High-efficiency heat exchanger and reactor ideal for pharma

Ehrfeld Mikrotechnik BTS GmbH (EMB), a subsidiary of Bayer Technology Services, has concluded a worldwide license agreement with Mingatec GmbH for the marketing and manufacture of novel miniaturised heat exchangers and reactors.

The heat exchangers based on patented Miprowa technology have a substantially greater heat transfer capacity, are significantly less sensitive to fouling and are easier to clean than conventional apparatus.

This technology supplements the EMB portfolio of microstructured apparatus and modules for laboratory and technical service centre facilities, and in particular in the high throughput range of several tons of product per hour for production operations.

Miprowa technology is based on flat, rectangular channels with easily removable, structured layers extending edge-to-edge on the inside. Several such layers are overlaid to form a fine, flat, flow-through matrix, which homogenizes the flow of fluid across the entire channel cross-section and along the channel's full length.

It also quickly degrades temperature gradients. The intensive redirection of the product in the flat matrix and at the attemperation surfaces increases heat transfer performance while simultaneously reducing contact times, which benefits temperature-sensitive products.

A cross-sectional geometry optimised for the process can allow foreign particles to pass without filtering them and thus prevents blockages.

The compact design and resultant short attemperation and residence times help to avoid thermal damage to the product and suppress undesired secondary reactions.

The low volume of the product-side apparatus also reduces the plant's hazard potential. Flexible design of the layer geometries also enables the optimization of important process parameters such as pressure loss and attemperation performance. The heat exchanger can easily be inspected and cleaned by simply withdrawing the layer package from the Miprowa channels.

The new heat exchanger is available standard in CrNi (stainless steel) or Ni alloys and is extremely well suited for the challenging attemperation of sensitive pharmaceutical products.