Title: Batch Reactor application in chemical and pharmaceutic industries

Author: Christian Jair Sánchez Reynel

Introduction
In fine chemical or pharmaceutical industry, the batch or fed-batch reactor
functions as the heart of the process transformation. Due to the complexity of the
reaction mixture and the difficulty to perform on-line composition measurements,
control of batch reactors is essentially a problem of temperature control (Friedric &
Perne 1995). The amount of released heat can become very large as the reaction
mixture is heated up, very quickly the reaction may become unstable and cause
the temperature to run away if the heat generated exceeds the cooling capacity of
the reactor. This runaway can seriously cause risk to plant personnel and
equipment and can, even in the best case, result in loss of the batch. Therefore,
careful control of the rate of change of the reactor temperature and minimization of
the temperature overshoot is required.
Development
When using batch reactors, reactants are first placed inside the reactor and then
allowed to react over time. Batch reactors are closed systems that operate under
unsteady-state conditions.
While batch reactors are used in a variety of situations, they have some common
design features.
Batch reactors contain ports for injecting reactants and removing products, and can
be outfitted with a heat exchanger or a stirring system. While batch reactors are
generally of constant volume, some are designed to maintain a constant pressure
by varying the reactor volume.
Batch reactors are used in a wide variety of applications. Typically, they are used
for liquid phase reactions that require a fairly long reaction time. Batch reactors are
also used when only a small amount of product is desired. For this reason batch
reactors are favored when a process is still in the testing phase, or when the
desired product is expensive. Batch reactors are used in the pharmaceutical
industry, which requires consistent, high quality results. One batch reactor may
also be used to make a variety of products at different times.
Heating/cooling coils or external jackets are used for heating and cooling batch
reactors. Heat transfer fluid passes through the jacket or coils to add or remove
heat.
Within the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, external cooling jackets are
generally preferred as they make the vessel easier to clean. The performance of
these jackets can be defined by 3 parameters:
 response time to modify the jacket temperatura
 uniformity of jacket temperatura
 stability of jacket temperature.
Conclusion
The advantages of the batch reactor lie with its versatility. A single vessel can carry
out a sequence of different operations without the need to break containment. This
is particularly useful when processing toxic or highly potent compounds.
Batch reactors are often used in the process industry. Batch reactors also have
many laboratory applications, such as small scale production and inducing
fermentation for beverage products. They also have many uses in medical
production. Batch reactors are generally considered expensive to run, as well as
variable product reliability. They are also used for experiments of reaction kinetics,
volatiles and thermodynamics. Batch reactors are also highly used in waste water
treatment. They are effective in reducing BOD (biological oxygen demand) of
influent untreated water.
References
Fogler, Scott H. Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering . Westford, MA:
Prentice-Hall, 2011. Print.
Perry, Robert H., and Don W. Green. Perry's Chemical Engineers' Handbook . 7th
ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Inc., 1997: 7-15 - 7-17. Print.