TABLE OF CONTENT

No

Title

Abstract/Summary

Introduction

Aims/Objective

Theory

6-10

Apparatus

11-12

Methodology/Procedure

12-14

Results

15-18

Calculations

Discussion

20-22

10

Conclusion

23

11

Recommendations

24

12

Reference

25

13

Appendix

26-27

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Pages
2
3-5
6

19

1.0 ABSTRACT
First of all, the equipment is set up before started the experiment by using a unit called SOLTEQ Plug
Flow Reactor (Model: BP 101), commonly known as PFR, as well as some common laboratory
apparatus for titration process. From this experiment, our objectives are to carry out the saponification
reaction between NaOH and Et(Ac) in plug flow reactor, to determine the reaction rate constant and
the rate of reaction of the saponification process. Besides that to determine the effect of residence time
to the reaction's extent of conversion and lastly to evaluate the reaction rate constant of this particular
saponification reaction. From the experiment, reaction between two solutions Sodium Hydroxide
(NaOH) and Ethyl Acetate, Et (Ac) were reacted in the PFR. Then, the product is then analyzed by the
method of titration to determine how well did the reaction go. Thus, the reason experiment was
conducted also to determined results shows that the amount of conversion of Sodium Hydroxide, NaOH
is almost unchanged as residence time increases. After collecting the data, the value of reaction rate
constant and rate of reaction is calculated. Then, a graph of conversion factor against residence time is
plotted. From the graph we can see that the conversion factor is directly proportional to the residence
time. As the residence time increases, the conversion factor also increases. Further details can be
obtained in the results and discussion sections.
.

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2.0 INTRODUCTION
A plug flow reactor is a pipe-shaped tank where a chemical reaction takes place with walls coated with
a catalyst and an inlet flow of pure reactant. It consists of a cylindrical pipe and is normally operated
at steady state, as is the CSTR A simple illustration for what a typical plug flow reactor is:-

Inlet Flow

Outlet Flow

Figure 2.1: A simple schematic diagram for a plug flow reactor. A reactant is inserted into tank via
inlet flow, after that the reactant is converted into product then flow out the reactor by the outlet flow.

In generally, reactors are used in the mostly chemical industry for a million of processes to produce
product. There are various different types of reactors due to the numerous different factors that can
control the formation of product during the reaction. Plug flow reactors are an idealized scenario where
there is no mixing involved in the reactor. It is the opposite of the continuous-stirred tank reactor
(CSTR), where the reaction mixture is perfectly mixed. It is impossible to have no mixing at all during
a reaction, but the amount of mixing in the reactor can be minimized. There are several advantages to
minimizing the amount of mixing so that the reactor closely resembles a Plug Flow Reactor. The plug
flow reactor has an inlet flow composed of the reactants. The reactant flows into the reactor and is then
converted into the product by a certain chemical reaction. The product flows out of the reactor through
the outlet flow. An overview of the reactor can be seen in Figure 1. A schematic of industrial tubular
reactors are shown in figure below:

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Figure 2.2: Tubular reactor schematic. Longitudal flow reactor.

Excerpeted by special permission from Chem. Eng., 63(10),
211(Oct.1956). Copyright 1956 by McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York
Before the reactants are continually flow inside the Plug flow reactor, there are must have a specific
assumptions are made about the extent of mixing. The validity of the assumptions will depend on the
geometry of the reactor and the flow conditions:
1. Complete mixing in the radial direction
2. No mixing in the axial direction, i.e., the direction of flow
3. A uniform velocity profile across the radius.
4. Mixing in longitudinal direction due to vortices and turbulence
5. Incomplete mixing in radial direction in laminar flow conditions
In the chemical industry, plug flow reactors are frequently used due to the non-mixing property of the
reactors. This is because it would be more advantageous than a mixed reactor such as a CSTR. Plug
flow reactors are frequently used in biological reactions when the substrate flows into the reactor and
is converted to product with the use of an enzyme. Since plug flow reactors have an inlet and outlet
stream, they are useful for continuous production. The streams are opposite of a batch reactor, which
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is a reactor that has a constant volume and has no incoming or outgoing streams. Flow of plug flow
reactor is laminar, as with viscous fluids in small-diameter tubes, and greatly deviate from ideal plugflow behavior, or turbulent, as with gases. One Plug flow reactor is an ideal tubular reactor with laminar
flow behavior. Turbulent flow generally is preferred to laminar flow, because mixing and heat transfer
are improved. In this experiment, the Plug Flow Reactor (Model: BP101) is used as it has been properly
designed for students' experiment on chemical reactions in liquid phase under isothermal and adiabatic
conditions. Included in the unit is a jacketed plug flow reactor; individual reactant feed tanks and pumps,
temperature sensors and conductivity measuring sensor. By using this particular unit, students will be
capable to conduct the typical saponification reaction between ethyl acetate and sodium hydroxide
among the others reaction.
Basically, for chemical reactions, it is impossible to proceed to 100% completion. This is because due
to the rate of reaction decreases when percent completion gradually increases until the point where the
system achieve dynamic equilibrium (no net reaction occurs). In fact, the equilibrium point mostly is
less than 100% complete. Thus, distillation is used as a separation process, in order to separate any
remaining reagents or by products from the desired product. Sometimes the reagents may be reused at
the beginning of the process as a recycle back, such as in the Haber process.
For application plug flow reactors are usually which are:
1. High temperature reactions
2. Continuous production
3. Homogeneous or heterogeneous reactions
4. Fast reactions
5. Large scale reactions

