Reactor isothermal types

Isothermal reactor Any type of chemical reactor operated at constant temperature. 

Since the temperature must be the same in all parts of this type of reactor, isothermal operation is always achieved as long as steady-state conditions prevail. However, the reactor temperature may be different from that of the feed stream, because of either the heat of reaction or the energy exchange with the surroundings. Hence the treatment in this chapter is restricted to cases where the feed and reactor temperatures are the same. The more general case will be considered in Chap. 5, along with nonisor thermal behavior. 

Below, we describe tbe design formulation of isothermal batch reactors with multiple reactions for various types of chemical reactions (reversible, series, parallel, etc.). In most cases, we solve the equations numerically by applying a numerical technique such as the Runge-Kutta method, but, in some simple cases, analytical solutions are obtained. Note that, for isothermal operations, we do not have to consider the effect of temperature variation, and we use the energy balance equation to determine tbe dimensionless heat-transfer number, HTN, required to maintain the reactor isothermal. 

The sample pre-treatment as well as adsorption and desorption experiments were performed with a flow rate of 100 cm rnin-i that was passed through a quartz reactor (U-type) containing 1 g of bentonite meshes. The sample was first pre-treated under N2 flow at 473 K for 30 minutes than adsorption was carried out using the model mixture flow until saturation was reached in order to obtain breakthrough curves. The gas mixture was switched again to pure N2 flow, to proceed with isothermal desorption xmtil o-xylene concentration at the reactor outlet reached zero. This step was followed by a subsequent linear heating in order to perform Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD) experiment. 

Among processes using a single-tank reactor, some processes are the conventional type and others the so-called isothermal type. These first include Rhone-Poulenc s conventional dihydrate system containing a single, noncompartmental tank with a central agitator. 

For strong exo- or endothermic reactions it is often difficult to operate the reactor isothermally. This makes modeling of the laboratory-type reactor more difficult. To keep the temperature gradients in the reactor as low as possible, the diameter of the reactor has to be minimized and the flow rate in the reactor maximized to achieve good heat transfer. 

Stea.m-Ra.ising Converter. There are a variety of tubular steam-raising converters (Fig. 7d) available, which feature radial or axial flow, with the catalyst on either shell or tube side. The near-isothermal operation of this reactor type is the most thermodynamically efficient of the types used, requiring the least catalyst volume. Lower catalyst peak temperatures also result in reduced by-product formation and longer catalyst life. 

Reactor type Sampling and analysis Isothermality Solid contact Fluid- decaying catalyst Ease of construction... 

The objectives of this presentation are to discuss the general behavior of non isothermal chain-addition polymerizations and copolymerizations and to propose dimensionless criteria for estimating non isothermal reactor performance, in particular thermal runaway and instability, and its effect upon polymer properties. Most of the results presented are based upon work (i"8), both theoretical and experimental, conducted in the author s laboratories at Stevens Institute of Technology. Analytical methods include a Semenov-type theoretical approach (1,2,9) as well as computer simulations similar to those used by Barkelew LS) ... 

There is an extensive amount of data in the literature on the effect of many factors (e.g. temperature, monomer and surfactant concentration and types, ionic strength, reactor configuration) on the time evolution of quantities such as conversions, particle number and size, molecular weight, composition. In this section, EPM predictions are compared with the following limited but useful cross section of isothermal experimental data ... 

In this work, a comprehensive kinetic model, suitable for simulation of inilticomponent aiulsion polymerization reactors, is presented A well-mixed, isothermal, batch reactor is considered with illustrative purposes. Typical model outputs are PSD, monomer conversion, multivariate distritution of the i lymer particles in terms of numtoer and type of contained active Chains, and pwlymer ccmposition. Model predictions are compared with experimental data for the ternary system acrylonitrile-styrene-methyl methacrylate. 

Among several types of reactors investigated, the microstructured reactor was successfully applied to the synthesis of a pharmaceutical intermediate via a fast exothermic Boc protecting reaction step. The reaction temperature was isothermally controlled at 15°C. By using the microstructured reactor the heat of reaction was completely removed so that virtually no byproducts were produced during the reaction. Conversions as high as 96% were achieved. The micro-reactor operation can be compared with other reactors, however, which need to be operated at 0°C or -20°C to avoid side reactions. 

