Chapter 8
Scaling-Up Enabling the Full Potential
of Industrial Applications of Ultrasound
and Hydrodynamic Cavitation
Abstract Nowadays, the requirement for process intensification in the chemical
industry no longer only meets the economic considerations but also at the necessity
to anchoring the industrial production in a sustainable approach, cleaner and more
energy efficient technology. As we have seen in previous chapters, the phenomenon
of cavitation, whether of hydrodynamic or ultrasonic origin, is likely to generate
beneficial effects recognized as conducive for scale-up operations. Technically, the
extrapolation of laboratory experiments on an industrial scale consists in taking into
account the numerous constraints related to the production of large quantities of materials (impurities of the raw materials, duration of process, reliability, etc.) in large
reactors. Thus, the development of a production line requires the realization of a pilot
unit that will solve the problems encountered during the climb to scale-up. These
miniaturized replicas have variable production capacities ranging from kilogram to
several tens of kilograms and can be carried out in a research unit. Therefore, many
laboratories have been engaged in this way for a few years and the number of publications on pilot units, whether dedicated to ultrasonic or hydrodynamic processes, has
considerably increased these last years. This chapter is meant to be didactic and is not
the object of a detailed development of cavitation phenomenon scaling operations.
In this sense, he is interested in the basic considerations of cavitation phenomena on
the industrial scale through some reminders and representative examples.
8.1 Introduction
Hydrodynamic and ultrasonic cavitation phenomena have in common that they
aroused the interest of scientists during the World War I with the inception of the first
submarine war. Thus, the physical theoretical foundations of cavitation were relatively discussed early, but chemists looked at the subject at different times. First, the
concept of sonochemistry was stated by A. Loomis which published in 1927 a study
on the ‘physical and biological effects of high-frequency sound waves’. Although
large-scale experiments were the subject of early research, industrial sonochemistry
was born in the 1960s. The industrial sonochemical reactors were pioneered more
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
J.-M. Lévêque et al., Organic Sonochemistry, Ultrasound and Sonochemistry,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98554-1_8
113
Scaling-Up Enabling the Full Potential
of Industrial Applications of Ultrasound
and Hydrodynamic Cavitation
Abstract Nowadays, the requirement for process intensification in the chemical
industry no longer only meets the economic considerations but also at the necessity
to anchoring the industrial production in a sustainable approach, cleaner and more
energy efficient technology. As we have seen in previous chapters, the phenomenon
of cavitation, whether of hydrodynamic or ultrasonic origin, is likely to generate
beneficial effects recognized as conducive for scale-up operations. Technically, the
extrapolation of laboratory experiments on an industrial scale consists in taking into
account the numerous constraints related to the production of large quantities of materials (impurities of the raw materials, duration of process, reliability, etc.) in large
reactors. Thus, the development of a production line requires the realization of a pilot
unit that will solve the problems encountered during the climb to scale-up. These
miniaturized replicas have variable production capacities ranging from kilogram to
several tens of kilograms and can be carried out in a research unit. Therefore, many
laboratories have been engaged in this way for a few years and the number of publications on pilot units, whether dedicated to ultrasonic or hydrodynamic processes, has
considerably increased these last years. This chapter is meant to be didactic and is not
the object of a detailed development of cavitation phenomenon scaling operations.
In this sense, he is interested in the basic considerations of cavitation phenomena on
the industrial scale through some reminders and representative examples.
8.1 Introduction
Hydrodynamic and ultrasonic cavitation phenomena have in common that they
aroused the interest of scientists during the World War I with the inception of the first
submarine war. Thus, the physical theoretical foundations of cavitation were relatively discussed early, but chemists looked at the subject at different times. First, the
concept of sonochemistry was stated by A. Loomis which published in 1927 a study
on the ‘physical and biological effects of high-frequency sound waves’. Although
large-scale experiments were the subject of early research, industrial sonochemistry
was born in the 1960s. The industrial sonochemical reactors were pioneered more
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2018
J.-M. Lévêque et al., Organic Sonochemistry, Ultrasound and Sonochemistry,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98554-1_8
113