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3.0 OBJECTIVES
The objectives of this experiment are:

To carry out the saponification reaction between NaOH and Et(Ac) in tubular flow reactor.

To determine the reaction rate constant.

To determine the effect of residence time on the conversion in the tubular flow reactor.

4.0 THEORY
In this theory, we used Sodium Hydroxide and Ethyl Acetate to produce Sodium Acetate and Ethyl
Alcohol. The feed of reactor enters at one end of a cylindrical tube and the product stream leaves at the
other end. The function plug flow reactor which is long tube and the lack of provision for stirring
prevent complete mixing of the fluid in the tube. Rate of reaction can be roughly defined as the rate of
disappearance of reactants or the rate of formation of products. When a chemical reaction is said to
occur, a reactant will diminishes and a product will produced. That product is Sodium Acetate and
Ethyl Alcohol (Laboratory Manual Plug Flow Reactor). For example:
aA+Bb cC+Dd
where A and B shown that reactants meanwhile C and D represent products. In this reaction, A and B
is being diminished and C and D is will be produced. Rate of reaction, concerns itself with how fast the
reactants diminish or how fast the product is formed. Rate of reaction of each species corresponds
respectively to their stoichiometric coefficient. For instance

- =-

The negative sign indicates reactants mean while positive indicate product.
NaOH + CH3COOC2H5 CH3COONa + C2H5OH
Sodium Hydroxide + Ethyl Acetate Sodium Acetate + Ethyl Alcohol

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4.2 Conversion
Consider the general equation
aA + bB cC + dD
We choose species A as the basis of calculation, hence the reaction expression can be arranged as
follows:
A+

B+ + D

The basis of calculation is most always the limiting reactant. The conversion of species A in a reaction
is equal to the number of moles of A reacted per mole A feed .
XA=

Conversion is an improved way of quantifying exactly how far has the reaction moved, or how many
moles of products are formed for every mole of A has consumed. Conversion XA is the number of
moles of A that have reacted per mole of A fed to the system. Thus, irreversible reaction is the
maximum values of conversion, X is that for complete conversion is X=1.0 .Meanwhile for reversible
reactions where the maximum value of conversion, X is the equilibrium conversion is X=Xe.

4.3 Plug Flow Reactors

It consists of a cylindrical pipe and is usually operated at steady state. For analytical purposes,
the flow in the system is considered to be highly turbulent and may be modeled by that of a plug flow.
Therefore, there is no radial variation in concentration along the pipe. In a plug flow reactor, the feed
enters at one end of a cylindrical tube and the product stream leaves at the other end. The long tube and
the lack of provision for stirring prevent complete mixing of the fluid in the tube. Hence the properties
of the flowing stream will vary from one point to another. Assumptions are made regarding the extent
of mixing, no mixing in the axial direction, and complete mixing in the radial direction. a uniform
velocity profile across the radius.

