Reactor homogeneous reaction

Design equation— ideal batch reactor— homogeneous reaction (moles)... 

Design equation— ideal hatch reactor— homogeneous reaction (fractional conversion)... 

However, before extrapolating the arguments from the gross patterns through the reactor for homogeneous reactions to solid-catalyzed reactions, it must be recognized that in catalytic reactions the fluid in the interior of catalyst pellets may diSer from the main body of fluid. The local inhomogeneities caused by lowered reactant concentration within the catalyst pellets result in a product distribution different from that which would otherwise be observed. 

Few mechanisms of liquid/liquid reactions have been established, although some related work such as on droplet sizes and power input has been done. Small contents of surface-ac tive and other impurities in reactants of commercial quality can distort a reac tor s predicted performance. Diffusivities in liquids are comparatively low, a factor of 10 less than in gases, so it is probable in most industrial examples that they are diffusion controllech One consequence is that L/L reactions may not be as temperature sensitive as ordinary chemical reactions, although the effec t of temperature rise on viscosity and droplet size can result in substantial rate increases. L/L reac tions will exhibit behavior of homogeneous reactions only when they are very slow, nonionic reactions being the most likely ones. On the whole, in the present state of the art, the design of L/L reactors must depend on scale-up from laboratoiy or pilot plant work. 

On the second startup no ignition in the bottom occurred, but it was observed here also that a significant drop in oxygen concentration occurred between the reactor bottom and the heat exchanger, without loss of acrolein concentration. The homogeneous reaction also produced acrolein, just in much lower selectivity. Then, on the third day of... 

A second source of difficulty is caused by the unavoidable empty space in recycle reactors. This limits their usefulness in some studies. Homogeneous reactions in the empty gas volume may interfere with heterogeneous catalytic measurements. Transient experiments could reveal much more information on various steps in the reaction mechanism but material in the empty space can obscure sharp changes. 

Homogeneous reactions are those in which the reactants, products, and any catalysts used form one continuous phase (gaseous or liquid). Homogeneous gas phase reactors are almost always operated continuously, whereas liquid phase reactors may be batch or continuous. Tubular (pipeline) reactors arc normally used for homogeneous gas phase reactions (e.g., in the thermal cracking of petroleum of dichloroethane lo vinyl chloride). Both tubular and stirred tank reactors are used for homogeneous liquid phase reactions. 

The Institut Fran ais du Petrole has developed and commercialized a process, named Dimersol X, based on a homogeneous catalyst, which selectively produces dimers from butenes. The low-branching octenes produced are good starting materials for isononanol production. This process is catalyzed by a system based on a nickel(II) salt, soluble in a paraffinic hydrocarbon, activated with an alkylalumini-um chloride derivative directly inside the dimerization reactor. The reaction is sec-... 

The first eight chapters of this book treat homogeneous reactions. Chapter 9 provides models for packed-bed reactors, but the reaction kinetics are pseudohomogeneous so that the rate expressions are based on fluid-phase concentrations. There is a good reason for this. Fluid-phase concentrations are what can be measured. The fluid-phase concentrations at the outlet are what can be sold. 

It is a good idea to run the laboratory reactor without catalyst to check for homogeneous reactions. However, this method does not work when the homogeneous reaction involves reactants that do not occur in the feed but are created by a heterogeneous reaction. It then becomes important to maintain the same ratio of free volume to catalyst volume in the laboratory reactor used for intrinsic kinetic studies as in the pilot or production reactors. 

In contrast to NaZSM-5 zeolite, introduction of CoZSM-5 or HZSM-5 zeolite in the reaction system shifts the "light-off" temperature and modifies the chemistry now not only NO but Nj is formed. Hence, some intermediate species required for Nj formation must be stabilized on the catalyst surface. The "light-off"temperature shifts observed with CoZSM-5 and HZSM-5 catalysts may result from the enhanced redox capacity provided by these catalysts or from the NOj/NO equilibrium achieved more readily than with NaZSM-5. Moreover, equilibrium is approached at a somewhat lower temperature over CoZSM-5 than HZSM-5, and much lower than with the empty reactor (see Fig. 1 of Ref. lOl.The decomposition reaction of NOj into NO -t- occurs readily on these catalysts and the "light-off" temperature of both combustion and SCR is lower in comparison with that of the homogeneous reaction. 

