TOPIC SUMMARY

The reactor considered is the continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), one of the reactor models
used in engineering. Given the design equation for the CSTR, the volume of each reactor is
estimated. The challenge is whether to carry out the project with a single reactor or to chain
reactors in succession.Continuous stirred tank reactors (CSTR) are used in many chemical
experiments. CSTRs can be used in the generation of electricity and biogas from the waste water
of slaughter house, animal and poultry, city sewage sludge, etc. Millions of dollars can be saved
by finding the optimum number or reactors.

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Table of Contents
TOPIC SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... 1
OBJECTIVE OF THE TOPIC ……………………………………………………………………………..4
BACKROUND THEORY ............................................................................................................................ 4
METHODOLOGY………………………………………………………………………………………….5

DESIGINIG AND MODELLING…………………………………………………………………………6

SIMULATION AND CALCULATION……………………………………………………………….….13

GRAPH AND ANAYLSYS………………………………………………………………………………18

CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………………………………………19

REFERENCES: .......................................................................................................................................... 20

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List Of Figures And Graphs

Figure 1 CSTR REACTOR

Figure 2 PFD OF CSTR IN SERIES

Figure 3 SIMULATION OF CSTR IN SERIES

 PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM 13
 DESIGN PARAMETERS 13
 CONDITIONS 14
 SIZING 15
 REACTION 16

Figure 4 OPTIMIZATION
 SPREAD SHEET 17
 SOLVER PARAMETERS 18
 CALCULATIONS 18
 BEFORE OPTIMIZATION GRAPH 19
 AFTER OPTIMIZATION GRAPH 19

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 1.1 OBJECTIVE:

This project consists of the optimization of a CSTR reactor in series in which the chemical
reaction is occuring which is isomerization of 2 butane .The reactor considered here is the
continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), one of the reactor models used in engineering. Given the
design equation for the CSTR, the volume of each reactor is estimated. The challenge for this
problem is whether to carry out the project with a single reactor or to chain reactors in
succession, with the output from one reactor serving as the input to the next, supposing that any
of the reactors fail.The volume of all reactors in a series would be the same. There are two
conceivable solutions to this problem: (1) a single reactor or (2) a series of reactors.

1.2 BACKROUND THEORY:

This problem of optimizing a chemical reaction train is useful to science and engineering because “the
most important unit operation in a chemical process is generally a chemical reactor.” Continuous stirred
tank reactors (CSTRs) are used in many chemical experiments. In practice, “rapid reactions with reactive
intermediates and products can be scaled up in the laboratory using continuously stirred tank reactors
(CSTR).” (ACS Publications) According to Industrial Tomography Systems, “A CSTR consists of a stirred
vessel that is heated in a controlled profile, stirred and after a fixed time cooled and discharged. They
are widely used throughout the world wide process industries.” As an example, CSTRs can be used in the
“generation of electricity and biogas from the waste water of slaughter house, animal and poultry, city
sewage sludge, etc. where the content of organic waste is high.” Further, “The fermentation of liquid
and generation of biogas are made in an air-tight tank. A stirring device is installed in the digester so
that the fermented material and microorganism are well mixed. The feeding of material is continuous or
half-continuous under stable temperature. The newly fed material is stirred and mixed with the bacteria
in the fermented liquid, resulting in the comparatively low density of the fermentation substrates.” (Lipp
Silo)There are some advantages of CSTR such as “the low capital cost and the potential flexibility to

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make more than one product”. (Industrial Tomography Systems) However, there are also some
disadvantages like “the high energy usage/unit of product, variations in the degree of mixing and the
fact that the reaction conditions vary throughout the batch tending to result in the creation of waste
products.” (Industrial Tomography Systems) As mentioned above, a low capital cost can be an
advantage; however it is important to know the number of reactors that should be used in series in
order to optimize the cost of a specific CSTR. Millions of dollars can be saved by finding the optimum
number or reactors. This is where calculus comes into play; it can be applied to deal with such problems.
By taking the first and second derivative of the cost function relative to the number of reactors , the
optimum number of reactors can be found.