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Mass Balance
In a plug flow reactor, reactants are fed to the reactor at the inlet and the products are removed from
the reactor at the outlet. The reaction takes places within the reactors as the reacting mixtures moves
through the pipe. In an ideal plug of reactor, the reacting mixture is assumed to move as a plug and its
properties are assumed to be uniformly distributed across the cross section of the reactor.
Differential volume dV

FAo
FA

FA+ dFaA

Vo

FAf
Vf

FA is the molar flow rate of A in moles per time

FAo is the molar flow rate of A at the inlet in moles per time
FAf is the molar flow rate of A at the exit in moles per time
vo is the volumetric flow rate at the inlet in volume per time
vf is the volumetric flow rate at the exit in volume per time
Design equation for reactant A in the PFR is obtained by writing the mass balance for reactant A over
a deferential volume of the reacting mixture dV as follows:
mass of A entering the volume dV per unit time = mass of A leaving the volume dV per unit time
+ mass of A accumulated within the volume dV per unit time + mass of A disappearing by the
reaction within the volume dV per unit time
At steady state, no accumulation takes place. Therefore, at steady state, the above reduces to
FAMA = (FA + dFA)MA + (-rA)MA dV

(Eq 4.1)

where FA is the number of moles of A per unit time entering the differential volume dV ,
(FA+dFA) is the number of moles of A per unit time leaving the deferential volume dV , MA
is the molar mass of A, and (-rA) is the molar rate at which A is disappearing because of the

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progression of the reaction. Note that the unit of rA is, in general, moles per volume per time
and therefore rA is multiplied by the molar mass of A to get the reaction rate in compatible
unit for the mass balance given by (Eq 4.1)
Removing MA from ( Eq 4.1) and rearranging it, we get the design equation for reactant A in
an ideal PFR operated at steady-state as follows:
dFA
dV

= rA

(Eq 4.2)

Working out in terms of the molar flow rate of A, FA:

The volume VPFR required to reducing the molar flow rate of A in the PFR from FAo mol/sec
at the entrance of the reactor to FAf mol/sec at the exit of the reactor can be evaluated by
integrating (4.2) as follows:

FAf 1

VPFR =FAo rA d FA = (

(Eq 4.3)

Where (-rA) should be expressed as a function of FA.

Working out in terms of the concentration of A, CA:
Concentration CA in an ideal PFR is defined as follows:
Molar ow rate of A at a certain crosssection

CA= Volumetric ow rate of the reacting mixture at the crosssection =

(Eq4.4)

Equation (4.4) gives FA = CA v. Substituting which in (4.2), we get

d(CA v)
dV

= rA

If the volumetric flow rate v is a constant then (4.5) yield

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(Eq4.5)

CAf v

CAo

VPFR = CAo rA dCA = CAf

v
(rA)

d CA

(Eq4.6)

Where CAo and CAf are the respective concentrations of A at the entrance and at the exit of the reactor,
respectively, and (-r A) should be expressed as a function of C A. If the volumetric flow rate v is not a
constant then the solution procedure gets slightly more complicated which will be discussed in Example
4.3 of this note set.

Working out in terms of the conversion of A, xA:

Conversion of A in a PFR is defined by
XA=

FAO FA

(Eq4.7)

FAO

Which gives FA = FAo (1 xA). Substituting which in (Eq 4.2), we get

F dxA
dV

= rA

(Eq4.8)

Equation (4.8), when integrated with the conditions xA = 0 at the entrance (where V =
0) and xA= xAf at the exit (where V = VPFR), gives
xAf FAo

VPFR=0

dxA

(rA)

(Eq4.9)

where xAf is the conversion of A at the exit of the reactor, and (- rA) should be expressed as a function
of xA

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5.0 APPARATUS
The unit used in this experiment is SOLTEQ Plug Flow Reactor (Model: BP101)

Figure 5.1 SOLTEQ Plug Flow Reactor (Model: BP101)

Plug Flow Reactor (Model: BP101) is used as it has been properly designed for students' experiment
on chemical reactions. Included in the unit is a jacketed plug flow reactor; individual reactant feed tanks
and pumps, temperature sensors and conductivity measuring sensor.
The apparatus in this experiment is:1. conical flask
2. measuring cylinder
3. ph. indicator
4. beakers
5. burette

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6. Retort stand
7. stop watch
8. Plug Flow Reactor (Model: BP101)
9. droplet

Among the chemicals used are:

1. 0.1 M Sodium Hydroxide, NaOH
2. 0.1 M Ethyl Acetate, Et(Ac)
3. 0.1 M Hydrochloric Acid, HCl
4. De-ionised water

6.0 PROCEDURE
OPERATING PROCEDURES
General Start-Up Procedures for Experiments 3 & 4
1) Make sure that all valves are initially closed except valves V4, V8 and V17.
2) The solutions were prepared by following:a. 20 liter of sodium hydroxide, NaOH (0.1 M)
b. 20 liter of ethyl acetate, Et(Ac) (0.1 M)
c. 1 liter of hydrochloric acid, HCl (0.25 M), for quenching
3) The feed tank B1 was filled the NaOH solution and follow by tank B2 with the Et(Ac) solution.
4) The water jacket B4 was filled and pre-heater B5 with clean water.
5) The power for the control panel was turn on.
6) Open valves V2, V4, V6, V8, V9 and V11.
7) The both pumps P1 and P2 were switch on. The P1 and P2 were adjusted to obtain flow of
approximately 300 ml/min at both flow meters FI-01 and FI-02. Make sure both flow rates are the same.
8) The both solutions were allowed to flow through the reactor R1 and overflow into the waste tank
B3.

