The Sulzer Mixer Reactor SMR™ is a tube bundle heat exchanger that allows highly effective cooling or heating of viscous media. The SMR™ heat exchanger is your first choice when you wish to combine effective mixing with controlled heat transfer.

• High-effective cooling & heating
• Mixing + heat transfer combined
• No moving parts
• Tube bundle design 

The SMXL™ heat exchanger family covers both monotube and multitube configurations — used mainly for heating and partly for cooling of heat-sensitive and/or viscous products, including preheating of polymer solutions prior to devolatilization.

• Monotube Heat Exchanger SMXL™: The monotube SMXL™ configuration is designed for applications requiring gentle, uniform heating of a single high-viscosity polymer stream. Its static mixer internals ensure homogeneous temperature distribution without hot spots, protecting sensitive polymer chains from thermal degradation.


• Multitube Heat Exchanger SMXL™: The multitube SMXL™ scales thermal management across parallel polymer streams, delivering consistent heat exchange performance at higher throughput rates. A special application is the preheating of polymer solutions where part of the product begins to evaporate inside the heat exchanger, for example, prior to entering the devolatilization vessel.

Individual SMR reactors can be put into series to form a loop reactor, used especially for highly exothermal reactions. The SMR™ exhibits almost volume-independent heat transfer making it one of the most scalable reactor technologies available for continuous polymer production.

• Loop Reactor Configuration: With the increased flow rate of the loop concept, even highly exothermal polymerization reactions can be handled safely. The recirculation ratio of the loop reactor can be adjusted to individual process requirements and can reach CSTR (cascade reactor) characteristics. Thanks to its densely packed heat exchange surface area, the SMR™ provides reliable heat removal and temperature control throughout.


• Post-Polymerization Plug Flow Reactor: In order to increase conversion after a CSTR or loop reactor, the SMR™ is often applied as a post-polymerization reactor. Several SMR modules can be built in series, making separate temperature and mixing zones available to meet varying process requirements for high conversions. With decreasing monomer concentrations, the SMR™ accelerates the reaction by establishing a plug flow profile — ensuring homogeneous distribution of monomer in the viscous fluid.


• Heat Removal Capacity: The SMR™ exhibits almost volume-independent heat transfer — meaning heat removal performance does not degrade as reactor size increases. This unique characteristic allows Sulzer to scale polymer plants from pilot to industrial capacity without thermal management trade-offs, unlike conventional stirred tank or extruder-based systems. 

Sulzer's 'devo' devolatilization technology uses multistage static mixing combined with flash separation to strip residual monomers, solvents, and VOCs from polymer melts — reaching state-of-the-art residual levels well within current environmental legislation, and without the energy costs of dynamic kneader equipment.

• VOC reduction to ppm levels — meets the strictest environmental and product safety regulations globally.


• No hot spots — static heat exchangers eliminate localized overheating and product degradation.


• Lower energy consumption — absence of heavy rotating equipment means significant energy and OPEX savings.


• Stripping agent flexibility — water, N₂, CO₂, or other agents for final-stage ultra-low residual targets. 

With its proven static mixing technology, Sulzer offers cost-effective solutions for the in-line upgrading of polymer melts — admixing additives such as dyes, nucleating agents, lubricants, pigments, and stabilizers with precise control and homogeneous dispersion.

• Inline additive mixing — dyes, nucleating agents, stabilizers added homogeneously without separate compounding steps.


• Polymer melt heat exchangers — SMXL-type units for preheating and temperature conditioning of viscous melts prior to devolatilization.


• Gentle product handling — low shear forces preserve polymer chain integrity and optical clarity.


• Skid-mounted modules — fully integrated, factory-tested units for faster site installation and startup.