AutoRefrigerated Reactor Control

Why are the CSTRs worth considering at all They are more expensive per unit volume and less efficient as chemical reactors (except for autocatalysis). In fact, CSTRs are useful for some multiphase reactions, but that is not the situation here. Their potential justification in this example is temperature control. BoiUng (autorefrigerated) reactors can be kept precisely at the desired temperature. The shell-and-tube reactors cost less but offer less effective temperature control. Adiabatic reactors have no control at all, except that can be set. 

Thus the autorefrigerated reactor system provides yet another example of the importance of heat transfer area and the increased difficulty of controlling reactors that do not have high conversion rates. Keep in mind that we are considering exothermic reactions that are irreversible. Control problems are much less severe in reactors with endothermic reactions or with reversible reactions because of the inherent self-regulatory nature of the chemistry. 

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