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9) The valves V13 and V18 were opened. The pump P3 was switched on to circulate the water through
pre-heater B5. The stirrer motor M1 was switched on and the speed was set to around 200 rpm to ensure
homogeneous water jacket temperature.
10) The unit was now ready for experiment.

General Shut-Down Procedures

1) The both pumps P1, P2 and P3 switched off. The valves V2 and V6 were closed.
2) The heaters were switched.
3) The cooling water was keep to circulating through the reactor while the stirrer motor is running to
allow the water jacket to cool down to room temperature.
4) If the equipment was not going to be used for long period of time, drain all liquid from the unit by
opening valves V1 to V19. Rinse the feed tanks with clean water.
5) The power for the control panel was turned off.
A. Preparation of Calibration Curve for Conversion vs. Conductivity
PROCEDURES:

1. The following solutions were prepared:

a) 1 liter of sodium hydroxide, NaOH (0.1 M)
b) 1 liter of sodium acetate, Na(Ac) (0.1 M)
c) 1 liter of deionised water, H2O
2. The conductivity and NaOH concentration were determined for each conversion values by mixing
the following solutions into 100 ml of deionised water:
a) 0% conversion: 100 ml NaOH
b) 25% conversion: 75 ml NaOH + 25 ml Na(Ac)
c) 50% conversion: 50 ml NaOH + 50 ml Na(Ac)
d) 75% conversion: 25 ml NaOH + 75 ml Na(Ac)
e) 100% conversion: 100 ml Na(Ac)

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B. Back Titration Procedures for Manual Conversion Determination

PROCEDURES:
1. A burette with 0.1 M NaOH solution was filed up.
2. 10 ml of 0.25 M HCl in a flask was measured.
3. A 50 ml sample was obtained from the experiment and immediately added the sample to the HCl in
the flask to quench the saponification reaction.
4. A few drops of pH indicator were added into the mixture.
5. The mixture with NaOH solution was titrated from the burette until the mixture is neutralized. The
amount of NaOH titrated was recorded.

EXPERIMENT 3: Effect of Residence Time on the Reaction

PROCEDURES:
1) The general start-up procedures as in Section 4.2 were performed.
2) Valves V9 and V11 were opened.
3) The both NaOH and Et(Ac) solutions was allowed to enter the plug reactor R1 and empty into the
waste tank B3.
4) The P1 and P2 were adjusted to give a constant flow rate of about 300 ml/min at flow meters FI-01
and FI-02.Make sure the both flow rates was same and recorded the data.
5) The inlet (QI-01) and outlet (QI-02) conductivity values were monitored until they do not change
over time to ensure that the reactor has reached steady state.
6) The both inlet and outlet steady state conductivity values were recorded. The concentration of NaOH
exiting the reactor was find and extent of conversion from the calibration curve.
7) Optional: Open sampling valve V15 and collect a 50 ml sample. A back titration procedure was
carrying out to manually determine the concentration of NaOH in the reactor and extent of conversion
(Section B).
8) The experiment (steps 4 to 7) was repeated for different residence times by reducing the feed flow
rates of NaOH and Et(Ac) to about 250, 200, 150, 100 and 50 ml/min. Make sure that both flow rates
are the same.

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7.0 RESULT
Experiment 1
APPENDIX A
TABLE 1 : PREPARATION OF CALIBRATION CURVE
Conversion

Solution Mixtures

Concentration

Conductivity

0.1 M NaOH

0.1 M Na(Ac)

H2O

of NaOH (M)

(mS/cm)

0%

100mL

100mL

0.0500

10.7

25%

75mL

25mL

100mL

0.0375

9.7

50%

50mL

50mL

100mL

0.0250

7.5

75%

25mL

75mL

100mL

0.0125

5.6

100%

100mL

100mL

0.0000

4.0

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calibration curve 1
conductivity (mS/cm)

12

y = -0.07x + 11
R = 0.9898

10
8
6

Series1

Linear (Series1)

2
0
0

50

100

150

conversion (%)

calibration curve 1
conductivity (mS/cm)

12

y = -0.07x + 11
R = 0.9898

10
8
6

Series1

Linear (Series1)

2
0

50

100

150

conversion (%)

Figure 7.1:- The graph plotted show that the conductivity versus conversion.

