The Spinning Mesh Disc Reactor  

The SMDR is a novel catalytic chemical reactor, which has potential to enable fast reactions and efficiently scale-up production of fine chemicals. The reactor consists of a rotating disc which has a cloth with immobilised catalyst resting on top. The liquid feed is distributed at the centre of the disc, and the spinning motion of the disc allows the formation of a thin liquid film, over and within the cloth. This increases the contact time between the liquid feed and the catalyst, achieving high mass transfer and thus fast reaction rates. The cloth protects the catalyst from shear forces and this catalyst cloth can be easily removed from the disc at the end of the reaction and can be reused multiple times. Reaction scale-up can be achieved with minimum capital investment and a small footprint, by simply adding more catalyst cloths onto the disc eliminating the need for a reactor re-design for higher feed throughput.