Reactor design concepts for radiation processing

• Published in: Radiation physics and chemistry (Oxford, England : 1993) England : 1993), 2004-09, Vol.71 (1), p.311-316
• Main Author: Berejka, Anthony J
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chemical reactors; Electron beam; Reactor design
• ISSN: 0969-806X; 1879-0895
• DOI: 10.1016/j.radphyschem.2004.04.018

During the formative years of irradiation processing, the 1950s and 1960s, there was laboratory and academic interest in the use of this form of energy transfer to initiate polymerization for the manufacture of plastics and in other chemical processes. Studies were often based on low-dose-rate Cobalt-60 systems. The electron beam (EB) accelerator technology of the time was not as yet at the robust and industrially reliable state that it is now at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A series of reactor designs illustrate how an electron beam can be incorporated into reactor vessels for initiating gas and liquid phase polymerizations on a continuous basis. Development of such approaches, which would rely upon contemporary, high current electron beams to initiate polymerization, would help the chemical processing industry alleviate its problems of catalyst disposal and its related environmental concerns. Systems for treating materials in bulk at low doses, such as those typically used for grain disinfection, at high through-put rates, are also illustrated. Simplified shielding is envisioned in each proposed process system.