For fast reactions Da becomes large. Based on that assumption and standard correlations for mass transfer inside the micro channels, both the model for the micro-channel reactor and the model for the fixed bed can be reformulated in terms of pseudo-homogeneous reaction kinetics. Finally, the concentration profile along the axial direction can be obtained as the solution of an ordinary differential equation. 

In order to exemplify the potential of micro-channel reactors for thermal control, consider the oxidation of citraconic anhydride, which, for a specific catalyst material, has a pseudo-homogeneous reaction rate of 1.62 s at a temperature of 300 °C, corresponding to a reaction time-scale of 0.61 s. In a micro channel of 300 pm diameter filled with a mixture composed of N2/02/anhydride (79.9 20 0.1), the characteristic time-scale for heat exchange is 1.4 lO" s. In spite of an adiabatic temperature rise of 60 K related to such a reaction, the temperature increases by less than 0.5 K in the micro channel. Examples such as this show that micro reactors allow one to define temperature conditions very precisely due to fast removal and, in the case of endothermic reactions, addition of heat. On the one hand, this results in an increase in process safety, as discussed above. On the other hand, it allows a better definition of reaction conditions than with macroscopic equipment, thus allowing for a higher selectivity in chemical processes. 

In cases where the operation time-scale is independent of the channel diameter, as for a homogeneous reaction, it is necessary to keep the residence time fixed when downscaling a reactor in order keep the efficiency constant. When the flow-rate Qtot of the process gas is given, this means that a reduction in the channel diameter has to be accompanied by an increase in the channel length L or the number of channels N, according to... 

Time-scale of homogeneous reaction (1st order) Time-scale of heterogeneous reaction (1st order) Time-scale for reactor heat-up... 

Figure 5.3-4. Semibatch stirred-tank reactor with alternative feed lines homogeneous reaction.

The role of mixing in heterogeneous reactions is obvious. In multiphase processes mixing imposed by a stirrer or an external pump is necessary to increase the interface through which reactants pass to meet their partner in the other phase and/or to intensify mass transfer between phases. Mixing can also play a significant role in the case of homogeneous reactions. Chemical reactions occur at the molecular level. Reactant molecules introduced into a reactor encounter the environment in the vicinity of the inlet. The composition of the mixture there is obviously... 

S.4. Guidelines for scale-up of semibatch reactors for fast homogeneous reactions in the absence of data on chemical kinetics and on the distribution of energy dissipation in the reaction zone... 

Runaway criteria developed for plug-flow tubular reactors, which are mathematically isomorphic with batch reactors with a constant coolant temperature, are also included in the tables. They can be considered conservative criteria for batch reactors, which can be operated safer due to manipulation of the coolant temperature. Balakotaiah et al. (1995) showed that in practice safe and runaway regions overlap for the three types of reactors for homogeneous reactions (1) batch reactor (BR), and, equivalently, plug-flow reactor (PFR), (2) CSTR, and (3) continuously operated bubble column reactor (BCR). 

In practice, it is often possible with stirred-tank reactors to come close to the idealized mixed-flow model, providing the fluid phase is not too viscous. For homogenous reactions, such reactors should be avoided for some types of parallel reaction systems (see Figure 5.6) and for all systems in which byproduct formation is via series reactions. 

Vocabulary of Terms Used in Reactor Design. There are several terms that will be used extensively throughout the remainder of this text that deserve definition or comment. The concepts involved include steady-state and transient operation, heterogeneous and homogeneous reaction systems, adiabatic and isothermal operation, mean residence time, contacting and holding time, and space time and space velocity. Each of these concepts will be discussed in turn. 

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