Accentus Plc

Glyn Jeffrey Buckley

John William Stairmand

Michael Joseph Bowe

A chemical plant for performing a chemical reaction between particles of a material such as lithium metal, and a reagent such as butyl chloride in solution in hexane, in which one reaction product is a solid material, includes a reaction vessel (). Several ultrasonic transducers () are attached to a wall of the vessel () so as to irradiate ultrasonic waves into the vessel, the vessel being large enough that each transducer irradiates into fluid at least 0.1 m thick, each transducer irradiating no more than 3 W/cm2, and the transducers being sufficiently close to each other and the number of transducers being sufficiently high that the power dissipation within the vessel is at least 10 W/liter but no more than 200 W/liter. The high intensity of ultrasound ensures that lithium chloride is cleaned off the surface of lithium metal particles throughout the vessel ().

Chemical process and plant

Solvent containing a product (or precursor for the product) and anti-solvent are introduced via tangential inputs respectively of a fluidic vortex mixer The emerging mix from axial outlet is supplied directly to a precipitate entrapment device such as filter bed so that precipitate is removed from the solution before the precipitated particles have time to grow. Filtrate is treated in a reduced pressure evaporator to recover anti-solvent and return concentrated solution for combining with a product make up stream at and return to tangential input of the fluidic vortex mixer.

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Wigan, United Kingdom

Glyn Jeffrey Buckley