Dispersion Models for Nonideal Flow in Reactors

As illustrated above, dispersion models can be used to described reactor behavior over the entire range of mixing from PFR to CSTR. Additionally, the models are not confined to single-phase, isothermal conditions or first-order, reaction-rate functions. Thus, these models are very general and, as expected, have found widespread use. What must be kept in mind is that as far as reactor performance is normally concerned, radial dispersion is to be maximized while axial dispersion is minimized. 

The analysis presented in this chapter can be used to describe reaction containers of any type—they need not be tubular reactors. For example, consider the situation where blood is flowing in a vessel and antibodies are binding to cells on the vessel wall. The situation can be described by the following material balance  

Find the residence time distribution, that is, the efQuent concentration of tracer A after an impulse input at t = 0, for the following system of equivolume CSTRs with a volumetric flow rate of liquid into the system equal to v  

How does the RTD compare to that of a single CSTR with volume 2y  

Consider three identical CSTRs connected in series according to the diagram below. 

---