Continuous operation
Thread Content
Our company mainly produces pesticides. Due to the numerous reaction steps involved in their production, batch processing is primarily used – that is, one reactor is employed to carry out the entire reaction process before the product is extracted. This method has its advantages for small-scale production, but since our current output has exceeded 10,000 tons, there is an urgent need to implement automated control and continuous processing methods. However, we are not very familiar with this area at present and are acting rather blindly. We hope that those with experience can offer some guidance; thank you all!
At present, we use a single reactor for batch operations, with all steps such as material addition, temperature raising, dropwise addition, maintaining the reaction temperature, and temperature lowering being carried out within that same reactor. The entire process takes approximately 8–10 hours, and it requires constant supervision. We now want to switch to a continuous operation using multiple reactors in series, but we’re not sure how to proceed. Those with experience in this area could please advise me on how to approach this – mainly regarding the design and the sequence of operations. I’m quite confused about this at the moment.
How long does it take for you to respond regarding heat preservation? And do you use local control instruments?
The reaction is held at a constant temperature for 3 hours. Currently, most systems use on-site instrument displays, as we need to continuously adjust the pH value during this period; moreover, the temperature is quite high, around 100 degrees. Online pH meters find it difficult to function under such conditions.