Phase reacting systems

A liquid phase reacting system has the simultaneous reactions, A b B and... 

Limiting reactant in three-phase reacting systems... 

After completing this chapter, you w ill be able to write the rate of reaction as a function of conversion for both liquid-pha.se and gas-phase reacting systems. 

The general criterion for equilibrium conditions is that the Gibbs energy of a system reaches a minimum value for a given temperature and pressure. For a single-phase reacting system, this condition is conveniently expressed in terms of the chemical potentials /r,- and the stoichiometric number v,- of each species i is given by ... 

Almost all aspects of the field of chemistry involve tire flow of energy eitlier witliin or between molecules. Indeed, tire occurrence of a chemical reaction between two species implies tire availability of some minimum amount of energy in tire reacting system. The study of energy transfer processes is tluis a topic of fundamental importance in chemistry. Energy transfer in gases is of particular interest partly because very sophisticated methods have been developed to study such events and partly because gas phase processes lend tliemselves to very complete and detailed tlieoretical analysis. 

Acrolein reacts slowly in water to form 3-hydroxypropionaldehyde and then other condensation products from aldol and Michael reactions. Water dissolved in acrolein does not present a hazard. The reaction of acrolein with water is exothermic and the reaction proceeds slowly in dilute aqueous solution. This will be hazardous in a two-phase adiabatic system in which acrolein is suppHed from the upper layer to replenish that consumed in the lower, aqueous, layer. The rate at which these reactions occur will depend on the nature of the impurities in the water, the volume of the water layer, and the rate... 

Another type of polyol often used in the manufacture of flexible polyurethane foams contains a dispersed soHd phase of organic chemical particles (234—236). The continuous phase is one of the polyols described above for either slab or molded foam as required. The dispersed phase reacts in the polyol using an addition reaction with styrene and acrylonitrile monomers in one type or a coupling reaction with an amine such as hydrazine and isocyanate in another. The soHds content ranges from about 21% with either system to nearly 40% in the styrene—acrylonitrile system. The dispersed soHds confer increased load bearing and in the case of flexible molded foams also act as a ceU opener. 

Heat transfer and mass transfer occur simultaneously whenever a transfer operation involves a change in phase or a chemical reaction. Of these two situations, only the first is considered herein because in reacting systems the complications of chemical reaction mechanisms and pathways are usually primary (see HeaT-EXCHANGETECHNOLOGy). Even in processes involving phase changes, design is frequendy based on the heat-transfer process alone mass transfer is presumed to add no compHcations. But in fact mass transfer effects do influence and can even limit the process rate. 

Table 14-3 presents a typical range of values for chemically reacting systems. The first two entries in the table represent systems that can be designed by the use of purely physical design methods, for they are completely gas-phase mass-transfer limited. To ensure a negligible liquid-phase resistance in these two tests, the HCl was absorbed into a solution maintained at less than 8 percent weight HCl and the NH3 was absorbed into a water solution maintained below pH 7 by the addition of acid. The last two entries in Table 14-3 represent liquid-phase mass-transfer hmited systems. 

Danckwerts and Gillham did not investigate the influence of the gas-phase resistance in their study (for some processes gas-phase resistance may be neglected). However, in 1975 Danckwerts and Alper [Trans. Tn.st. Chem. Eng., 53, 34 (1975)] showed that by placing a stirrer in the gas space of the stirred-cell laboratoiy absorber, the gas-phase mass-transfer coefficient fcc in the laboratoiy unit could be made identical to that in a packed-tower absorber. When this was done, laboratoiy data obtained for chemically reacting systems having a significant gas-side resistance coiild successfully be sc ed up to predict the performance of a commercial packed-tower absorber. 

The cyclobutene-butadiene interconversion can serve as an example of the reasoning employed in construction of an orbital correlation diagram. For this reaction, the four n orbitals of butadiene are converted smoothly into the two n and two a orbitals of the ground state of cyclobutene. The analysis is done as shown in Fig. 11.3. The n orbitals of butadiene are ip2, 3, and ij/. For cyclobutene, the four orbitals are a, iz, a, and n. Each of the orbitals is classified with respect to the symmetiy elements that are maintained in the course of the transformation. The relevant symmetry features depend on the structure of the reacting system. The most common elements of symmetiy to be considered are planes of symmetiy and rotation axes. An orbital is classified as symmetric (5) if it is unchanged by reflection in a plane of symmetiy or by rotation about an axis of symmetiy. If the orbital changes sign (phase) at each lobe as a result of the symmetry operation, it is called antisymmetric (A). Proper MOs must be either symmetric or antisymmetric. If an orbital is not sufficiently symmetric to be either S or A, it must be adapted by eombination with other orbitals to meet this requirement. 

Sampling of a two-fluid phase system containing powdered catalyst can be problematic and should be considered in the reactor design. In the case of complex reacting systems with multiple reaction paths, it is important that isothermal data are obtained. Also, different activation energies for the various reaction paths will make it difficult to evaluate the rate constants from non-isothermal data. 

As reported by Griengl and coworkers, benzaldehyde, decanal, undecanal, and dodecanal were reacted with HCN in a two-phase solvent system aqueous buffer and ionic liquids 1 -ethyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, 1 -methyl-3-propylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate, and l-butyl-3-methyl-imidazolium tetrafluoroborate in the presence of the HNLs from Prunus amygdalus and Hevea brasiliensis. When compared with the use of organic solvents as the nonaqueous phase, the reaction rate was significantly increased and the enantioselectivity remained good [51]. 

Research on the development of separation methods for the multiphase reacting system led to the development of a three phase (oil, water, and a solid) separation process. A patent was awarded in 1998 in US [53] and subsequently in some other countries... 

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