What are the specific advantages of different types of reactors in phosphoric acid production?

Reactors play a vital role in phosphoric acid production, and different types of reactors have their own unique advantages. The following will introduce in detail the specific advantages of different types of reactors in phosphoric acid production.

1. Traditional reactors
Traditional reactors have a certain historical position in phosphoric acid production. Its advantage is that the technology is relatively mature and the operators are familiar with its process. For example, in some early phosphoric acid production units, traditional reactors can react stably and ensure a certain production efficiency. However, with the decline in the quality of phosphate ore, traditional reactors face more and more difficulties in the stable control of the production process, which may affect product quality and production consumption.

2. Microreactors
Microreactors have shown many advantages in phosphoric acid production. First, microreactors have the characteristics of small reaction space, which enables the reaction to be carried out in a more precise environment, which is conducive to controlling the reaction conditions. Secondly, the microreactor has a good mass transfer effect, which can quickly mix the reactants and increase the reaction rate. In addition, the microreactor has a short reaction time, which can greatly improve production efficiency. For example, a T-type microchannel reactor was used to study the decomposition of phosphate ore by phosphoric acid. Under optimal conditions, the decomposition rate of phosphate ore was 98.6%. Compared with traditional reactors, microreactors shorten the reaction time, improve the decomposition rate of phosphate ore and the quality of phosphogypsum produced in subsequent processes.

3. Double-tube reactor
The application of double-tube reactors in diammonium phosphate units also has significant advantages. For the 600kt/a diammonium phosphate unit of Yunnan Tianan Chemical Co., Ltd., as the quality of phosphate ore decreases, the original design of tubular reactor + pre-neutralization reactor mixed production process is difficult to stably control the production process. After changing to the double-tube reactor process, the production system operates stably, consumption decreases, and the intrinsic quality of the product is significantly improved.

4. Advanced process control reactor
In phosphoric acid production, reactors using advanced process control (APC) have many advantages. APC reactors can automatically adjust changes in the production process using technologies such as real-time plant data, real-time material balance, fuzzy logic and adaptive control. For example, in phosphoric acid production, the APC program was first placed in online control mode in 1991, which can continuously control free sulfate levels, P₂O₅ intensity, filter feed rate, and thus control operating rate and recovery rate. Significantly increased the P₂O₅ recovery rate to more than 3% and the productivity to more than 7%.

5. Molecular sieve membrane reactor
Although the molecular sieve membrane reactor is not directly applied to phosphoric acid production, it has potential reference significance in related fields. The molecular sieve membrane has a regular microporous structure (<1nm), is resistant to high temperature and high pressure, and is resistant to organic solvents. The molecular sieve membrane can be coupled with the catalytic reaction to form a membrane reactor, so that the reaction process and component separation proceed simultaneously, promote the movement of the reaction equilibrium, and achieve the effect of reaction enhancement. The characteristics of this reactor may provide new ideas and methods for the separation and purification process in phosphoric acid production.

Different types of reactors have their own unique advantages in phosphoric acid production. Enterprises can choose suitable reactors according to their own production needs and actual conditions to improve the efficiency and quality of phosphoric acid production.