Reactor Container Material

Several variations of the above process are practiced. In the Sumitomo-Nippon Shokubai process, the effluent from the first-stage reactor containing methacrolein and methacrylic acid is fed directiy to the second-stage oxidation without isolation or purification (125,126). In this process, overall yields are maximized by optimizing selectivity to methacrolein plus methacrylic acid in the first stage. Conversion of isobutjiene or tert-huty alcohol must be high because no recycling of material is possible. In another variation, Asahi Chemical has reported the oxidative esterification of methacrolein directiy to MMA in 80% yield without isolation of the intermediate MAA (127,128). 

Some reactors are designed specifically to withstand an explosion (14). The multitube fixed-bed reactors typically have ca 2.5-cm inside-diameter tubes, and heat from the highly exothermic oxidation reaction is removed by a circulating molten salt. This salt is a eutectic mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate and nitrite. Care must be taken in reactor design and operation because fires can result if the salt comes in contact with organic materials at the reactor operating temperature (15). Reactors containing over 20,000 tubes with a 45,000-ton annual production capacity have been constmcted. 

Zirconium is used as a containment material for the uranium oxide fuel pellets in nuclear power reactors (see Nuclearreactors). Zirconium is particularly usehil for this appHcation because of its ready availabiUty, good ductiUty, resistance to radiation damage, low thermal-neutron absorption cross section 18 x 10 ° ra (0.18 bams), and excellent corrosion resistance in pressurized hot water up to 350°C. Zirconium is used as an alloy strengthening agent in aluminum and magnesium, and as the burning component in flash bulbs. It is employed as a corrosion-resistant metal in the chemical process industry, and as pressure-vessel material of constmction in the ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Codes. 

Ingress of air into reactor containing pyrophoric material. Possibility of fire / deflagration. 

A stirred reactor contains a batch of 700 kg reactants of specific heat 3.8 kJ/kg K initially at 290 K, which is heated by dry saturated steam at 170 kN/m2 fed to a helical coil. During the heating period the steam supply rate is constant at 0.1 kg/s and condensate leaves at the temperature of the steam. If heat losses arc neglected, calculate the true temperature of the reactants when a thermometer immersed in the material reads 360 K. The bulb of the thermometer is approximately cylindrical and is 100 mm long by 10 mm diameter with a water equivalent of 15 g, and the overall heat transfer coefficient to the thermometer is 300 W/m2 K. What would a thermometer with a similar bulb of half the length and half the heat capacity indicate under these conditions ... 

Nuclear and magneto-hydrodynamic electric power generation systems have been produced on a scale which could lead to industrial production, but to-date technical problems, mainly connected with corrosion of the containing materials, has hampered full-scale development. In the case of nuclear power, the proposed fast reactor, which uses fast neutron fission in a small nuclear fuel element, by comparison with fuel rods in thermal neutron reactors, requires a more rapid heat removal than is possible by water cooling, and a liquid sodium-potassium alloy has been used in the development of a near-industrial generator. The fuel container is a vanadium sheath with a niobium outer cladding, since this has a low fast neutron capture cross-section and a low rate of corrosion by the liquid metal coolant. The liquid metal coolant is transported from the fuel to the turbine generating the electric power in stainless steel... 

A batch chemical reactor contains 10,000 kg of reacting liquid material. A relief device must be properly sized for a potential runaway reaction. 

Advances in instrumentation, such as diode arrays and ruggedized interferometers, have made IR and Raman instruments readily available for process work. NIR hardware has always been used more for production and quality control than laboratory and research work. They, too, have become smaller, faster, more rugged and, in 1980s dollars, less expensive. Explosion-proof enclosures allow close proximity to reactors containing solvents and can be operated in dusty locations (raw material handling situations). 

The operation of fluidized-bed reactors can be seen as the transition region between con-tinuous-stined tank and packed-bed reactors. In a fluidized bed, a bed of solid particles is fluidized by the upward flow of the gas or liquid stream, which may be inert or contain material relevant to the reaction. The several fluidization regimes are shown in Figure 3.51. 

The wetted surface area of the 2 m3 reactor during two-phase relief has been estimated as 8.6 m2. This is the full surface area of the bottom and the sides of the reactor because, if two-phase relief occurs, this whole area will be wetted inside the reactor with liquid. The heat input rate from the fire is estimated as 252 kW l For a closed reactor containing 793 kg of material, and using the average, specific heat capacity of 2.25 kJ/kg K, the effective rate of temperature rise due to the fire is given by ... 

Spent fuel from a reactor contains unused uranium as well as plutonium-239 which has been created by bombardment of neutrons during the fission process. Mixed with these useful materials are other highly radioactive and hazardous fission products, such as cesium-137 and strontium-90. Since reprocessed fuels contain plutonium, well suited for making nuclear weapons, concern has been expressed over the possible capture of some of this material by agents or terrorists operating on behalf of unfriendly governments that do not have a nuclear weapons capability. 

The modelling of real food webs can be an exceedingly complicated task but, to illustrate the basic technique, a situation may be defined where a continuous stirred-tank biological reactor contains two species, one the predator, the other the prey. The food for the prey is assumed to enter as the sterile feed stream to the reactor, so that the predator may only consume the prey which grows in the reactor. Material balances can be drawn up for the process in much the same way as has... 

Continuous reactors, including simple plug-flow pipe reactors, tubular reactors containing static or other mixing devices, and jet reactors of various types, have been used to efficiently produce toxic materials for immediate consumption in downstream processing operations with little or no inventory. Some examples follow. 

Liquid-phase of solid-phase reactors contains more material than vapor-phase reactors and thus contains more stored energy than vapor-phase reactors. 

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