Ideal reactors reactor

As with continuous processes, the heart of a batch chemical process is its reactor. Idealized reactor models were considered in Chapter 5. In an ideal-batch reactor, all fluid elements have the same residence time. There is thus an analogy between ideal-batch reactors and plug-flow reactors. There are four major factors that effect batch reactor performance ... 

How a differential equation is formulated for some lands of ideal reactors is described briefly in Sec. 7 of this Handbook and at greater length with many examples in Walas Modeling with Differential Equations in Chemical Engineering, Butterworth-Heineman, 1991). 

For the ideal reactors considered, the design equations are based on the mass conservation equations. With this in mind, a suitable component is chosen (i.e., reactant or product). Consider an element of volume, 6V, and the changes occurring between time t and t + 6t (Figure 5-2) ... 

Adesina [14] considered the four main types of reactions for variable density conditions. It was shown that if the sums of the orders of the reactants and products are the same, then the OTP path is independent of the density parameter, implying that the ideal reactor size would be the same as no change in density. The optimal rate behavior with respect to T and the optimal temperature progression (T p ) have important roles in the design and operation of reactors performing reversible, exothermic reactions. Examples include the oxidation of SO2 to SO3 and the synthesis of NH3 and methanol CH3OH. 

Table 8-1 gives tlie relationships between tlie age distribution functions and Figure 8-6 shows the age distribution functions of ideal reactors. 

Non-ideal reactors are described by RTD functions between these two extremes and can be approximated by a network of ideal plug flow and continuously stirred reactors. In order to determine the RTD of a non-ideal reactor experimentally, a tracer is introduced into the feed stream. The tracer signal at the output then gives information about the RTD of the reactor. It is thus possible to develop a mathematical model of the system that gives information about flow patterns and mixing. 

To design a chemical reactor, the average concentrations, d,b,c,..., or at least the spatial distribution of concentrations, must be found. Doing this is simple for a few special cases of elementary reactions and ideal reactors that... 

Chapter 1 treated single, elementary reactions in ideal reactors. Chapter 2 broadens the kinetics to include multiple and nonelementary reactions. Attention is restricted to batch reactors, but the method for formulating the kinetics of complex reactions will also be used for the flow reactors of Chapters 3 and 4 and for the nonisothermal reactors of Chapter 5. 

Chapter 2 treated multiple and complex reactions in an ideal batch reactor. The reactor was ideal in the sense that mixing was assumed to be instantaneous and complete throughout the vessel. Real batch reactors will approximate ideal behavior when the characteristic time for mixing is short compared with the reaction half-life. Industrial batch reactors have inlet and outlet ports and an agitation system. The same hardware can be converted to continuous operation. To do this, just feed and discharge continuously. If the reactor is well mixed in the batch mode, it is likely to remain so in the continuous mode, as least for the same reaction. The assumption of instantaneous and perfect mixing remains a reasonable approximation, but the batch reactor has become a continuous-flow stirred tank. 

Compare this result with that for a single, ideal reactor having the same input concentration, throughput, and total volume. Specifically, compare the outlet concentration of the composite reactor with that from a single CSTR having a... 

Reactor models consisting of series and parallel combinations of ideal reactors... 

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