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 1.3 METHODOLGY:
1. Simulation is done on Aspen Hyses.
2. First open a new case. Under the component list select cis butane.Go to the fluid package
and select Peng Robinson.
3. Now go to the reactions tab and select add reaction. It will ask about the reactant source
and type of reaction.Select Hysys and kinetic reaction.
4. click on RXN 1 and add components Add the stoichiometric coefficient.Click on add to
FP button.Reaction kinetics are now defined
5. On simulation environment CSTR reactor is added through model palate. Make outlet
connections of CSTR as liquid product and vapor product.Add reaction 1 to CSTR.
6. We inserted the volume of first CSTR reactor which is calcualed by designing equation
and liquid volume percent is set to 100%.
7. Similary all the conditions such Temperature,pressure and molar flow rate is inserted in
column.Other two reacors are added and all streams converged.Then we run the
simulation.
8. Optimization is done on MS excel by inserting the given data as follow:

FA0/CA0= 10
XA1= 0.3
XA2= 0.4
XA3= 0.9
K= 0.23

9. Then making initial guess for conversion of each reactor in order to calculate volume of
each reactor.
10. After inserting data in desiginig equations of volume ,we get voulmes of these
reactors.But these volumes are not equal.now we have to optimize these volumes until all
volumes become equal.
11. Then we use solver technique by inserting solver parameter in input we set objective and
solve for each cell until we get our desired result which is the equal volumes of CSTR
reactors.

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 1.4 DESIGNING AND MODELING

CSTR REACTOR:
The continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR), also known as vat- or backmix reactor, mixed flow
reactor (MFR), or a continuous-flow stirred-tank reactor (CFSTR), is a common model for
a chemical reactor in chemical engineering and environmental engineering. A CSTR often refers
to a model used to estimate the key unit operation variables when using a continuous agitated-
tank reactor to reach a specified output. The mathematical model works for all fluids: liquids,
gases, and slurries.The behavior of a CSTR is often approximated or modeled by that of an ideal
CSTR, which assumes perfect mixing. In a perfectly mixed reactor, reagent is instantaneously
and uniformly mixed throughout the reactor upon entry. Consequently, the output composition is
identical to composition of the material inside the reactor, which is a function of residence time
and reaction rate. The CSTR is the ideal limit of complete mixing in reactor design, which is the
complete opposite of a plug flow reactor (PFR). In practice, no reactors behave ideally but
instead fall somewhere in between the mixing limits of an ideal CSTR and PFR.

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REACTOR DESIGN:

Design of a reactor requires data from thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, fluid mechanics, heat
transfer, mass transfer and economics. A properly designed reactor can minimize the production
of unwanted products and hence reduce the purification costs. The reactor design involves design
of equilibrium-based reactor as well as kinetic based reactor. As the product purity is increased
by increasing the working cost of the reactor. In most cases, The selection of the reactor is the
most important stage in guaranteeing that the procedure can be carried out effectively. The
comparison could lead to a decrease in the size and cost of the CSTR and an increase in
productivity.

ASSUMPTIONS:
A continuous fluid flow containing non-conservative chemical reactant A enters an ideal CSTR
of volume V.

 perfect or ideal mixing

 steady state , where NA is the number of moles of species A
 closed boundaries
 constant fluid density (valid for most liquids; valid for gases only if there is no net change in
the number of moles or drastic temperature change)
 nth-order reaction (r = k CAn), where k is the reaction rate constant, CA is the concentration of
species A, and n is the order of the reaction
 isothermal conditions, or constant temperature (k is constant)
 single, irreversible reaction (ν A = −1)
 All reactant A is converted to products via chemical reaction
 NA = CA V

SCHEMATIC DIAGRAM:
𝒗𝟎 = 𝟏𝟎 𝑳 /𝒎𝒊𝒏
CA0

V1,XA1

CA = 0.1CA0

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Here,

 V = volume of reactor
 XA= conversion of reactor
 𝐹𝐴0 = inlet moalr flow rate (mol/sec)
 𝐶𝐴0 = inlet concentration
 𝑣0 = volumetric flow rate (dimensionless)
 𝑟𝐴 = reaction rate (mol/m3.sec)
 𝑘 = 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 (Per sec)
 𝜏 = 𝑠𝑝𝑎𝑐𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 (sec)

Mole balance:

𝐹𝐴0 𝑋𝐴
𝑉=
−𝑟𝐴

Rate law

−𝑟𝐴 = 𝑘𝐶𝐴

Stoichometry:

𝐶𝐴 = 𝐶𝐴0 (1 − 𝑋𝐴 )

0.1𝐶𝐴0 = 𝐶𝐴0 (1 − 𝑋𝐴 )

XA = 0.9

Combining:

𝐹𝐴0 𝑋𝐴
𝑉=
−𝑟𝐴

𝐹𝐴0 𝑋𝐴
𝑉=
0.23 × 𝐶𝐴

𝐹𝐴0
𝑣0 =
𝐶𝐴0

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 𝑣0 𝑋𝐴
𝑉=
0.23 × 𝐶𝐴

𝑣0 × 𝑋𝐴
𝑉=
0.23 (1 − 𝑋𝐴 )

10 × 0.9
𝑉=
0.23 (1 − 0.9)

