Sonication and Microwave Processing of Material Feedstock 

Project Information

SIMPLIFY

Grant agreement ID: 820716

DOI

10.3030/820716

Project closed

EC signature date 3 August 2018

Start date 1 November 2018

End date 30 April 2023

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Leadership in enabling and industrial technologies - Advanced manufacturing and processing

Total cost

€ 10 289 013,30

EU contribution

€ 8 521 826,25

Coordinated by

KATHOLIEKE UNIVERSITEIT LEUVEN
Belgium

Periodic Reporting for period 3 - SIMPLIFY (Sonication and Microwave Processing of Material Feedstock )

Reporting period: 2021-09-01 to 2023-04-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Europe’s chemical processing industry is based on unit operations that have proven their effectivity, but not necessarily their efficiency throughout history: Today’s standard batch production uses the same basic principles that have been used for many decades in Chemical Industry, often resulting in large volumetric footprint, high energy costs and limited control over product uniformity, leading to products with variable quality over time. A paradigm shift to continuous processing may be a solution to this problem provided that two main challenges that is, narrow residence time operating window and limited mixing efficiency in flow reactors are addressed. This is why continuous processing has currently limited application in Industries handling slow processes and multiphase or viscous flow streams, such as Polymer and Specialty Chemical Industries, which are of paramount importance to state and European Economies, and need to continuously pursue competitive advantages in process and product innovation.

SIMPLIFY aims at enabling transition from batch to continuous production in different Specialty Chemical Industries by electrification of different types of continuous flow reactors (Oscillatory Flow Reactors, Reactive Extruders and Tubular Reactors) while ensuring flexibility in terms of producing on-demand products with different quality attributes tailored for a range of applications. Electrification is realized by means of custom application of ultrasound (US) and microwaves (MW) technologies, which can be directly powered by renewable electricity, to the aforementioned flow reactors in order to intensify chemistry and transport phenomena (mass, heat and mixing) in a urethane additive, micro-sized zeolite and nano-sized titania processes to make them amenable to continuous operation mode. Collectively, SIMPLIFY advances the technology readiness level (TRL) of the novel US- and MW-flow technologies for multiphase streams, involving suspensions or viscous products, from TRL4 (technology validation in lab) to TRL6 (industrial demonstration).

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

SIMPLIFY activities focused on two aspects: transition of batch to flow processes and understanding of the effects of ultrasound/microwaves on the processes. The processes studies involve the synthesis of three reference products: a urethane polymer, micro-sized zeolite and nano-sized titania. At the level of transition of batch to flow, the necessary equipment and methodologies have been investigated and developed. With respect to ultrasound and microwaves, results show that these energy forms can accelerate the processes in batch, thus allowing for shorter process times in the continuous processes. SIMPLIFY has also advanced in the methodology of process control. The transition to flow, and the enabling of that transition by alternative energy forms, was successfully demonstrated in an industrial setting. Exploitation of the results was ensured by the expected future developments within the end-users and technology suppliers within the consortium (some of this exploitation work will also be performed within the scope of a follow-up EU project) and by the communication and discussion of the results in the Industrial Stakeholder Panel, which consisted of technology suppliers and end-users outside of the SIMPLIFY consortium.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The expected benefits for SIMPLIFY’s three case-studies vary per case, but following ranges can be given:
HEUR Reactive Extrusion
• 92% to 93% energy savings, leading to a reduced share of only 8% in OPEX
• Up to 15% reduction in CO2 emissions
• Other improvements such as increased process safety by 99% reduction of toxic isocyanate inside the reactor
Zeolite Microparticle Synthesis
• 81% to 88% energy savings, leading to a reduced share of only 10% in OPEX
• Up to 69% reduction in CO2 emissions
• Other improvements such as reduced synthesis time leading to higher productivity
Titania Nanoparticle Synthesis
• 10 to 13% energy savings, leading to a reduced share of only 10% in OPEX
• Up to 12% reduction in CO2 emissions
• Other improvements such as drastic reduction in synthesis time leading to smaller plant size and easier scale-up

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