New Falling Film Reactor for Melt Polycondensation Process

Summary: A grid falling film tower (GFFT) has been invented as an ideal polycondensation reactor. In this reactor, polymer melt flows through multi‐layers grids from top to bottom to form falling film owing to gravity without agitation and shear; large gas‐liquid interfacial area is generated; the grids are perpendicular between adjacent layers to ensure film renewal and to achieve uniformly flowing. The fluid flow in this reactor has little back‐mixing and dead zone, which is near to plug flow. All melts are under the state of thin film which avoids the negative effect of hydrostatic head on the mass transfer impetus. Furthermore, the GFFT has wide operation flexibility as well as adjustable configuration parameters to meet different demands. A pilot scale GFFT with the height of 4.0 meters has been applied to polyester polycondensation process. The intrinsic viscosity of polyethylene terephthalate increased from 0.45 dl/g to 0.8–0.9 dl/g successfully. GFFT is supposed to be an universal apparatus for many devolatilization processes.