Comparative study of liquid-phase autoxidation of indan in microfluidic reactors

Conversion and product selectivity during liquid phase autoxidation of hydrocarbons are affected by number of operating conditions, but foremost oxygen availability and temperature. The objective of this study was to investigate how the reactor hydrodynamics would manipulate the oxygen availability for controlling the oxidative conversion and product selectivity while suppressing the formation of additional products. The experiments were performed by using oxygen and indan (a highly reactive naphthenic-aromatic compound that is susceptible to form addition products) in two glass microfluidic reactors of different dimensions and volume, (Reactor A: 62.5 µL of irregular shape and Reactor B: 1000 µL of rectangular shape) at 100-160 °C temperatures and 300 kPa pressures maintaining slug (Taylor) flow. Mass transfer calculations of our experimental data shows reactor dimensions influenced the oxygen availability significantly. The understanding from the study can be applied in design and operation of many industrial operations to control the conversion and product selectivity of a complex free radical system.