Microreactors

Microreactors open a novel way of chemical synthesis in a highly controlled way. Due to their improved mass and heat transfer, these devices are well suited, e.g., for mixing-sensitive, fast and highly exothermic reactions. Endothermic reactions profit as well from the improved thermal management. This leads to a better exploitation of resources and decrease of energy consumption of chemical processes and will hereby increase their costing and eco-efficiency. An additional interesting benefit is the enabling to run reactions in a safe way under unconventional process parameters known as new process windows. This includes processing at unusually high temperatures and pressures - high-p-T processing. In this overview, selected examples from the diversity of microstructured components are given and grouped by their scopes of applications. This comprises first microreactors or micromixers for liquid / liquid contacting, followed by microdevices for gas / liquid contacting and then by catalytic gas-phase microreactors.