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Chemical Reaction Engineering Lectures: University of Soran
Chemical Reaction Engineering Lectures: University of Soran
University of Soran
College of Engineering
Definitions
In chemical engineering, chemical reactors are vessels designed to contain chemical reactions.
The design of a chemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical engineering.
Designers ensure that the reaction proceeds with the highest efficiency towards the desired
output product, producing the highest yield of product while requiring the least amount of
money to purchase and operate. Normal operating expenses include energy input, energy
removal, raw material costs, labor, etc.
Residence time (τ) , Volume (V) , Temperature (T) , Pressure (P) , Concentrations of chemical
species (C1, C2, C3, ... Cn) ,Heat transfer coefficients (h, U)
Chemical reactions occurring in a reactor may be exothermic, meaning giving off heat, or
endothermic, meaning absorbing heat. A chemical reactor vessel may have a cooling or heating
jacket or cooling or heating coils (tubes) wrapped around the outside of its vessel wall to cool
down or heat up the contents.
Suppose now that the rate of formation of species j for the
reaction varies with the position in the system volume. That is, it
has a value rj1 at locatiion 1, which is surrounded by a small
volume, ∆V1 , , within which the rate is uniform similarly, the
reaction rate has a value rj2 at location 2 and an associated
volume, ∆V2.
13 Dr. Arkan Jasim Hadi
Building Block 1:
General Mole Balances
n
G j rji Vi
i 1
Take limit
n
Gj rjiVi r dV
j
14 Dr. Arkan Jasim Hadi i1 lim V 0 n
Building Block 1:
General Mole Balances
System
Volume, V
FA0 GA FA
NA
dN A
t
N A0
rAV
NA
In writing the mole balance for dimethyl ether for a batch reactor, the only
assumption made is that there are no spatial variations in rA
Constant-pressure batch reactor. To write the mole balance for this reactor in terms of concentration,
we again use the fact that
The difference between equations (El-2.1) and (El-2.3) for the two different types of reactors is apparent.
CSTR
FA 0 FA
FA0 FA rAV 0 V
rA
CSTR volume necessary to reduce the molar flow rate from FA0 to FA.
23 Dr. Arkan Jasim Hadi
1.4.2Tubular Reactor or Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) - Mole Balances
FA FA
V V V
In Out Generation
at V at V V in V 0
FA V FA V V rA V 0
26 Dr. Arkan Jasim Hadi
Plug Flow Reactor - Mole Balances
Rearrange and take limit as ΔV0
FA V V FA V
lim rA
V 0 V
dFA
rA
dV
dN A
FA0 FA rA dV
dt
dN A
Steady State 0
dt
FA0 FA rAdV 0
28 Dr. Arkan Jasim Hadi
Alternative Derivation
Plug Flow Reactor - Mole Balances
Differientiate with respect to V
0
dFA
rA
dFA
rA
dV dV
FA
dFA
The integral form is: V rA
FA 0
The mass of solid I s used because the amount of the catalyst is what
is important to the rate of reaction, The reactor volume that contains
the catalyst is of secondary significance.
W W W
The generalized mole balance on species A over catalyst weight AW
results in the equation
VVhen pressure drop through the reactor (see Section 4.4) and catalyst decay (see
Section 10.7) are neglected, the integral form of the packed-catalyst-bed design
equation can be used to calculate the catalyst weight.
FA
dFA
W
FA 0
rA
is carried out in a tubular reactor in which the volumetric flow rate, u , is constant.
Derive an equation relating the reactor volume to the entering and exiting
concentrations of A, the rate constant k , and the volumetric flow rate ʋ. Determine the
reactor volume necessary to reduce the exiting concentration to 10% of the entering
concentration when the volumetric flow rate is 10 dm3/min (i.e., liters/min) and the
specific reaction rate, k , is 0.23 min-1 .
Solution
For a tubular reactor, the mole balance on species A (j = A) was shown to be