MODULE 4

NON IDEAL FLOW IN REACTOR DESIGN

BT 303- CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL REACTION ENGINEERING
FIFTH SEMESTER BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOCHEMICAL ENGINEERING
SREE CHITRA THIRUNAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
REFERENCE: CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING By Octave Levenspiel
Chapter 11: Basics of Non Ideal flow
Chapter 12: Compartment Models
Chapter 13: Dispersion model
Chapter 14: Tank in Series Model
Chapter 16: Earliness of Mixing , Segregation and RTD

ELEMENTS OF CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING BY Scott Fogler

Chapter 13 : Distributions of Residence times for chemical reactors
Chapter 14: Models for Non Ideal reactors
NON IDEAL REACTOR DESIGN
• Reasons for non ideality
• Measurement of non ideality
• Residence time distribution
• Pulse injection and Step injection
• C, E, F curve
• Moments of RTD Distribution
• RTD in Ideal Reactors
• RTD in Non Ideal Reactors
We assumed that any reaction occurring in nature, one among the three
flow configuration is the optimum to carry out a reaction

Efficiency 𝜼 = 𝟏𝟎𝟎%

IDEAL
IDEAL MFR IDEAL PFR
BATCH RXR
 IDEAL REACTORS vs REAL REACTORS

• Uniform flow distribution • Non-uniform flow

• Uniform mixing • In-efficient mixing, unmixed
• Ideal mixing • Design equations changes
• Ideal design equations • Different flow effects can occur:
• No flow effects Laminar & turbulent
• No bypass • Bypass
• No radial variation in concentration • Affect the reactor design, the yield or
temperature development of a
• No hot spots chemical process

NON EXISTENT REALITY

Why do reactors behave non ideally in the
first place .?

Residence Earliness
State of
time and lateness
aggregation
Distribution of mixing
 REASONS FOR NON IDEAL BEHAVIOUR
RESIDENCE TIME DISTRIBUTION
Residence IDEAL CASE- All particles must spent same time in the reactor
time
Distribution
REAL CASE- Some particles spent less time in the reactor and
Some particles will spent more time in the reactor
STATE OF AGGREGATION

IDEAL CASE- All particles must be having an individual identity

NON IDEAL REAL CASE- Particles can clump together or mix together inside
BEHAVIOUR the reactor
EARLINESS AND LATENESS OF MIXING
Earliness
and State of IDEAL CASE- Mixing in the reactor should happen at the same
lateness of aggregation time for all the particles inside the reactor
mixing

REAL CASE- Mixing in the reactor need not occur at the same
time. Some particles can mix early or some particles can mix
late
 EXAMPLES OF NON IDEAL FLOW
CHARACTERISTICS IN REAL REACTORS
 STATE OF AGGREGATION OF FLUID
SINGLE PHASE SYSTEM

COMPLETE SEGREGATION MAXIMUM MIXING

Varies with the fluid system

 STATE OF AGGREGATION OF FLUID
TWO PHASE SYSTEM
MULTI FLUID SINGLE FLUID
SYSTEM SYSTEM
MIXING OF FLUID
FLOW PROFILE IN PLUG FLOW

1. IDEAL PLUG FLOW

2. TURBULENT PLUG FLOW
3. LAMINAR PLUG FLOW
AGE OF THE FLUID ELEMENT
It is the amount of time a fluid element
spends inside a reactor since its entry into the
reactor till exit

Fluid element is a concept to say that, the small volume of the of the
reacting fluid is the small, but is also large in some sense, that is large
enough.
So, that we can define the continuum properties of the fluid medium for
example, concentration, density

FFPT.. Not Again.!

MEASUREMENT OF NON-IDEALITY
1. The Residence time distribution (RTD)
2. The quality of mixing
3. The model used to describe the system
RESIDENCE TIME DISTRIBUTION
RESIDENCE TIME DISTRIBUTION
• The time the atoms have spent in
the reactor is called the residence
time of the atoms in the reactors
• Ideal plug flow reactor and batch
reactors are the only two classes of
reactors in which all the atoms in
the reactors have the same
residence time.
• In all other types, the various
atoms in the feed spend different
time inside the reactor ie- there is
a distribution of residence time of
material within the reactor
FOR MATHEMATICAL CALCULATIONS, WE USE THE RULES OF PROBABILITY DISTRIBUTION FUNCTION (p.d.f)
• The residence time distribution (RTD )
of a reactor is a characteristic of the
mixing that occurs in the chemical
reactors.
USE OF RTD
• If we know what is happening within
the vessel, then we can have the
complete velocity distribution map for
the fluid in the vessel
• Then we can easily predict the
behaviour of a vessel as a reactor
 USE OF RTD

To predict conversion or
effluent concentrations in
To diagnose problems of
existing/available reactors
reactors in operation
when a new chemical reaction
is used in the reactor.
MEASUREMENT OF RTD
• The RTD is determined experimentally by injecting an inert chemical,
molecule or atom calIed a tracer. into the reactor at some time t = 0 and
then measuring the tracer concentration C, in the effluent stream as a
function of time.

