Chemical Engineering & Technology, Vol.19, No.1, 67-74, 1996
Kinetics of a liquid/liquid/solid fine chemicals - Reaction modelling of a continuous pilot plant reactor
In the field of fine chemicals batch process the implementation of synthesis paths results most often in the determination of the optimal operating conditions on a bench scale apparatus; successive scale-ups are then handled in an empirical way. For multi-phase reactions, this approach can be limited due to the coupling between the chemical kinetics and the physical kinetics of the mass transfer. This work proposes a more rational approach for the overall synthesis of Amiodarone, a widely used anti-arrhythmic drug produced by a liquid/liquid/solid reaction. After analysing the reaction scheme and identifying the limiting steps of the process, a simplified model is proposed to describe the overall process kinetics. The latter is used to model a continuous pilot plant loop-reactor packed with static mixers.