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Experiment 2
TABLE 2: Step input in a TFR
Time(min)

Outlet Conductivity(ms/cm)

0.0

0.3

0.5

0.8

1.0

1.7

1.5

2.8

2.0

3.6

2.5

3.6

3.0

3.7

3.5

3.7

4.0

3.8

4.5

3.8

Outlet Conductivity VS Time

4

Outlet Conductivity (mS/cm)

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1

0.5
0
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

Time(min)

Figure 7.2 : The graph plotted show that the outlet conductivity versus time

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3.5

Conversion

Conversion VS Residence time

100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0

0.5

1.5

2.5

3.5

Residence time (min)

Figure 7.3: The graph plotted show that the Conversion versus residence time.

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4.5

8.0 SAMPLE OF CALCULATION

Residence time, =

unit in minute

Reactor volume = 0.4 L

400

So: = 610/ = 0.66 minute

Taking calibration curve equation
Conversion X =

(10.677.3)
0.063

= 53.49%

Reaction rate constant: k =

610

(1)

= 400 0.05

0.5349
10.5349

= 35.0773 L/mol min

2
Rate of reaction = = 2 =
(1 )2

= 35.0773 x 0.052 x (1-0.5349)2

= 0.01897 mol/L min

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9.0 DISCUSSION
In this discussion, we are able to carry our saponification reaction between NaOH and Et(Ac) in plug
flow reactor. These two solutions react together in the PFR to complete saponification reaction. The
main objective of this particular experiment is to study the effect of residence time on the performance
of this reactor, the PFR. Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) is a type of reactor that consists of a cylindrical pipe
and is usually operated at steady state. The feed enter at one end of a cylindrical tube and leaves product
from the end of cylindrical tube. The long tube and the lack of provision for stirring prevent complete
mixing of the fluid in the tube. At the end of the experiment, we are able to determine the reaction rate
constant by using formula and to determine the effect of residence time on the conversion in the plug
flow reactor. The experiment is started by running up the equipment in order to start the saponification
process. There are two method where to done the experiment saponification process which is variation
in temperature or variation in contact time. In this experiment we will let the flow rate of both solutions
as the varying components because the flow rate of both solutions is controlled by the temperature of
the reactor. At the end of the experiment, the saponification process is successfully done.
Thus, after conducting experiment, the most important part is to determine the reaction rate constant
and the rate of the reaction for the saponification process depends on the vary flow rate of both solution
sodium hydroxide and ethyl acetate.
NaOH + CH3COOC2H5 CH3COONa + C2H5OH
Sodium Hydroxide + Ethyl Acetate Sodium Acetate + Ethyl Alcohol
The reaction rate constant can be determined by applied the equations, where:-rA = k CA2(1-X)2
-rA = FAO dX/dV = voCAO dX/dV
VTFR=

For constant plug flow reactor volume, flow rate and initial concentrations, the reaction rate constant
is calculated by formula:20 | P a g e

(
)
1

After, the experiment is conducted, the data consisting inlet flow rates, conductivity value and volume
of NaOH used in the titration process are tabulated in Table 2 of the Result Section. A series of
calculation were made based on the data tabulated that can see in Sample of Calculation section. After
that, the values of residence times, conversion of the reactions, reaction rate constants and rate of
reactions were determined. These values are tabulated in Table 3 of the Result section.
The reaction rate constant we get for flow rate of 610ml/min is 35.0802L/mol.min, for flow rate of 513
mL/min reaction rate constant is 35.7930 L/mol.min , for flow rate of 407 mL/min reaction rate is
32.4093 L/mol.min, for flow rate of 306 mL/min reaction rate is 37.3721 L/mol.min , for flow rate of
205mL/min reaction rate is 52.4442 L/mol.min and for flow rate of last which is for the 104 mL/min
reaction rate constant is 70.9860 L/mol.min. From the reaction rate constant we determined, we can
see that the value of reaction rate constant is decreased as the flow rate is decrease. Thus, these shows
that the reaction rate constant is depend to the flow rate flow in the plug flow reactor.
The rate of reaction also can be determined after we had done find the reaction rate constant. The rate
of reaction we get for 610ml/min flow rate is 0.01897 mol/L.min, for the 513mL/min the rate of reaction
is 0.01559mol/L.min, for the 407mL/min the rate of reaction is 0.01205mol/L.min, for the 306mL/min
the rate of reaction is 0.00788mol/L.min, for the 205 mL/min the rate of reaction is 0.00350mol/L.min
and for the 104mL/min the rate of reaction is 0.00083mol/L.min. After all value of rate of reactions has
been calculated, a graph of conversion factor against residence time is plotted. We used this formula to
determine residence which is use for a function of total flow rates of the feed by time before plotting
the graph,
Residence Time, =

