Our patented STT® System is the state of the art in process intensification for chemistry applications. The STT® technology creates significant increases in reaction rates where mass transfer, temperature control, viscosity or solids are issues. A significant benefit of the STT® System technology is that optimization can be determined on the bench scale, which easily scales through pilot production and immediately into the commercial scale.
With its broad applicability and flexibility, the STT® Reactor system allows acceleration of chemical reaction rates by up to three orders of magnitude; increases selectivity, conversions and yields; controls the quality of chemical processes in real-time; provides dramatic decrease in the time required for manufacturing scale-up; decreases solvent usage; and meets the growing demands for chemical process intensification and green chemistry.
The STT® System achieves these advantages by inducing a physical phenomenon that is ideal for the mixing of reactants called Couette flow. We induce Couette flow by mixing reactants in a narrow annular gap between a stationary stator and a rapidly rotating, concentric, internal rotor so that the reactants move as a laminar thin film in a high shear field. We are the first company that has been able to practically apply Couette flow to chemical manufacturing.
Until the advent of the STT® System, Couette flow was not suited to manufacturing applications because it often generates tiny radial whirlpools called Taylor vortices that disrupt the mixing process. The Taylor vortices create boundaries between the different materials entering the system and hindering their interaction. Thus, for example, if a red and a white liquid were introduced into a standard Couette mixer with its Taylor vortices, the thin film created would resemble a Barber pole (Taylor rings).
We have developed the STT® System to induce Couette Flow without the production of disruptive Taylor vortices by modifying conditions relating to circumferential rotor speeds, the smoothness of the rotor and stator surfaces, and the size of the annular gap. Our STT® System is covered by 11 issued and 3 pending patents.