Troubleshooting reactor systems

Pfl-20(. Troubleshooting. The following reactor system is used to carry out Ihc reversible catalytic reaction... 

Troubleshooting a reactor system requires the student to become familiar with the typical operation of the unit. As equipment and instrumentation fails, the student sees the cascading effect a single problem can have on the unit. A single problem can create a series of other problems, so students must learn to identify the primary problem that started the system failure(s). 

Shortly after the valve to the sump was opened and the valve to the hopper was closed, the No. 4 reactor began experiencing erratic pressure problems. The system pressure troubles continued for about 15 minutes. As the supervisor and operator were troubleshooting the problem the relief valve on the reactor heat transfer chest opened with a loud report, signaling real troubles. The two employees started to head out of the unit. About 20 seconds later a large section of a 9 ft. (2.7 m) in diameter expansion joint burst. The initial explosion and the resulting thrust shifted the massive reactor. 

Equations (19) and (22) are theoretically pleasing but their practical utility is limited. In a troubleshooting problem eq. (22) would allow us to recover E(s) of the system but we rarely deal with a homogeneous system of linear reactions I In a design problem we often do not know the actual RTD and are trying to design an ideal reactor. If the RTD can be predicted based on a nonideal reactor model, then species concentrations can also be calculated based on that model. Then eq. (22) represents at best only a mathematical short-cut I... 

We have shown here that if the system is truly homogeneous its performance can be uniquely determined from its RTD in case of first-order reactions. Thus, tracer methods are of great help in troubleshooting and in determining why the reactor performance is what it is I They are not as helpful in the design problems. 

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