Plug Flow Reactor

LIST’s Innovative Kneader Reactor Technology

Today’s processing industry faces mounting pressure to move toward process intensification, cleaner production, and continuous optimization. Meanwhile, environmental concerns continue to push operators to find ways to reduce consumption of raw materials and energy, eliminate toxic substances, and lower emissions and waste.

The ultimate goal is to lower both CAPEX and OPEX while improving product quality and process reliability. Evolving kneader reactor technology plays a central role in helping processors achieve these goals. LIST stands at the forefront.

LIST’s patented kneader reactors effectively combine mechanical, chemical, and thermal processing capabilities in a single unit. The result is a feature-rich and performance-enhanced solution that no other technology can deliver. The company’s focus on dry processing of materials in the concentrated phase is yielding significant benefits.

Processing in the Concentrated Phase (Dry Processing)

Dry processing in the concentrated phase requires the ability to handle highly viscous, pasty and crust-forming products, using little or no solvent. It also requires the capability to handle phase changes during processing.

LIST innovative kneader reactor technology achieves this by providing:

• Robust design for high viscosity processing
• Excellent mixing and kneading during wet, pasty and viscous phases
• Large heat-exchange surface areas that create high surface-to-volume ratios
• Higher turndown ratio to accommodate rapid changes in throughput
• Larger cross-section that reduces product foaming and eliminates dome plugging
• High surface renewal
• Narrow residence-time distribution that enhances plug flow operation
• The ability to accommodate a wide range of residence times

Additionally, LIST Kneader Reactors feature a highly efficient closed self-cleaning design for a cleaner production environment. The unique design also significantly lowers shear to avoid breaking down sensitive materials while creating working volumes sufficient to handle large commercial operations.

As a result, LIST Kneader Reactors have become the technology of choice for a wide variety of applications: 

• Reactions / Polymerizations
• Mixing / Compounding
• Drying
• Devolatilization
• Crystallization

Process Intensification

Introduced in the 1970s for the bulk chemical industry, process intensification (PI) is now being embraced as a revolutionary approach to process and plant design. At LIST, however, the underlying principals of PI, such as reducing the footprint and creating multi-disciplinary operations, have guided our efforts for decades. The result has been units that deliver high yield and have tremendous flexibility.

Our success in developing kneader reactors that combine and/or consolidate multiple processes has created far-reaching benefits for our customers. Today, LIST customers are able to eliminate equipment and processing steps; in doing so they reduce space and energy requirements, increase process efficiency, and lower their CAPEX and OPEX costs.