engleski

Additive manufacturing of polymeric microreactors for continuous flow synthesis

Continuous flow chemistry is making an inroad into manufacturing of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals, owing to higher material and energy efficiency, simpler process control and increased safety compared to batch processing. Due to low manufacturing volumes of high-value products, milli- and micro- reactors are gaining more attention and are being considered for various applications. For the purpose of screening for potential applications and testing of different reactor dimensions and configurations, fast and cost effective prototyping is key to this process. Additive manufacturing based on polymeric materials, also known as 30 printing, is an ideal candidate for the purpose. The aim of this study was to examine the possibilities of two additive manufacturing technologies - fused filament fabrication and stereolithography, for manufacturing of functional microreactors with biodiesel synthesis as a case study. Commercially available transparent filaments of a variety of polymers can be used for producing microreactors by fused filament fabrication. Chemical compatibility of filaments in contact with reactants and reaction products is an important property to be investigated before using the material, and polypropylene based filaments were selected as the most suitable material for biodiesel synthesis. Microreactors with quadratic cross-section of microchannels of different sizes were made and tested. Stereolithography has shown greater resolution, and was able to produce reactors with much smaller details compared to fused filament fabrication. The main limitation of stereolithography for microreactor prototyping was the inability to drain residual uncured resin from the microchannel. The microreactors with closed channel dimensions of 400 μm x 400 μm were successfully created by fused filament fabrication and tested for biodiesel production, maintaining structural integrity and transparency in reaction conditions. Additive manufacturing has proven to be a useful tool for rapid prototyping of microreactors, where channel configuration and dimensions can easily be optimized for a particular application.

microreactors, additive manufacturing, biodiesel synthesis

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