Chemical and Biochemical Reactors for Controlled Synthesis of Organic and Inorganic Compounds

State of the art and possibilities of improvement of chemical reactors and bioreactors for the synthesis of organic and inorganic chemicals are considered. Various approaches to intensification are discussed, both those based on equipment miniaturization and those based on the reduction of the diffusion resistance in flows in macroscale apparatuses. Taylor vortices arising in two-phase laminar flows favor the process intensification. In one-phase flows, favorable conditions are created owing to the concentration of the kinetic energy of the flow in a small volume (no more than 1 mL), which ensures high quality of micromixing and hence the stoichiometric ratio of the atoms in the product being synthesized. Modern microreactors allow rigorous control of the temperature and pH in the reaction zone. Because several such zones can be arranged in one apparatus, the use of microreactors is promising for the synthesis of composite materials. Macroscale reactors of the new type are characterized by increased coefficients of heat and mass exchange. The volume of a pulsation resonance apparatus can be completely sealed during the process, which is particularly valuable in operation with dangerously explosive and inflammable substance, and a flow-through pulsation apparatus can be a good alternative to standard implementation of polymerization processes.