Green Chemistry in Oscillatory Baffled Reactors - Process Intensification for Green Chemistry - page 163

(4) The remaining actions are a number of checks:
(i) Is Q close to the desired value? The pipe diameter closest to the desired Q should
be chosen.
(ii) Is N

> 10? This is a measure of the quality of the plug flow. N > 10 is satisfactory

for any application.
(iii) Is

e T too high? This is the power consumption, and is calculated.
For a more comprehensive review of OBR history, technology and applications, the reader
is directed to [6].

5.2 Case Studies: OBR Green Chemistry

5.2.1 A Saponification Reaction

A 1.3 l OBR (see Figure 5.7) was evaluated for an industrial batch saponification process in
which conversion to continuous processing in conventional tubular reactors was considered
unfeasible due to the long residence time required (2 hours). The saponification reaction
was the hydrolysis of a complex natural mixture of esters in an ethanol/water solvent.

Figure 5.7 Pilot plant OBR. Reprinted with permission from Harvey et al. # 2001 American
Chemical Society.