Comparative study on performic acid synthesis in a batch reactor and a continuous flow microreactor using an amberlyst 15H catalyst

Abstract The continuous manufacturing of the Performic Acid (PFA) is turn major attention as it is used in an oil industries, food, chemical and etc. as a consequence of it has good oxidizing properties. The continuous flow microreactors are smaller having low volume with good effective mass transfer rate and heat transfer rate. In this study, the PFA had synthesized in a conventional reactor or/a batch reactor as well as in a continuous flow microreactor (CFM), which was made up of polytetrafluorethylene (PTFE) capillary continuous flow microreactor by using the catalyst of amberlyst 15H. The present study concentrated on studying the impact of temperature, concentration of the HP and heterogeneous catalyst (amberlyst 15H) for the synthesis of the PFA. The investigative study shown that the conversion of the PFA has been effected by altering in concentration of the HP, temperature and catalyst concentration. The use of solid catalyst directed to good amount of the PFA manufactured in lesser time. The heterogeneous catalysts have some advantages over homogeneous catalysts due to lower corrosion and separation of the catalyst is easy. The continuous flow microreactor set up is fit for continuous production of the PFA compared to the batch reactor. The conversion of the PFA is attained about 49 % in 8 min at 40 °C with amberlyst 15H in the continuous flow microreactor and 32 % in 6 min at 40 °C with amberlyst in the batch reactor.