Scaling up of Compact Heat Exchanger Reactors

Chart Energy and Chemicals’ Compact Heat Exchange Reactor (CHER®) is a brazed metal reactor with integrated heat exchange. CHER features a high surface area to volume ratio and short distance for heat to travel, allowing high heat transfer efficiency. This allows control of exothermic reactions in CHER that are otherwise difficult to control with conventional reactors. CHER features repeating layered structures and modular units that can promote easy scale-up. Channels can be added in parallel without altering the process conditions within the reactor.

This presentation will discuss the performance of CHER at the bench, pilot, and commercial scale. It will include recent data in pilot scale plants using CHER, along with some related reactor modeling work. Fixed-bed Fischer-Tropsch synthesis was demonstrated in a CHER with an aluminum core inside a steel vessel (based on Chart’s Core-In-Kettle® patented design). Methanol synthesis was demonstrated using a stainless steel CHER.