Chemical reactions, controlling continuous reactors

Over 25 years ago the coking factor of the radiant coil was empirically correlated to operating conditions (48). It has been assumed that the mass transfer of coke precursors from the bulk of the gas to the walls was controlling the rate of deposition (39). Kinetic models (24,49,50) were developed based on the chemical reaction at the wall as a controlling step. Bench-scale data (51—53) appear to indicate that a chemical reaction controls. However, flow regimes of bench-scale reactors are so different from the commercial furnaces that scale-up of bench-scale results caimot be confidently appHed to commercial furnaces. For example. Figure 3 shows the coke deposited on a controlled cylindrical specimen in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and the rate of coke deposition. The deposition rate decreases with time and attains a pseudo steady value. Though this is achieved in a matter of rninutes in bench-scale reactors, it takes a few days in a commercial furnace. 

In the earlier chapter, we have discussed the emergence of time-order in chemical reactions in continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR) and have discussed the concept of negative and positive feedback for occurrence of oscillatory reactions. In this respect, experimental studies of oscillatory reactions in batch reactors have been investigated in great depth which has provided convincing evidence for the important role of auto-catalytic and inhibitory reactions in oscillatory reactions. Rate of internal production is controlled by the influx of reactants from external source. 

A cascade of three continuous stirred-tank reactors arranged in series, is used to carry out an exothermic, first-order chemical reaction. The reactors are jacketed for cooling water, and the flow of water through the cooling jackets is countercurrent to that of the reaction. A variety of control schemes can be employed and are of great importance, since the reactor scheme shows a multiplicity of possible stable operating points. This example is taken from the paper of Mukesh and Rao (1977). 

Continuous flow stirred tank reactors are normally just what the name implies—tanks into which reactants flow and from which a product stream is removed on a continuous basis. CFSTR, CSTR, C-star, and back-mix reactor are only a few of the names applied to the idealized stirred tank flow reactor. We will use the letters CSTR as a shorthand notation in this textbook. The virtues of a stirred tank reactor lie in its simplicity of construction and the relative ease with which it may be controlled. These reactors are used primarily for carrying out liquid phase reactions in the organic chemicals... 

An example of a highly exothermic reaction carried out in this manner is provided by the manufacture of dodecylbenzene sulphonic acid. The reactor is charged with dodecylbenzene and 20% oleum is fed in continuously at a rate which is regulated to give a uniform temperature during the sulphonation reaction. The conversion is thus effectively controlled by the rate of oleum addition rather than the rate of the chemical reaction. 

All chemical reactions are accompanied by some heat effects so that the temperature will tend to change, a serious result in view of the sensitivity of most reaction rates to temperature. Factors of equipment size, controllability, and possibly unfavorable product distribution of complex reactions often necessitate provision of means of heat transfer to keep the temperature within bounds. In practical operation of nonflow or tubular flow reactors, truly isothermal conditions are not feasible even if they were desirable. Individual continuous stirred tanks, however, do maintain substantially uniform temperatures at steady state when the mixing is intense enough the level is determined by the heat of reaction as well as the rate of heat transfer provided. 

As was mentioned above, every efficient application of microwave energy to perform chemical syntheses requires reliable temperature measurement as well as continuous power feedback control, which enable heating of reaction mixtures to a desired temperature without thermal runaways. Moreover, power feedback control systems that are operated in the most microwave reactors enable a synthesis to be carried out without knowing the dielectric properties or/and conductive properties of all the components of the reaction mixture in detail. On the other hand, temperature control during microwave irradiation is a major problem that one faces during microwave-assisted chemical reactions. In general, temperature in microwave field can be measured by means of ... 

JAEA conducted an improvement of the RELAP5 MOD3 code (US NRC, 1995), the system analysis code originally developed for LWR systems, to extend its applicability to VHTR systems (Takamatsu, 2004). Also, a chemistry model for the IS process was incorporated into the code to evaluate the dynamic characteristics of process heat exchangers in the IS process (Sato, 2007). The code covers reactor power behaviour, thermal-hydraulics of helium gases, thermal-hydraulics of the two-phase steam-water mixture, chemical reactions in the process heat exchangers and control system characteristics. Field equations consist of mass continuity, momentum conservation and energy conservation with a two-fluid model and reactor power is calculated by point reactor kinetics equations. The code was validated by the experimental data obtained by the HTTR operations and mock-up test facility (Takamatsu, 2004 Ohashi, 2006). 

The primary types of chemical reactions are either batch or continuous. In batch reactions, the reactant chemicals are added to the reactor (reaction vessel) at the same time and products are emptied completely when the reaction is finished. The reactors are made of stainless steel or glass-lined carbon steel and range in size from 200 to several thousand liters. Batch reactors are provided with a stirrer to mix the reactants, an insulating jacket, and the appropriate pipes and valves to control the reaction conditions. ... 

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