Continuous flow, well stirred tank reactor

Fig. 1.11. Schematic diagram of a continuous-flow well-stirred tank reactor (GSTR), the...

The simplest type of open system of interest in combustion is the continuous-flow well-stirred tank reactor or CSTR, which is an idealization of tank reactors used widely in industry. In essence, this is simply a tank into which reactants flow continuously at some known volumetric flow-rate and the reactant-intermediate-product mixture is efficiently stirred so that there are no spatial concentration or temperature gradients. In order to maintain a constant reaction volume, there is a matching volumetric outflow of the mixture from the CSTR so that molecules spend only a finite time in the reactor. This is known as the mean residence time t es and is determined by the volumetric flow-rates and the reactor volume. 

The simplest form of flow system is the continuously fed well-stirred tank reactor or CSTR, represented schematically in Fig. 1.11. The behaviour of typical autocatalytic systems in a CSTR will be considered in chapters 4 and 5, but here we may quickly examine how multistability can arise, even with only one overall chemical reaction. We will take a CSTR in which just the... 

Various experimental methods to evaluate the kinetics of flow processes existed even in the last centuty. They developed gradually with the expansion of the petrochemical industry. In the 1940s, conversion versus residence time measurement in tubular reactors was the basic tool for rate evaluations. In the 1950s, differential reactor experiments became popular. Only in the 1960s did the use of Continuous-flow Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTRs) start to spread for kinetic studies. A large variety of CSTRs was used to study heterogeneous (contact) catalytic reactions. These included spinning basket CSTRs as well as many kinds of fixed bed reactors with external or internal recycle pumps (Jankowski 1978, Berty 1984.)... 

Table 11.4 lists reactors used for systems with two fluid phases. The gas-liquid case is typical, but most of these reactors can be used for liquid-liquid systems as well. Stirred tanks and packed columns are also used for three-phase systems where the third phase is a catal5hic solid. The equipment listed in Table 11.4 is also used for separation processes, but our interest is on reactions and on steady-state, continuous flow. 

Based on the kinetic mechanism and using the parameter values, one can analyze the continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) as well as the dispersed plug flow reactor (PFR) in which the reaction between ethylene and cyclopentadiene takes place. The steady state mass balance equations maybe expressed by using the usual notation as follows ... 

For a few highly idealized systems, the residence time distribution function can be determined a priori without the need for experimental work. These systems include our two idealized flow reactors—the plug flow reactor and the continuous stirred tank reactor—and the tubular laminar flow reactor. The F(t) and response curves for each of these three types of well-characterized flow patterns will be developed in turn. 

A reactor model based on solid particles in BMF may be used for situations in which there is deliberate mixing of the reacting system. An example is that of a fluid-solid system in a well-stirred tank (i.e., a CSTR)-usually referred to as a slurry reactor, since the fluid is normally a liquid (but may also include a gas phase) the system may be semibatch with respect to the solid phase, or may be continuous with respect to all phases (as considered here). Another example involves mixing of solid particles by virtue of the flow of fluid through them an important case is that of a fluidized bed, in which upward flow of fluid through the particles brings about a particular type of behavior. The treatment here is a crude approximation to this case the actual flow pattern and resulting performance in a fluidized bed are more complicated, and are dealt with further in Chapter 23. 

Both the mass-transfer approach as well as the diffusion approach are required to describe the influence of mass transport on the overall polycondensation rate in industrial reactors. For the modelling of continuous stirred tank reactors, the mass-transfer concept can be applied successfully. For the modelling of finishers used for polycondensation at medium to high melt viscosities, the diffusion approach is necessary to describe the mass transport of EG and water in the polymer film on the surface area of the stirrer. Those tube-type reactors, which operate close to plug-flow conditions, allow the mass-transfer model to be applied successfully to describe the mass transport of volatile compounds from the polymer bulk at the bottom of the reactor to the high-vacuum gas phase. 

The arguments advanced in Sect. 3.2.3 apply equally well to a continuous stirred tank reactor. With a reversible exothermic reaction and a fixed mean residence time, t, there is an optimum temperature for operation of a continuous stirred tank reactor. Since the conditions in an ideal stirred tank are, by definition, uniform, there is no opportunity to employ a temperature gradient, as with the plug-flow reactor, to achieve an even better performance. 

Future intercomparisons of HO instruments should incorporate measurements of known or standard HO concentrations (the norm with less reactive analytes) as well as blind comparisons of ambient measurements. The simplest known HO source is a large-volume continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR)—with volume flow sufficient to satisfy instrumental sampling rates—that is illuminated by sunlight. This source is equivalent to the CSTR used to calibrate FAGE and could similarly deliver flow to any CTM experiment. 

