Materials & Apparatus

Sodium chloride pellets, deionized water, CSTR unit

Methodology

1. The general start-up procedures in appendix A were performed.

2. The feed tank B1 was filled up with tap water. Valves V1 and V2 was opened.

3. 30L of 0.025M sodium chloride solution was prepared in feed tank B2.

4. The 3-way valve V5 was set to position towards pump P2. Valve 7 was closed.

5. Valves V6 and V13 were opened. Pump 2 was switched on to initially fill up all three

reactors with tap water. Each reactor volume was recorded.

6. The pump speed was regulated to obtain a flow rate of approximately 150 ml/min on

flow meter F101.

7. Stirrers 1,2 and 3 was switched on and the speed set to 200rpm.

8. The tap water was pumped until all conductivity readings were stable at low values.

9. The conductivity values at time, to was recorded.

10. Pump 2 was switched off. The 3- way valve V5 was quickly set to position towards pump

2. Pump 1 was switched on and the timer started simultaneously.

11. The pump speed was regulated to maintain the flow rate at 150ml/min on flow meter

F101.

12. All conductivity values was recorded at a suitable interval in an appropriate table.

13. The conductivity values was continued until all reading was almost constant.

14. Pump 1 was switched off. Valve V5 was closed.

15. All liquids in each reactor was drained by opening valves V10 to V14.
 Limitations

There are some limitations found on the experiment in order to take extra caution. Firstly, the
tap water was used in this experiment. Tap water usually contains minerals that have higher
conductivity than deionized water. The experiment result may slightly disrupt.

Make sure the reactors are properly cleaned before starting the experiment to remove any salt
residue in the reactors that could affect the conductivity reading. The conductivity probe may need to
calibrate before the experiment start in order to get rid of the fluctuated readings. The human error also
might occur in this experiment. The conductivity readings fluctuated slightly when the readings recorded.
Human doesn’t respond instantly but a span of few seconds were taken to record the readings. These
limitations can be solved by using the computer to record all the interval readings.