1. A tubular reactor for an exothermic homogeneous reaction has a radius (R) of 0.

1 m and a
length (L) of 2 m. The reactant concentration (C0) and temperature (T0) at the reactor entrance
are 0.03 kmol/m3 and 700 K, respectively. The appropriate species and energy balance
equations for this system, assuming constant density ( = 1.2 kg/m3) and specific heat [cp = 1
kJ/(kgK)], are as follows:

dC
kC
dz
dT
2U
T Tc
u 0 c p
H kC
R
dz
u0

where z is the distance measured from the reactor entrance, C is the reactant concentration at
z, T is the temperature of the reacting fluid at z, u0 is the superficial velocity of the fluid
entering the reactor (= 3 m/s), H is the heat of reaction (= 104 kJ/kmol), U is the overall
heat transfer coefficient, Tc is the temperature of the cooling medium, which can also be
assumed constant (= T0), and k is the rate constant at T given by
E
k k 0 exp a
R g

1 1

T0 T

In the equation above, k0 is the rate constant at T0 (= 5 s1), Ea is the activation energy (= 100
kJ/kmol), and Rg is the universal gas constant.
a. Plot the highest temperature of the fluid inside the reactor as a function of the overall heat
transfer coefficient [50 U 100 W/(m2K)]. If a high value of U corresponds to a faster
rate of heat removed by the cooling medium, does your plot make sense? Explain. To
reduce the calculation time, you may use only 100 intervals for the differential equation
solver.
b. If the temperature of the reacting fluid inside the reactor should not exceed 850 K,
determine the minimum value of the overall heat transfer coefficient that should be used.