Plug-flow reactors mole balances

Product Recovery. Comparison of the electrochemical cell to a chemical reactor shows the electrochemical cell to have two general features that impact product recovery. CeU product is usuaUy Uquid, can be aqueous, and is likely to contain electrolyte. In addition, there is a second product from the counter electrode, even if this is only a gas. Electrolyte conservation and purity are usual requirements. Because product separation from the starting material may be difficult, use of reaction to completion is desirable ceUs would be mn batch or plug flow. The water balance over the whole flow sheet needs to be considered, especiaUy for divided ceUs where membranes transport a number of moles of water per Earaday. At the inception of a proposed electroorganic process, the product recovery and refining should be included in the evaluation to determine tme viabUity. Thus early ceU work needs to be carried out with the preferred electrolyte/solvent and conversion. The economic aspects of product recovery strategies have been discussed (89). Some process flow sheets are also available (61). 

The CRE approach for modeling chemical reactors is based on mole and energy balances, chemical rate laws, and idealized flow models.2 The latter are usually constructed (Wen and Fan 1975) using some combination of plug-flow reactors (PFRs) and continuous-stirred-tank reactors (CSTRs). (We review both types of reactors below.) The CRE approach thus avoids solving a detailed flow model based on the momentum balance equation. However, this simplification comes at the cost of introducing unknown model parameters to describe the flow rates between various sub-regions inside the reactor. The choice of a particular model is far from unique,3 but can result in very different predictions for product yields with complex chemistry. 

Stoichacmetry and reaction equilibria. Homogeneous reactions kinetics. Mole balances batch, continuous-shn-ed tank and plug flow reactors. Collection and analysis of rate data. Catalytic reaction kinetics and isothermal catalytic radar desttpi. Diffusion effects. 

Consider a plug flow reactor - a cylindrical tube with reactants flowing in one end and reacting as they flow to the outlet. A mole balance is made here for the case when the operation is steady. Let F be the molar flow rate of a chemical, which changes dF in a small part of the tube take the volume of that small part to be d V. The rate of reaction is expressed as the moles produced per unit of time per unit of volume. If a chemical specie reacts, then the r for that specie is negative. Thus, the overall equation for a smaU section of the tube is... 

The more complex case of the continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) can be analyzed in a similar way as that of the plug-flow reactor (Section 6.2.3.2). Again considering the reversible exothermic reaction A B, the mole balance equation for component A at steady-state conditions is... 

The mole balances for gas-phase reactions are given in Table 6-2 in terms of the number of moles (batch) or molar flow races for the generic rate law for the generic reaction, Equation (2-1). The molar flow rates for each species Fj are obtained from a mole balance on each species, as given in Table 6-2. For example, for a plug-flow reactor... 

The basic equation for a tubular reactor is obtained by applying the general material balance, equation 1.12, with the plug flow assumptions. In steady state operation, which is usually the aim, the Rate of accumulation term (4) is zero. The material balance is taken with respect to a reactant A over a differential element of volume 8V, (Fig. 1.14). The fractional conversion of A in the mixture entering the element is aA and leaving it is (aA + SaA). If FA is the feed rate of A into the reactor (moles per unit time) the material balance over 8V, gives ... 

Eqs. 1 to 3 relate the rate of production Rj of the balanced reaction component y to the molar amounts or their derivatives with respect to the time variable (reaction time or space time, see above). From the algebraic eq. 2 for the CSTR reactor the rate of production, Rj, may be calculated very simply by introducing the molar flow rates at the inlet and outlet of the reactor these quantities are easily derived from the known flow rate and the analytically determined composition of the reaction mixture. With a plug-flow or with a batch reactor we either have to limit the changes of conversion X or mole amount n7 to very low values so that the derivatives or dAy/d( //y,0) or dn7/d/ could be approximated by differences AXj/ (Q/Fj,0) or An7/A, (differential mode of operation), or to measure experimentally the dependence of Xj or nj on the space or reaction time in a broader region this dependence is then differentiated graphically or numerically. 

The solution to this problem requires an analysis of multiple gas-phase reactions in a differential plug-flow tubular reactor. Two different solution strategies are described here. In both cases, it is important to write mass balances in terms of molar flow rates and reactor volume. Molar densities and residence time are not appropriate for the convective mass-transfer-rate process because one cannot assume that the total volumetric flow rate is constant in the gas phase, particularly when the total number of moles is not conserved. In each reaction, 2 mol of reactants generates 1 mol of product. Furthermore, an overall mass balance suggests that the volumetric flow rate is constant only when the overall mass density does not change. This is a reasonable assumption for liquid-phase reactors but not for gas-phase problems when the total volume is not restricted. The exception is a constant-volume batch reactor. 

Coupled mass and thermal energy balances are required to analyze the nonisother-mal response of a well-mixed continuous-stirred tank reactor. These balances can be obtained by employing a macroscopic control volume that includes the entire contents of the CSTR, or by integrating plug-flow balances for a differential reactor under the assumption that temperature and concentrations are not a function of spatial coordinates in the macroscopic CSTR. The macroscopic approach is used for the mass balance, and the differential approach is employed for the thermal energy balance. At high-mass-transfer Peclet numbers, the steady-state macroscopic mass balance on reactant A with axial convection and one chemical reaction, and units of moles per time, is... 

Measure the incremental conversion of ethanol per mass of catalyst and calculate the initial reactant product conversion rate with units of moles per area per time as a function of total pressure at the reactor inlet. One calculates this initial rate of conversion of ethanol to products via a differential material balance, unique to gas-phase packed catalytic tubular reactors that operate under plug-flow conditions at high-mass-transfer Peclet numbers. Since axial dispersion in the packed bed is insignificant. 

Analytical solution of the mole balance equations is only likely to be possible when a number of simplifying assumptions can be made such as those adopted previously where we assumed a single irreversible first-order reaction, no change in molar flow due to reaction, isothermal reactor, negligible variation in pressure, plug flow of gas in the bubble phase, and either perfect mixing or plug flow in the dense phase (see Ref. [46]). Assumptions must also be made with respect to the respective... 

In the three idealized types of reactors just discussed (the perfectly mixed batch reactor, the plug-flow tubular reactor [PFRj), and the perfectly mixed con-tinuous-stirred tank reactor [CSTR]), the design equations (i.e., mole balances) were developed based on reactor volume. The derivation of the design equation for a packed-bed catalytic reactor (PBR) will be carried out in a manner analogous to the development of the tubular de.sign equation. To accomplish this derivation, we simply replace the volume coordinate in Equation (1-10) with the catalyst mass (i.e., weight) coordinate W (Figure 1-14). 

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