Modeling of Nonideal Flow or Mixing Effects on Reactor Performance

2 Modeling of Nonideal Flow or Mixing Effects on Reactor Performance 

In this section we will develop the techniques for modeling mixing effects on reactor performance. As pointed out above, three approaches have received the most attention (1) direct use of RTD information, (2) mixing-cell approximations, and (3) dispersion-plug-flow models. 

If we assume that the flow in a given reactor is completely segregated, that is, with no communication between the individual volume elements as they pass through the reactor, then for whatever kinetics applicable the conversion in each element is uniquely determined by the length of time the element has spent in the reactor. To obtain the average conversion in the effluent from the reactor, we 

This integration can be carried out analytically if a suitable expression for E t)dt exists for the reactor under consideration. 

Let us consider, for example, the second-order reaction 2A C + D, for which the conversion is given by 

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