chlorination, direct oxidations, ethoxylations, hydroformylations, hydrogenations, nitration and sulfonations.

For the CWRT collaborative project, the demanding liquid sulfur trioxide sulfonation of toluene was selected as the model system. Computer simulations were performed to determine the appropriate permeability for the porous tubes.

Three types of single-tube reactors were built: a state-of-the-art reactor with nonpermeable walls, one with porous walls without permeability reduction and one with porous walls with reduced permeability (the novel SRI reactor). A bench-scale reactor was built and operated to obtain data and evaluate performance. The SRI reactor was demonstrated to improve the ratio of desired product to waste product by a factor of 20 relative to comparable technology.

The collaborators in this CWRT project have not only the rights to use technology from this project but also a co-exclusive option to obtain individual exclusive licenses for application to specific products. It will be possible for additional collaborators, both members and nonmembers of CWRT, to join the project in its second phase early in 1997.

Phase two will provide a firm foundation for application to specific products through the development of a flexible computer model, testing of permeability, demonstration of recycle and staging operating capabilities, evaluation of mixing elements and demonstration of prolonged operation, as well as other experiments to be proposed by the collaborators.

SRI International one of the nation's oldest and largest research, technology development and consulting organizations. Based in the heart of Silicon Valley, SRI International employs 2,700 people worldwide to provide corporations, governments and organizations with the technology research, resources and business strategies needed for competing more effectively in today's changing global environment.

CONTACT: SRI International

Alice Galloway, 415/859-2711

or

Neale-May & Partners

Ruth Ann Burns, 415/328-5555 x113