关键词: 微反应器, 壁面负载式微反应器, 填充床式微反应器, 气液两相流

Abstract: Microreactors possess advantages such as high heat and mass transfer efficiency, strict control of reaction parameters, ease of scale-up, and good safety performance, and hold promises for enabling and accelerating the discovery of flow chemistry towards highly efficient and more sustainable chemical synthesis. Gas-liquid multiphase catalytic reaction is commonly encountered in chemical production process, where the reaction stream enters the microfluidic channel in a continuous flow and undergoes rapid reaction. The combination of microreactor technology and gas-liquid multiphase catalytic reaction facilitates the development of efficient and sustainable chemical production techniques. Gas-liquid multiphase catalytic microreactors can be classified as wall-coated or filled-bed microreactors based on catalyst fixation approaches. By optimizing the geometric structure design of the microreactor, it is possible to further reduce the reaction time, minimize the material retention and suppress the occurrence of undesirable reactions, thus improving the microreactor performance. However, the optimization of microreactor structure requires a comprehensive understanding of various physics including the flow characteristics of gas-liquid fluids, the mass transfer mechanism and reaction kinetics within the microreactor. Both the flow pattern and mass transfer of multiphase fluids in microreactors will affect the reactor performance. Investigating the gas-liquid system in microreactors promotes improved design of practical devices. This review mainly summarizes typical gas-liquid microreactor examples, and hope to provide inspiration and guidance for the design, fabrication, and application of microreactors. The review is organized as follows, first, the features of microreactor technology are introduced and the optimization strategies for microreactor structures are presented, which is followed by a detailed discussion on the flow patterns, mass transfer characteristics and bubble breakup dynamics in gas-liquid multiphase systems within microreactors. Then, examples of multiphase catalytic microreactors in applications (mainly focusing on wall-coated microreactors and filled-bed microreactors) and their limitations are introduced. Finally, the research trends and application prospects in gas-liquid multiphase microreactors are envisaged.

Key words: microreactor, wall-coated microreactor, filled-bed microreactor, gas-liquid two-phase flow