V = 391 L

𝑋𝐴
𝑘𝜏 =
1 − 𝑋𝐴

0.9
𝑘𝜏 =
1 − 0.9
𝑘𝜏 = 9

𝑉
𝜏=
𝑣0
9
𝜏= = 39.1
𝑘

𝑉 = 39.1 × 10 = 391 𝐿

EQUAL SIZE CSTR IN SERIES:

𝒗𝟎 = 𝟏𝟎 𝑳 /𝒎𝒊𝒏

𝑪𝑨𝟎

V1,XA1=? V2,XA2=? CA= 0.1 CA0

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 𝐹𝐴0 𝑋𝐴
𝑉1 =
−𝑟𝐴

𝐹𝐴0 (𝑋𝐴2 − 𝑋𝐴1 )

𝑉2 =
−𝑟𝐴

𝑉1 = 𝑉2

𝐹𝐴0 𝑋𝐴1 𝐹𝐴0 (𝑋𝐴2 − 𝑋𝐴1 )

=
𝑘𝐶𝐴0 (1 − 𝑋𝐴1 ) 𝑘𝐶𝐴0 (1 − 𝑋𝐴 )

𝑿𝑨𝟏 = 𝟎. 𝟔𝟖𝟒 𝑿𝑨𝟐 = 𝟎. 𝟗

𝐹𝐴0 𝑋𝐴1 10 × 0.684

𝑉1 = = = 94 𝐿
𝑘𝐶𝐴0 (1 − 𝑋𝐴1 ) 0.23 (1 − 0.684)

𝐹𝐴0 (𝑋𝐴2 − 𝑋𝐴1 ) 10 × (0.9 − 0.684)

𝑉2 = = = 94 𝐿
𝑘𝐶𝐴0 (1 − 𝑋𝐴2 ) 0.23 (1 − 0.9)

Now there are three reactors :

𝒗𝟎 = 𝟏𝟎 𝑳 /𝒎𝒊𝒏

𝑪𝑨𝟎

V1,XA1=? V2,XA2=? V3,XA3=?

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 𝐹𝐴0 𝑋𝐴
𝑉1 =
−𝑟𝐴1

𝐹𝐴0 (𝑋𝐴2 − 𝑋𝐴1 )

𝑉2 =
−𝑟𝐴2

𝐹𝐴0 (𝑋𝐴3 − 𝑋𝐴1 )

𝑉3 =
−𝑟𝐴3

𝑉1 = 𝑉2

𝑋𝐴1 𝑋𝐴2 − 𝑋𝐴1

=
1 − 𝑋𝐴1 1 − 𝑋𝐴2

𝑉2 = 𝑉3

𝑋𝐴2 − 𝑋𝐴1 0.9 − 𝑋𝐴1

=
1 − 𝑋𝐴2 1 − 0.9

𝑉1 = 𝑉3

𝑋𝐴1 0.9 − 𝑋𝐴1

=
1 − 𝑋𝐴1 1 − 0.9

𝑿𝑨𝟏 = 𝟎. 𝟓𝟑𝟔

𝑿𝑨𝟐 = 𝟎. 𝟕𝟖𝟓

𝑿𝑨𝟑 = 𝟎. 𝟗

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 1.5 SIMULATION AND CALCULATION

PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM:

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OPTIMIZATION OF REACTOR:

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 1.6 GRAPH AND ANALYSIS:

Before optimization:

As we can observe from graph at different conversion we get different volume for each of the
three CSTR reactor.

After optimization:

As we can observe from graph at different conversion we get equal volume for each of the three
CSTR reactor.Hnece we have optimize each reactor with equal volume which is our requirement
for chemical process.

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 1.7 CONCLUSION:

The number of reactors which minimized the cost was expected. Having only one reactor is a
disadvantage since the cost is related to its volume. Using only one reactor requires a larger volume and,
by their association, a higher cost. On the other hand if too many reactors are used in series, the volume
is diminished but the cost of each reactor is expensive when all summed together. Therefore a few
reactors (between 2 and 6) were expected. The low cost of a continuous stirred tank reactor can be an
advantage for industries. However, this process is streamlined by minimizing the cost. In this project,
calculus techniques such as the first derivative test were used to find the optimal number of reactors in
series allowing industries to save millions of dollars. ome recommendations for future researchers
include starting the project by first visualizing the problem. Pictures of the reactors helped in having a
better idea of the overall problem. Once the problem is understood, it can be interpreted in a
mathematical way. It is also important to identify what is asked in the problem and to analyze the
different methods available. In addition, writing down all the unknowns and the given relationships can
make the problem simpler and expose patterns between the unknown values.

REFERENCES:
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuous_stirred-tank_reactor
 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/154459313.pdf
 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/bit.260240518
 https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1028&context=ujmm
 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02391587

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