Complete segregation

Complete segregation (Molecules are kept grouped together in aggi egates). 

COMPLETE SEGREGATION MODEL WITH SIDE EXITS ... 

The completely segregated, continuous-how stirred tank reactor... 

The condition of negligible diffusion means that the reactor is completely segregated. A further generalization of Equation (8.9) applies to any completely segregated reactor ... 

We have just described a completely segregated stirred tank reactor. It is one of the ideal flow reactors discussed in Section 1.4. It has an exponential distribution of residence times but a reaction environment that is very different from that within a perfectly mixed stirred tank. 

The completely segregated stirred tank can be modeled as a set of piston flow reactors in parallel, with the lengths of the individual piston flow elements being distributed exponentially. Any residence time distribution can be modeled as piston flow elements in parallel. Simply divide the flow evenly between the elements and then cut the tubes so that they match the shape of the washout function. See Figure 15.12. A reactor modeled in this way is said to be completely segregated. Its outlet concentration is found by averaging the concentrations of the individual PFRs ... 

Example 15.12 Find the outlet concentration from a completely segregated stirred tank for a first-order reaction. Repeat for a second-order reaction with = —kcp-. 

When the residence time distribution is known, the uncertainty about reactor performance is greatly reduced. A real system must lie somewhere along a vertical line in Figure 15.14. The upper point on this line corresponds to maximum mixedness and usually provides one bound limit on reactor performance. Whether it is an upper or lower bound depends on the reaction mechanism. The lower point on the line corresponds to complete segregation and provides the opposite bound on reactor performance. The complete segregation limit can be calculated from Equation (15.48). The maximum mixedness limit is found by solving Zwietering s differential equation. ... 

Solution The limits you can calculate under part (a) correspond to the three apexes in Figure 15.14. The limits are 0.167 for a PFR (Equation (1.47)), 0.358 for a CSTR (Equation (1.52)), and 0.299 for a completely segregated stirred tank. The last limit was obtained by integrating Equation (15.48) in the form... 

The limits for part (b) are at the endpoints of a vertical line in Figure 15.14 that corresponds to the residence time distribution for two tanks in series. The maximum mixedness point on this line is 0.287 as calculated in Example 15.14. The complete segregation limit is 0.233 as calculated from Equation (15.48) using/(/) for the tanks-in-series model with N=2 ... 

Part (c) considers the mixing extremes possible with the physical arrangement of two tanks in series. The two reactors could be completely segregated so one limit remains 0.233 as calculated in part (b). The other limit corresponds to two CSTRs in series. The first reactor has half the total volume so that Uinkii = 2.5. Its output is 0.463. The second reactor has (ai )2ki2 = 1.16, and its output is 0.275. This is a tighter bound than calculated in part (b). The fraction unreacted must lie between 0.233 and 0.275. 

Equation (15.48) governs the performance of the completely segregated reactor, and Equation (15.49) governs the maximum mixedness reactor. These reactors represent extremes in the kind of mixing that can occur between molecules that have different ages. Do they also represent extremes of performance as measured by conversion or selectivity The bounding theorem provides a partial answer ... 

Suppose is a function of a alone and that neither dSt Ajda nor d Alda change sign over the range of concentrations encountered in the reactor. Then, for a system having a fixed residence time distribution. Equations (15.48) and (15.49) provide absolute bounds on the conversion of component A, the conversion in a real system necessarily falling within the bounds. If d S A/dc > 0, conversion is maximized by maximum mixedness and minimized by complete segregation. If d 0i A/da < 0, the converse is true. If cf- A/da = 0, micro-mixing has no effect on conversion. 

The difference between complete segregation and maximum mixedness is largest when the reactor is a stirred tank and is zero when the reactor is a PFR. Even for the stirred tank case, it has been difficult to find experimental evidence of segregation for single-phase reactions. Real CSTRs approximate perfect mixing when observed on the time and distance scales appropriate to industrial reactions, provided that the feed is premixed. Even with unmixed... 

Assume A, B, C, and D have similar diffusivities so that local stoichiometry is preserved. Under what circumstances will conversion be maximized by (a) complete segregation (b) by maximum mixedness Heterogeneous reactions are often modeled as if they were homogeneous. A frequently encountered rate expression is... 

Figure 5.132. Complete segregation (I =1) of reactants A and B in two volume fractions.

S No mixing of the contents of the elements as they move through the reactor (complete segregation). 

Due to problems concerning the isolation of single Thermosynechococcus-colonies the segregation process of both described His-tag mutants was not complete. These problems have been solved now and it is likely that a complete segregation of both mutants will even more increase the amount of isolated PS1 and PS2 complex. 

For complete segregation, the performance is obtained from the segregated flow... 

For a first-order reaction in a CSTR, compare the predicted performance for completely segregated flow with that for nonsegregated flow. 

Complete segregation any fluid element is isolated from all other fluid elements and retains its identity throughout the entire vessel. No micromixing occurs, but macromixing may occur. 

The segregated-flow reactor model (SFM) represents the micromixing condition of complete segregation (no mixing) of fluid elements. As noted in Section 19.2, this is one extreme model of micromixing, the maximum-mixedness model being the other. 

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