Conventional mechanical pumps based on centrifugal or axial turbomachinery are not suitable for micro and nano scales where the Reynolds numbers are usually small. Centrifugal and inertial forces are negligible, and viscous forces dominate the flow field in this length scale (an excellent review can be found on the physics of fluid flow at microscale in [1]). A microfluidic rotary pump, which i...

This work investigates the industrial production of styrene-butadiene rubber in a continuous reactor train, and proposes a soft sensor for online monitoring of several processes and polymer quality variables in each reactor. The soft sensor includes two independent artificial neural networks (ANN). ThefirstANNestimatesmonomer conversion, solid content, polymer production, average particle diame...

Simulated moving bed reactor (SMBR), a multicolumn multifunctional integrated system, which can be exploited with on-site adsorptive separation to enhance conversion of equilibrium-limited reversible chemical reaction. In this article, for generality, dimensionless SMBR model was developed and effects five representative temperature distributions among different zones on the performance an reac...

The past two decades have seen far-reaching progress in the development of microfluidic systems for use in the chemical and biological sciences. Here we assess the utility of microfluidic reactor technology as a tool in chemical synthesis in both academic research and industrial applications. We highlight the successes and failures of past research in the field and provide a catalogue of chemis...

The development of green synthesis methods for supported noble metal catalysts remains important challenges to improve their sustainability. Here we first synthesized carbon-supported Pd catalysts in a green Leidenfrost droplet reactor without reducing agents, high-temperature calcination and reduction procedures. When the aqueous solution containing Pd nitrate precursor, carbon support, and wa...

Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) precursor chemicals are held to some of the highest purity levels in industry. Many metal reagents form stable, unbreakable adducts with the coordinating solvents that are necessary for solvating highly polar reagents. These adducts are undesirable and must be removed prior to usage. Herein we describe a mechanochemical approach to the synthesis of bis(n-propylte...

In this work, a systematic approach to plant-wide control design is proposed. The approach combines ingredients from process networks, thermodynamics and systems theory to derive robust decentralized controllers that will ensure complete plant stability. The proposed methodology will be illustrated on a reactor network exhibiting complex behaviour.