Fig. 2.24. Model of a poorly agitated continuous stirred-tank reactor (a) Flow model fraction / of flow v by-passes only a fraction w of tank volume V is well-stirred (b) Equivalent C, curves for pulse input...

The process is configured as a series of three stirred-tank reactors with the substrate 3-cyanopyridine continuously fed at 10-20 wt.% concentration and the biocatalyst flowing countercurrently. Enzymatic hydrolysis yields the desired nicotinamide at > 99.3% selectivity, in contrast to the chemical alkaline hydrolysis process which results in about 3-5% nicotinic acid, an undesirable by-product because it causes diarrhea in farm animals (instead of supporting growth for animal feed supplements, see Chapter 6, Section 6.4). Thus, the enzymatic process competes well with the chemical hydrolysis. 

The contents of a continuously operated stirred tank are assumed to be perfectly mixed, so that the properties (e.g., concentration, temperature) of the reaction mixture are uniform in all parts of the system. Therefore, the conditions throughout the tank are the same and equal to the conditions at the outlet. This means that the volume element can be taken as the volume, VR, of the entire contents. Additionally, the composition and temperature at which the reaction occurs are the same as the composition and temperature of any exit stream. A continuous flow stirred tank reactor as shown in Figure 5-21 assumes that the fluid is perfectly well mixed. 

High labor and handling costs as well as the start-up and shutdown times required to fill and empty the reactor are important drawbacks in a batch operation. Continuous flow systems are nearly always more cost-effective than batch reactors, especially when large volumes are to be treated, i.e., the main application of this reactor configuration is wastewater treatment. The removal of phenolic compounds from waters has been performed using SBP and HRP in continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) [49, 75, 76, 81, 83, 84],... 

Three ideal reactor types are relevant from reactor theory [15], the two continuous flow types, the plug flow reactor (PFR) and continuous flow stirred tank reactor (CSTR), and the well-stirred batch reactor. The... 

Various laboratory reactors have been described in the literature [3, 11-13]. The most simple one is the packed bed tubular reactor where an amount of catalyst is held between plugs of quartz wool or wire mesh screens which the reactants pass through, preferably in plug flow . For low conversions this reactor is operated in the differential mode, for high conversions over the catalyst bed in the integral mode. By recirculation of the reactor exit flow one can approach a well mixed reactor system, the continuous flow stirred tank reactor (CSTR). This can be done either externally or internally [11, 12]. Without inlet and outlet feed, this reactor becomes a batch reactor, where the composition changes as a function of time (transient operation), in contrast with the steady state operation of the continuous flow reactors. 

In a study of the nitration of toluene by mixed acids, the following data were obtained in a continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor. It had been previously determined that the reactor was well mixed the composition within the reactor and in the exit stream can be considered equal. In addition, it had been determined that mass-transfer effects were not limiting the process rate. Thus the rate measured is the true kinetic rate of reaction. Calculate that rate. 

Polystyrene can be easily prepared by emulsion or suspension techniques. Harkins (1 ), Smith and Ewart(2) and Garden ( ) have described the mechanisms of emulsTon polymerization in batch reactors, and the results have been extended to a series of continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR)( o Much information on continuous emulsion reactors Ts documented in the patent literature, with such innovations as use of a seed latex (5), use of pulsatile flow to reduce plugging of the tube ( ), and turbulent flow to reduce plugging (7 ). Feldon (8) discusses the tubular polymerization of SBR rubber wTth laminar flow (at Reynolds numbers of 660). There have been recent studies on continuous stirred tank reactors utilizing Smith-Ewart kinetics in a single CSTR ( ) as well as predictions of particle size distribution (10). Continuous tubular reactors have been examined for non-polymeric reactions (1 1 ) and polymeric reactions (12.1 31 The objective of this study was to develop a model for the continuous emulsion polymerization of styrene in a tubular reactor, and to verify the model with experimental data. 

In continuous processes, the reactants are added and products are removed at a constant rate from the reactor, so that the volume of reacting material in the reactor (reaction vessel) remains constant. Two types of reactors, either (1) a continuous stirred tank or (2) a pipe reactor, are generally used. A continuous stirred tank reactor is similar to the batch reactor described above. A pipe reactor typically is a piece of tubing arranged in a coil or helix shape that is jacketed in a heat-transfer fluid. Reactants enter one end of the pipe, and the materials are mixed under the turbulent flow and react as they pass through the system. Pipe reactors are well-suited for reactants that do not mix well, because the tiu--bulence in the pipes causes all materials to mix thoroughly. 

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