Mass transfer with volume reaction

In this chapter, some problems of mass and heat transfer with various complicating factors are discussed. The effect of surface and volume chemical reactions of any order on the convective mass exchange between particles or drops and a translational or shear flow is investigated. Linear and nonlinear nonstationary problems of mass transfer with volume chemical reaction are studied. Universal formulas are given which can be used for estimating the intensity of the mass transfer process for arbitrary kinetics of the surface or volume reaction and various types of flow. 

For the case of mass transfer with chemical reaction, the local flux of component A per unit volume of packing becomes... 

The mathematical description of simultaneous heat and mass transfer and chemical reaction is based on the general conservation laws valid for the mass of each species involved in the reacting system and the enthalpy effects related to the chemical transformation. The basic equations may be derived by balancing the amount of mass or heat transported per unit of time into and out of a given differential volume element (the control volume) together with the generation or consumption of the respective quantity within the control volume over the same period of time. The sum of these terms is equivalent to the rate of accumulation within the control volume ... 

Mass Transfer Between Particles, Drops, or Bubbles and Flows With Volume Reaction... 

In this chapter, consideration will be given to the basic principles underlying mass transfer both with and without chemical reaction, and to the models which have been proposed to enable the rates of transfer to be calculated. The applications of mass transfer to the design and operation of separation processes are discussed in Volume 2, and ihe design of reactors is dealt with in Volume 3. 

Example 11.8 With highly reactive absorbents, the mass transfer resistance in the gas phase can be controlling. Determine the number of trays needed to reduce the CO2 concentration in a methane stream from 5% to 100 ppm (by volume), assuming the liquid mass transfer and reaction steps are fast. A 0.9-m diameter column is to be operated at 8 atm and 50°C with a gas feed rate of 0.2m /s. The trays are bubble caps operated with a 0.1-m liquid level. Literature correlations suggest = 0.002 m/s and A, = 20m per square meter of tray area. 

Many other, less obvious physical consequences of miniaturization are a result of the scaling behavior of the governing physical laws, which are usually assumed to be the common macroscopic descriptions of flow, heat and mass transfer [3,107]. There are, however, a few cases where the usual continuum descriptions cease to be valid, which are discussed in Chapter 2. When the size of reaction channels or other generic micro-reactor components decreases, the surface-to-volume ratio increases and the mean distance of the specific fluid volume to the reactor walls or to the domain of a second fluid is reduced. As a consequence, the exchange of heat and matter either with the channel walls or with a second fluid is enhanced. 

Speed-up of mixing is known not only for mixing of miscible liquids, but also for multi-phase systems the mass-transfer efficiency can be improved. As an example, for a gas/liquid micro reactor, a mini packed-bed, values of the mass-transfer coefficient K a were determined to be 5-15 s [2]. This is two orders of magnitude larger than for typical conventional reactors having K a of 0.01-0.08 s . Using the same reactor filled with 50 pm catalyst particles for gas/Hquid/solid reactions, a 100-fold increase in the surface-to-volume ratio compared with the dimensions of laboratory trickle-bed catalyst particles (4-8 mm) is foimd. 

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