Arnab Chaudhuri
achaudhuri.bsky.social
Arnab Chaudhuri
@achaudhuri.bsky.social
Assistant Professor @ Maastricht University (Chemical Engineering)
Avid reader, history enthusiast, Arsenal Football Club fan
Our work on scaling up a gas-liquid photochemical reaction to > 15 kg/day productivity. If you are interested, please take a look.
Paper 2 of 2025 is also an engineering one: scaling up photochemical reactions to >15kg/day is possible with our continuous-flow spinning disk reactor equipped with a high-intensity LED.

🔗OPRD: pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

@achaudhuri.bsky.social, @jhaschuurmans.bsky.social, @tnoel82.bsky.social
Scaling Up Gas–Liquid Photo-Oxidations in Flow Using Rotor-Stator Spinning Disc Reactors and a High-Intensity Light Source
Photochemical transformations have garnered renewed interest over the past decade for their ability to enable unique reactions under mild conditions. However, scaling up such processes, particularly in multiphase systems (e.g., gas–liquid), remains challenging. Previously, we demonstrated the potential of the photochemical rotor-stator spinning disc reactor (pRS-SDR) for scaling the photooxidation of α-terpinene to ascaridole, though the system was limited by the light source, resulting in suboptimal operation in a photon-limited regime. In this work, we unlock the full potential of the pRS-SDR by integrating a high-powered light source (up to 652 W optical output) specifically designed for the reactor. The results show that the high gas–liquid mass transfer rates achievable in the pRS-SDR allow for significant productivity improvements under high irradiance (16.3 kg day–1 at 92% α-terpinene conversion and 2.52 W cm–2 in a 27 mL irradiated volume), representing an order of magnitude increase compared to our previous study. However, the photooxidation of β-citronellol exhibited notable limitations, highlighting the importance of selecting appropriate model reactions when evaluating intensified photochemical reactors.
pubs.acs.org
January 14, 2025 at 7:04 PM
Reposted by Arnab Chaudhuri
1st paper of 2025 is a fact: Turns out, adding gas bubbles can boost photon absorption in photoreactors by scattering and intensifying light intensity.

🔗 React Chem Eng: pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

🙌: @jhaschuurmans.bsky.social, Stefan, Arnab, Miguel, John & @tnoel82.bsky.social

#flowchemistry
January 6, 2025 at 7:57 AM