The summation involves the effluent molal flow rates. This equation and equation 10.4.2 must be solved simultaneously in order to determine the tubular reactor size and to determine the manner in which the heat transfer requirements are to be met. For either isothermal or adiabatic operation one of the three terms in equation 10.4.7 will drop out, and the analysis will be much simpler than in the general case. In the illustrations which follow two examples are treated in detail to indicate the types of situations that one may encounter in practice and to indicate in more detail the nature of the design calculations. 

Since these two types of processes have drastically different effects on the conversion levels achieved in chemical reactions, they provide the basis for the development of mathematical models that can be used to provide approximate limits within which one can expect actual isothermal reactors to perform. In the development of these models we will define a segregated system as one in which the first effect is entirely responsible for the spread in residence times. When the distribution of residence times is established by the second effect, we will refer to the system as mixed. In practice one encounters various combinations of these two limiting effects. 

The reactor model adopted for describing the lab-scale experimental setup is an isothermal homogeneous plug-flow model. It is composed of 2NP + 2 ordinary differential equations of the type of Equation 16.11 with the initial condition of Equation 16.12, NP + 3 algebraic equations of the type of Equation 16.13, and the catalytic sites balance (Equation 16.14) ... 

Some aspects of reactor behavior are developed in Chapter 5, particularly concentration-time profiles in a BR in connection with the determination of values of and k2 from experimental data. It is shown (see Figure 5.4) that the concentration of the intermediate, cB, goes through a maximum, whereas cA and cc continuously decrease and increase, respectively. We extend the treatment here to other considerations and other types of ideal reactors. For simplicity, we assume constant density and isothermal operation. The former means that the results for a BR and a PFR are equivalent. For flow reactors, we further assume steady-state operation. 

Most publications dealing with chromatographic reactors focus on theoretical issues of this very complex system. Models of different complexity were derived and used to predict the behavior of chromatographic reactors. Such models typically take into consideration different types of mass transfer, adsorption isotherms, flow profiles, and reactions. A general scheme of these models, not including the reaction, is presented in Fig. 4. There are also several review papers... 

The results of many, albeit mainly theoretical studies of the behavior of this type of reactor based on different reaction types and adsorption isotherms have... 

The solution procedure to this equation is the same as described for the temporal isothermal species equations described above. In addition, the associated temperature sensitivity equation can be simply obtained by taking the derivative of Eq. (2.87) with respect to each of the input parameters to the model. The governing equations for similar types of homogeneous reaction systems can be developed for constant volume systems, and stirred and plug flow reactors as described in Chapters 3 and 4 and elsewhere [31-37], The solution to homogeneous systems described by Eq. (2.81) and Eq. (2.87) are often used to study reaction mechanisms in the absence of mass diffusion. These equations (or very similar ones) can approximate the chemical kinetics in flow reactor and shock tube experiments, which are frequently used for developing hydrocarbon combustion reaction mechanisms. 

Property 1. Consider an exothermic continuous stirred-tank reactor with temperature dependence Arrenhius-type, there is a stable equilibrium point such that, under the isothermic operation (i.e., as reactor temperature X2 is constant). 

What is the most reasonable interpretation, in terms of controling resistances, of the kinetic data of Table E18.7 obtained in a basket type mixed flow reactor if we know that the catalyst is porous Assume isothermal behavior. 

What can you tell about the influencing resistances for the porous catalyst from the data of Table P18.27 obtained in a recycle type mixed flow reactor. In all runs the leaving stream has the same composition, and conditions are isothermal throughout. 

These considerations are only valid for isothermal reactors, and we shall see in the next two chapters that the possibility of temperature variations in the reactor can lead to much more interesting behavior. We will also see in Chapter 7 that with catalytic reactors the situation becomes even more complicated. However, these simple ideas are useful guides in the choice of a chemical reactor type to carry out multiple-reaction systems. We will stiU use these principles as the chemical reactors become more complicated and additional factors need to be included. 

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