Heat transfer batch reactor

The main issues to be considered in these reactors are good mixing, efficient gas dispersion in the liquid medium, and uniform heat transfer. The reactor can be operated in the batch or continuous mode. In the batch mode the reactants and the catalyst are charged, the reactor is heated to the desired temperature, and, after the completion of the reaction, the products are cooled and discharged. In the continuous mode of operation (see Fig. 3.1), the reactant and the catalyst mixture is continuously charged. The mixture of the product and... 

In a batch process, aU the reaction components are combined and held under controlled conditions until the desired process endpoint has been reached. In a batch approach, it is very easy to truly reproduce the conditions used on a smaller scale and simultaneously keep good coutrol of temperature and pressure. To a certaiu exteut, MAOS suffers less from going up scale because the energy is still deposited directly in the reaction mixture, avoidiug problems with heat transfers from reactors. Batch solutions also provide direct scalabihty for heterogeneous mixtures. 

Fixing the rate of heat transfer in a batch reactor is often not the best way to control the reaction. The heating or cooling characteristics can be varied with time to suit the characteristics of the reaction. Because of the complexity of hatch operation and the fact that operation is usually small scale, it is rare for any attempt to be made... 

Figure 13.2 The heat transfer characteristics of batch reactors.

Emulsion Process. The emulsion polymerization process utilizes water as a continuous phase with the reactants suspended as microscopic particles. This low viscosity system allows facile mixing and heat transfer for control purposes. An emulsifier is generally employed to stabilize the water insoluble monomers and other reactants, and to prevent reactor fouling. With SAN the system is composed of water, monomers, chain-transfer agents for molecular weight control, emulsifiers, and initiators. Both batch and semibatch processes are employed. Copolymerization is normally carried out at 60 to 100°C to conversions of - 97%. Lower temperature polymerization can be achieved with redox-initiator systems (51). 

Solution Polymerization. In this process an inert solvent is added to the reaction mass. The solvent adds its heat capacity and reduces the viscosity, faciUtating convective heat transfer. The solvent can also be refluxed to remove heat. On the other hand, the solvent wastes reactor space and reduces both rate and molecular weight as compared to bulk polymerisation. Additional technology is needed to separate the polymer product and to recover and store the solvent. Both batch and continuous processes are used. 

The complex batch reactor is a specialized pressure vessel with excellent heat transfer and gas Hquid contacting capabiUty. These reactors are becoming more common in aLkylphenol production, mainly due to their high efficiency and flexibiUty of operation. Figure 2 shows one arrangement for a complex batch reactor. Complex batch reactors produce the more difficult to make alkylphenols they also produce some conventional alkylphenols through improved processes. 

In a batch reactor, the reaclants are loaded at once the concentration then varies with time, but at any one time it is uniform throughout. Agitation seiwes to mix separate feeds initially and to enhance heat transfer. In a semibatch operation, some of the reactants are charged at once and the others are then charged gradually. 

The best quahty to be found may be a temperature, a temperature program, a concentration, a conversion, a yield of preferred product, a cycle period for a batch reaction, a daily production level, a land of reactor, a size for a reactor, an arrangement of reactor elements, provisions for heat transfer, profit or cost, and so on—a maximum or minimum of some of these factors. Among the constraints that may be imposed on the process are temperature range, pressure range, corrosiveness, waste disposal, and others. 

Applications One typical apphcation in heat transfer with batch operations is the heating of a reactor mix, maintaining temperature during a reaction period, and then cooling the products after the reaction is complete. This subsection is concerned with the heating and cooling of such systems in either unknown or specified periods. 

A continuous flow stirred tank reactor (CFSTR) differs from the batch reactor in that the feed mixture continuously enters and the outlet mixture is continuously withdrawn. There is intense mixing in the reactor to destroy any concentration and temperature differences. Heat transfer must be extremely efficient to keep the temperature of the reaction mixture equal to the temperature of the heat transfer medium. The CFSTR can either be used alone or as part of a series of battery CFSTRs as shown in Figure 4-5. If several vessels are used in series, the net effect is partial backmixing. 

In predicting the time required to cool or heat a process fluid in a full-scale batch reactor for unsteady state heat transfer, consider a batch reactor (Figure 13-2) with an external half-pipe coil jacket and non-isothermal cooling medium (see Chapter 7). From the derivation, the time 6 to heat the batch system is ... 

To reduce the pressure drop, a batch reactor with a half-pipe jacket of length L and flowrate W can be partitioned into a two-zone jacket, each with a length L/2 and each supplied with W jacket flowrate. This doubles the jacket flow at a lower pressure drop in each zone. The flow in each zone can then be increased to increase the outside and overall heat transfer coefficients, which is similar to those of the single-zone jacket. 

Consider a batch reactor with a partial jacket that is divided into three zones (Figure 13-3). The flow to each zone is the same as the single-zone flow. The fluid velocity is maintained constant to maintain the same outside heat transfer coefficient as a single zone jacket. 

Fletcjjhr. P. The Chemical Engineer. London No 435 (1987) 33. Heat transfer coefficients for stirred batch reactor design. 

A stirred reactor contains a batch of 700 kg reactants of specific heat 3.8 kJ/kg K initially at 290 K, which is heated by dry saturated steam at 170 kN/m2 fed to a helical coil. During the heating period the steam supply rate is constant at 0.1 kg/s and condensate leaves at the temperature of the steam. If heat losses arc neglected, calculate the true temperature of the reactants when a thermometer immersed in the material reads 360 K. The bulb of the thermometer is approximately cylindrical and is 100 mm long by 10 mm diameter with a water equivalent of 15 g, and the overall heat transfer coefficient to the thermometer is 300 W/m2 K. What would a thermometer with a similar bulb of half the length and half the heat capacity indicate under these conditions ... 

In batch reactors, heat transfer will also limit the rate of heat-up to the required temperatures for initiation of polymerization. Use of a multiple catalyst system to provide lower temperature initiation has been proposed to minimize the time and energy required in heating. 

Peaking and Non-isothermal Polymerizations. Biesenberger a (3) have studied the theory of "thermal ignition" applied to chain addition polymerization and worked out computational and experimental cases for batch styrene polymerization with various catalysts. They define thermal ignition as the condition where the reaction temperature increases rapidly with time and the rate of increase in temperature also increases with time (concave upward curve). Their theory, computations, and experiments were for well stirred batch reactors with constant heat transfer coefficients. Their work is of interest for understanding the boundaries of stability for abnormal situations like catalyst mischarge or control malfunctions. In practice, however, the criterion for stability in low conversion... 

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