Technical Papers and Presentations

We will present the issues of a microreactor setup designed for microwave organic synthesis and demonstrate how COMSOL Multiphysics® is used to understand the mechanism of microwave heating and improve the microreactor design. The RF Module was used for the electromagnetics and solid heat transfer simulations of a CEM Discover microwave unit, while the Heat Transfer and CFD Modules were used the estimate the heat convection of the air within the microwave cavity and fluids in the microreactor channels. The results match the temperature measured experimentally and show that the heating limitations were due to both the convection heat loss created by the air pocket and the low electrical field strength caused by the thinness of the reactor.