Mixers with Microstructured Foils for Chemical Production Purposes

For about the past ten years the Institut fur Mikrotechnik Mainz GmbH (IMM) has been engaged in the application of micro structures for chemical micro process engineering. Their advantages – more efficient heat exchange and mass transport – lead to, among other things, an increase in yield and selectivity even while saving resources. The development of microstructured mixers thereby played a key role for carrying out advanced syntheses of fine chemicals, as well as for the generation of dispersions, creams, foams and emulsions. So far, microstructured mixers have been mainly limited to laboratory-scale or at best pilot plant-scale – typical maximum flow rates were from 2–100 L/h for low viscosity systems. With the introduction of the StarLaminators StarLam300 and StarLam3000, this barrier could be lifted far beyond 300 L/h up to the m3/h domain. Both apparatus yield at high flow rates a mixing efficiency which reaches the high performance of today's low-capacity (L/h) micromixers. Therefore, continuity exists from the “real” micromixers and the high-throughput tools described below to conventionally manufactured static mixers with even higher flow rates. A classification of the mixing efficiency versus the power input confirms this continuity as well.