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FMP meets
mixing needs
FMP is a BHRSolutions-led
collaborative research programme which specialises in mixing. It
provides members with independently validated tools for evaluating
mixing processes and for achieving improvements in productivity.
FMP also provides expert consultancy to assist with implementation
of design and operational guidelines.
Established
in 1983, FMP is the world-recognised authority on fluid mixing processes,
providing industry with research results and guidelines for design,
operation and scale-up of batch reaction vessels.
The prime objective
of FMP is to improve the profitability, effectiveness and safety
of stirred or jet-mixed batch reactors. Mixing is a major activity
for all process industries. Over 50% of chemicals, food and pharmaceuticals
production is carried out in batch stirred reactors.
Optimisation
of processes is ensured through multi-disciplinary implementation
procedures which match mixing and fluid dynamics to the process
chemistry and mass transfer requirements.
The FMP programme
is organised and managed by BHRSolutions, and wholly funded
by industry. FMP is an innovative approach to shared cost research
which enables participants not only to join the programme when it
is relevant to their needs, but also to gain access to the results
of all previous work.
Because scale-up
is critical to the successful application of mixing technology in
industrial processes, FMP uses a range of geometrically similar
reactors 0.2m to 2.7m diameter to establish correct scaling procedures.
Experimental
techniques are upgraded continually. Novel sensors have been developed
in collaboration with university and industrial research workers.
Computational modelling techniques are employed to rationalise experimental
programmes, describe the fluid dynamics of reactors and extend the
FMP results to a range of industrially relevant applications.
FMP has generated
a unique databank of mixing experience and knowhow, which is distilled
in a series of Design Guides written by engineers for use by engineers,
in software and hard copy versions.
Training courses
and dissemination of information are vital aspects of the service
provided to member companies. FMP also acts as a forum for bringing
together industrial engineers, researchers and academics.
As a centre
of expertise, FMP attracts a range of industrial mixing enquiries
from around the world, from members and non-members. Specific problems
are investigated under separate commercial contracts by BHRSolutions'
engineers.
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Process
Technology:
