The influence of backmixing on selectivity

In section 3.4 the selectivities of competitive and consecutive reactions were calculated for two reactor types the batch or plug flow reactor (no backmixing), and the perfectly mixed continuous reactor. The following general conclusions can be formulated in terms of backmixing  

In the case of first order consecutive reactions, discussed in section 3.4.3, segregation will have no effect. However, if the first (desired) reaction has an order higher than one, and the second reaction is first order, then segregation will enhance the selectivity. 

There is one very important example where the residence time distribution influences the selectivity, namely in homogeneous polymerizations. This will be discussed in section 13.3.2. 

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