Flowid cannot reveal the name of the purchasing company, or the value of the sale, “but we are talking about six figure numbers”, says Flowid managing director Wouter Stam. “The client will use the reactor primarily to master the technology. If this works out well, the client has the intention to buy several other SpinPro reactors for production purposes.”

Besides this sale Flowid expects to sell units in Europe and in the United States in the short run. In the Netherlands Flowid is currently constructing an industrial-scale plant at Brightlands Chemelot Campus. “Flowid now employs fifteen, and has the intention to grow to a large company. The market targeted by us is worth hundreds of millions of euros, or more”, states Stam.

The SpinPro reactor is a totally new type of chemical reactor, which is not only much smaller than conventional reactors, but it is also much safer, efficient and more environmentally-friendly. Classical reactors are large vessels in which reactants are strongly diluted and reactions are performed slowly, in batch. Heating or cooling the large volume requires large amounts of energy, as does the separation process required to filter out the dilutant.

SpinPro reactors are very small reactors, in which reactions are performed continuously, at high temperature and speed, with very little dilutant. As there always is only a small amount of reactants in the reactor, the SpinPro process is inherently safe. Because temperature, pressure and flow are controlled very accurately, there is much less waste product. And as there is very little dilutant used, little energy is required for dilutant heating or separation.

Another advantage of the SpinPro is the higher production capacity, hence lower labour costs per unit of product, and the smaller size. All in all production with SpinPro technology is twenty to fifty percent more affordable.

Flowid’s SpinPro technology won the Core Chemical Engineering Award of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and the Dutch Herman Wijffels Innovation Award.

Source: TU/e press team