(),
(

),0

From the graph that had been plotted, we can say that the conversion factor is directly proportional to
the residence time. Where, when the residence time increases, the conversion factor also increases

Residence time was defined as the length of time the fluid would stay in the reactor. The longer the
reactants would stay in the reactor, more products would be formed. Conversion, xA is the number of
21 | P a g e

moles of A that reacted per mole of A fed to the system. The conversion is defined with respect to the
basis of the calculation and in this case, species A is taken as the basis of the calculation. PFR lacks a
good mixing process due to PFR is designed not to stir the solution vigorously to maximize mixing
process, the conversion of the reaction by using PFR is fairly low. The experiment also aims to evaluate
the reaction rate constants and rate of reaction values of the reaction. Both of these properties have been
determined in the result section.

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10.0 CONCLUSION
From this experiment, we are able to carry out the saponification reaction between NaOH and Et(Ac)
in plug flow reactor. The reaction between them is pass through the plug flow reactor, mixed and react
at certain period of time. In plus, we are able to determine the reaction rate constant for the
saponification process. The reaction rate constant we get for flow rate of 610ml/min is
35.0802L/mol.min, for flow rate of 513 mL/min reaction rate constant is 35.7930 L/mol.min , for flow
rate of 407 mL/min reaction rate is 32.4093 L/mol.min, for flow rate of 306 mL/min reaction rate is
37.3721 L/mol.min , for flow rate of 205mL/min reaction rate is 52.4442 L/mol.min and for flow rate
of last which is for the 104 mL/min reaction rate constant is 70.9860 L/mol.min. By doing that,
saponification process was completed. There are many scenarios that must be considered when
deciding on which type of reactor to use for a certain process. A plug flow reactor is one of many types
of reactors. It is most useful when the reaction is not allowed to reach equilibrium, and the reaction is
kinetically limited by the reaction rate. Besides that, from this experiment we also are able to determine
the reaction rate of this particular reaction. From sample calculation done show the data get from result
use for calculating to achieve our objective .Moreover, from this experiment also, we can study the
relationship between the residence time and the conversion of the reactants. The graph had been plotted
based on the data result after calculation and it allow to study the relationship between residence time
and conversion. From the graph that had been plotted, we can say that the conversion factor is directly
proportional to the residence time. Where, when the residence time increases, the conversion factor
also increases. This experiment was a success.

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11.0 RECOMMENDATION
There are several recommendations that can be taken in order to get more accurate result that are:
1. This experiment should be repeated at various other temperatures to investigate the relationship
between the reaction rate constant and the rate of reaction.
2. It is further recommended that the experiment be repeated using dissimilar flow rates for the NaOH
solution and ethyl acetate solutions to investigate the effect that this will have upon the saponification
process.
3. For obtained more accurate results, run several trials on tubular flow reactor so we can take the
average value from each different molar rates.
4. During titration students should more alert and carefully because we only want the last drop of NaOH
that will convert the solution to light pale purple colour. Thus, the excess of drop of NaOH will give
effect on the result in the calculations.
5. During conducted experiment, the flow rates should be constantly monitored to prevent any changes
occur that can influence our result.
6. Titration should be immediately stopped when the indicator turned pink.

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12.0 REFERENCES
1. Fogler, H.S (2006). Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 4th Edition, New
Jersey:Prentice Hall
2. Perry, R. H., D. Green, Perrys Chemical Engineers Handbook, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill,
1988.
3. Laboratory Manual Plug Flow Reactor.
4. Reaction kinetic studies in a plug flow reactor Background and Theory (Retrieved from
http://www.seas.ucla.edu/stenstro/Reactor.pdf on the 13th May 2014)
5. The Plug Flow Reactor (Retrieved from http://www.konferenslund.se/p/L16.pdf on the 13th
May 2014)

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13.0 APPENDIX

Figure 13.1: SOLTEQ Plug Flow Reactor (Model: BP101)

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Figure 13.2: Structure of reactor in plug flow reactor

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