A frequently asked question is how the rotating bed reactor (RBR) compares to column, i.e., packed bed reactor (PBR). Since the two systems work inherently different, they need to be investigated for the task at hand to give a fair performance assessment.
A simple way of testing both technologies is to set a common desired endpoint and see which technology allows to complete the experiment first. In the following, find an example for which the best-in-class standard protocols for the RBR and column, respectively, were used to assess the speed of water deionization:
A deionisation of tap water experiment was performed to compare the performance between a column system and the RBR S5 in the ProRBR IBC add-on. The column and RBR was packed with 4 L of Lanxess Lewatit® NM 60 and deionised 1000 L of tap water each.
The output of the column was used as the desired endpoint value, since it is less flexible than RBR. Thus, the question becomes if the RBR can deionise to the same level as the column in a shorter time. The column was run at a flow rate of 1.8 L/min and the RBR was run at 300 rpm, a standard rpm for the RBR S5.
The results clearly show the winner technology in this experiment:
The column needed 556 minutes to process 1000 L of tap water and reach an endpoint conductivity value of about 0.15 μS/cm. The RBR only needed 150 minutes to reach the same value, i.e., 3.7 times faster than the column. Adding an extra 60 minutes and the RBR reached a conductivity value of 0.02 μS/cm.
If you want to learn how the RBR can improve your heterogeneous reactions, please contact us for an online meeting and we can discuss your application.