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EP-4083560-B1 - FLOW REACTOR

EP4083560B1EP 4083560 B1EP4083560 B1EP 4083560B1EP-4083560-B1

Inventors

  • ENOMURA, MASAKAZU

Dates

Publication Date
20260506
Application Date
20191226

Claims (8)

  1. A flow reactor comprising three flow paths of a first flow path (11), a second flow path (21) and a third flow path (31), all of which spirally circulate in a space formed between an inner tube (61) and an outer tube (62) that are concentrically arranged; wherein: a heat exchange is configured to be performed between a fluid to be processed, which is a first fluid (F1) flowing through the first flow path (11), and a second fluid (F2) and a third fluid (F3) flowing through the second flow path (21) and the third fluid path (31), via a heat transfer body; the heat transfer body is arranged in a gap formed between the inner tube (61) and the outer tube (62) while spirally circulating; a cross sectional shape of the heat transfer body in an axial-direction cross sectional view is a thread shape, and it is assembled into a thread shape; and the heat transfer body is formed by an external thread portion and an internal thread portion, the heat transfer body being assembled into the thread shape with an inner heat transfer body as the external thread portion and an outer heat transfer body as an internal thread portion, a space between the inner heat transfer body and the outer heat transfer body defining the first flow path through which the first fluid flows, the second flow path being provided in an inner side of the inner heat transfer body and the third flow path being provided in an outer side of the outer heat transfer body.
  2. The flow reactor according to claim 1, wherein shapes of the external and internal thread portions are changed angles of walls of screw threads of the external thread portion and the internal thread portion relative to one another.
  3. The flow reactor according to claim 1, configured such that: a ratio (α/β) of a maximum flow path width (α) of the first flow path to a minimum flow path width (β) of the first flow path in a radial direction is 2 or more (2≤α/β≤∞).
  4. The flow reactor according to claim 3, wherein the inner heat transfer body is fixed to an outside of the inner tube, and the outer heat transfer body is fixed to an inside of the outer tube; a space between the inner tube and the inner heat transfer body is served as the second flow path; a space between the outer tube and the outer heat transfer body is served as the third flow path; a space generated by at least any one difference of either an angle difference between angle (θ1) of a screw thread of the inner heat transfer body as the external thread portion and an angle (θ2) formed by both flanks of the outer heat transfer body as the internal thread portion, or a height difference between a height of a screw thread of the inner heat transfer body as the external thread portion and a height of a screw thread of the outer heat transfer body as the internal thread portion, defines the first flow path.
  5. The flow reactor according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the first flow path, the second flow path and the third flow path do not have a horizontal wall portion where the first fluid, the second fluid or the third fluid -is able to accumulate.
  6. The flow reactor according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein a plurality of the spaces formed between the inner tube and the outer tube are concentrically arranged.
  7. The flow reactor according to any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein flow paths including the first flow path flowing the first fluid is coated with a corrosion resistant material.
  8. The flow reactor according to claim 7, wherein the coating with the corrosion resistant material is a fluorine resin coating.

Description

Technical Field The present invention relates to a flow reactor in which a heat exchange takes place while flowing a highly reactive fluid to be processed. The flow reactor indicates a continuous flow reactor. Background Art In the manufacturing processes for chemicals and foods as well as in the manufacturing processes of a toner, an inkjet, and the like, there are many demands such as those for rapid cooling and heating. Further, there are demands to reduce a space necessary for installation of the equipment as much as possible and to reduce the equipment in size; therefore, it is required to improve the performance of a flow reactor. In addition, in the flow reactor, having less adhesion, good washability, high pressure resistance, and corrosion resistance as well as low cost are required. In the past, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a shell-and-tube type reactor having a plurality of stages has been known. This reactor comprises at least two types of regions, which contribute to removal of a heat from a system or supply of a heat to a system in accordance with the request from the system. The reactor is provided with a group of reaction regions which are provided with a catalyst to facilitate a reaction and at the same time, they include a tube to remove or supply a heat. However, in some of those that are described in Patent Document 1, when an adhesion or the like occurs inside the tube, not only cleaning thereof is difficult, but also the cleaning state such as whether or not cleaning was done cannot be readily confirmed. In addition, since the amount of the heat medium held in the shell side is so large that overshoot and undershoot can readily occur, and it is basically a classical heat exchanger, thus, it is difficult to dramatically increase an overall heat transfer coefficient thereof. Further, since the tube is attached to a tube sheet, it is difficult to use this for the reaction that repeats expansion and contraction by heat. In addition, it is substantially impossible to apply coating or lining to inside of the narrow heat transfer tube, and due to its structure, also in the other flow paths, it is difficult to apply coating or lining with a corrosion resistant material; therefore, in view of the corrosion resistance and the like, improvements thereof are required. Especially, it is substantially impossible to apply coating or lining to inside the heat transfer tube with a corrosion resistant material, and even if this could be done, mass production thereof is poor so that this is inevitably non-practical from a viewpoint of the cost thereof. Patent Document 2 describes the heat exchanger in which a liquid-side heat transfer tube having a cross sectional shape of a substantially triangle is formed into coiled-shape, and in the outer periphery thereof, a cooling medium-side heat transfer tube is arranged in a coiled-shape, and then, the liquid-side heat transfer tube and the cooling medium-side heat transfer tube are joined. However, even if the technology is applied to the flow reactor, the heat transfer area is too small and is specialized for a water heater and the like; therefore, reduction in the size, washability, improvement in the performance, and reduction in the cost could not be realized yet. Patent Document 3 describes the heat exchanger having a first flow path-forming member that has a container shape and a second flow path-forming member that is detachably disposed to the first flow path-forming member in the inner side of the first flow path member, wherein the first flow path-forming member has the diameter of the inner peripheral surface of the peripheral inner wall portion of container shape which gradually narrows from upper part to lower part, and a first flow path through which a liquid for heat exchange is flowed is formed in the peripheral wall potion, and between the inner peripheral surface of the first flow path-forming member and the outer peripheral surface of the second flow path-forming member, a spiral second flow path through which the liquid for heat exchange and a liquid to be heat-exchanged by the inner peripheral surface and the outer peripheral surface are flowed is formed. However, because the flow rate on the heat-transfer surface changes gradually due to gradual narrowing of the flow path, it is difficult to apply this equipment to in general industry; in addition, in the case of heat exchange accompanied with boiling, there are many retention portions of a generated gas thereby readily causing the dry-out trouble, thus this cannot apply to the flow reactor. Patent Document 4 describes a tubular flow module provided with at least two concentric tubes having spiral shapes. It is shown that this tubular flow module can be applied to a flow reactor that is provided with a heat exchanging function. This module is characterized in that an inner tube and an outer tube are assembled into thread shape, in which a flow path for a fluid is set between the tub