Reaction progress variable kinetic path

The procedure for tracing a kinetic reaction path differs from the procedure for paths with simple reactants (Chapter 13) in two principal ways. First, progress in the simulation is measured in units of time t rather than by the reaction progress variable . Second, the rates of mass transfer, instead of being set explicitly by the modeler (Eqns. 13.5-13.7), are computed over the course of the reaction path by a kinetic rate law (Eqn. 16.2). 

The temperature along a reaction path may be constant or variable. In non-kinetic mode, it may be treated as a function of the reaction progress variable. In kinetic mode, it may be treated as a function of time. Therefore, EQ6 can also be used to compute the consequences, such as pH shift and mineral precipitation, of heating or cooling an aqueous fluid (1,26). 

In kinetic reaction paths (discussed in Chapter 16), the rates at which minerals dissolve into or precipitate from the equilibrium system are set by kinetic rate laws. In this class of models, reaction progress is measured in time instead of by the nondimensional variable . According to the rate law, as would be expected, a mineral dissolves into fluids in which it is undersaturated and precipitates when supersaturated. The rate of dissolution or precipitation in the calculation depends on the variables in the rate law the reaction s rate constant, the mineraTs surface area, the degree to which the mineral is undersaturated or supersaturated in the fluid, and the activities of any catalyzing and inhibiting species. 

In calculating most of the reaction paths in this book, we have measured reaction progress with respect to the dimensionless variable . We showed in Chapter 16, however, that by incorporating kinetic rate laws into a reaction model, we can trace reaction paths describing mineral precipitation and dissolution using time as the reaction coordinate. 

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