The behaviour of an intermeshing twin screw extruder with catalyst immobilised screws as a three-phase reactor

The characteristics of an intermeshing co-rotating twin screw extruder were investigated as a three-phase reactor using a model reaction. The kinetics of the reaction and base line data were obtained using a high pressure sti rred tank reactor. The feasibility of immobilisation of palladium on the su rface of the screws as the catalyst was also studied. The behaviour of the extruder in batch and continuous mode and with slurry and non-slurry soluti ons was investigated. The results confirmed the superiority of the intermes hing co-rotating twin screw extruder as a novel three-phase reactor compare d to the stirred tank reactor as a traditional three-phase reactor. The res idence time distribution measurements indicated that the behaviour of the e xtruder approached perfect plug flow reactor with increasing viscosity of r eaction solution. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.