CHARACTERISITICS NEEDED FOR TRACER

• Tracer should be nonreactive and easily detectable
• It should have physical properties similar to that of the reacting system
• It should be completely soluble in the mixture
• It should not adsorb on to walls or other surfaces in the reactor
• Coloured and radioactive materials along with inert gas are the most
common types of tracers

• The most common methods of injecting tracer-Pulse input and Step input
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPOVF2IzBJg
Various ways of finding flow patterns in a
vessel
PULSE INPUT EXPERIMENT
• In a pulse input, an amount of tracer No is suddenly injected in one
shot into the feed stream entering the reactor in as short a time as
possible.
• The outlet concentration is then measured as a function of time
• The effluent concentration-time curve is referred to as the C Curve in
RTD analysis
Typical concentration- time curves at the inlet and
outlet of an arbitrary reactor
Calculation OF E curve from C curve

→ We shall analyse the injection of a tracer pulse for a single input and
single output system in which only flow (i.e, no dispersion) carries
the tracer materials across system boundaries
→ First we choose an increment of time Dt sufficiently small that the
concentration of tracer C(t) exiting time t and t+ Dt is essentially the
same
→ The amount of tracer material, DN leaving the reactor between
time t and t +Dt is then
1
Calculation OF E curve from C curve → Where v is the effluent volumetric flow rate.
→ In other words, DN is the amount of material exiting the reactor
that has spent an amount of time between t and t + Dt in the
reactor
→ If we now divide by the total amount of material that was injected
into the reactor No , we obtain

→ Which represents the fraction of material that has a residence in the

reactor between time t and t+ Dt
Calculation OF E curve from C curve →For pulse injection, we define

→So that

→The quantity E(t) is called the residence-time distribution function.

→ It is the function that describes in a quantitative manner how much
time different fluid elements have spent in the reactor.
→ The quantity E(t)dt is the fraction of fluid exiting the reactor that has
spent between time t and t + dt inside the reactor.
Calculation OF E curve if initial tracer • If No is not known directly, it can be obtained from the outlet
concentration measurements by summing up all the amounts of
materials. DN between time equal to zero and infinity
concentration is not known

• Writing equation in differential form yields 5

• We obtain 6

The volumetric flow rate v is usually constant so we can define E(t) as

The integral in the denominator is the area under the C Curve

An alternative way of interpreting the residence time function is in its
integral form

We know the fraction of all the material that has resided for a time t in
the reactor between t=0 and t= ∞ is 1;
Therefore
EXAMPLE
• A sample of the tracer hytane at 320K was injected as a pulse to a
reactor and effluent concentration was measured as a function of
time resulting in the data shown
t (min) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 14
C (g/m3) 0 1 5 8 10 8 6 4 3.0 2.2 1.5 0.6 0

• The measurements represent the exact concentration at the times

listed and not average values between the various sampling tests
Contd.
(a) Construct figures showing C(t) and E(t) as a function of time
(b) Determine both the fraction of material leaving the reactor that has
spent between 3 and 6 min in the reactor and the fraction of
material leaving that has spent between 7.75 and 8.25 min in the
reactor
(c) Determine the fraction of material leaving the reactor that has
spent 3 min or less in the reactor
C Curve
• By plotting C as a function of
time using data in Table 1
To obtain the E curve from C curve
∞
We divide the C(t) with0
𝐶 𝑡 𝑑𝑡
which the area under the C curve
• The shaded area represents the
fraction of material leaving the
reactor that has resided in the
reactor between 3 and 6 min

• Therefore 51% of the material

leaving the reactor spends time
between 3 and 6 min in the
reactor
• Because the time between 7.75 and Consequently, 3.0% of the fluid
8.25 min is very small relative to a leaving the reactor has been in the
time scale of 14 min, we shall use an reactor between 7.75 and 8.25 min.
alternative technique to determine
this fraction to reinforce the
interpretation of the quantity E(t)dt The long-time portion of the E(t)
curve is called the tail.
• The average value of E(t) between
these times is 0.06 min-1
• Finally we shall consider the
fraction of material that has
been in the reactor for a time t
or less that is the fraction that
has spent between 0 and t
minutes in the reactor.
• This fraction is just the shaded
area under the curve upto
t= t minutes (t= 3 mins)
• Calculating the area under the
curve we see that 20% of the
material has spent 3 min or less
in the reactor
Question
• The concentration readings
represent a continuous response
to a pulse input into a closed
vessel which is to be used as a
chemical reactor. Calculate the
mean residence time of fluid in
the vessel t, and tabulate and
plot the exit age distribution E.
Question
• A slug of dye is placed in the feed
stream to a stirred reaction vessel
operating at steady state. The dye
concentration in the effluent
stream was monitored as a
function of time to generate the
data in the table below. Time is
measured relative to that at which
the dye was injected.
• Determine the average residence
time of the fluid and the F(t) curve
for this system.
DRAWBACKS OF PULSE INPUT
• The principal difficulties with the pulse technique lie in the problems
connected with obtaining a reasonable pulse at a reactor’s entrance
• The injection must take place over a period which is very short
compared with residence time in various segments of the reactor or
reactor system
• Negligible amount of dispersion between the point of injection and
the entrance to the reactor system
STEP TRACER EXPERIMENT
• The step tracer experiment is another way to determine the residence time
distribution of a reactor.
• In this experiment, at time t = 0, a constant volumetric flowrate of tracer is added
to the reactor.
• It is continuously added until the concentration of the tracer in the reactor
stabilizes.
• Using the data, the step tracer experiment gives, the cumulative distribution
function is derived from a step input.
• The cumulative distribution function, F(t) gives the fraction of material that has
been in the reactor at time t or less, and can be differentiated to obtain the RTD
function.
• The cumulative distribution function is dependent on the outlet concentration of
the tracer and the initial concentration. This initial concentration is a constant,
and the outlet concentration depends on the time.
Calculation Of F curve

Because the inlet concentration is a constant with time, Co we can take

it outside the integral sign

Dividing by Co yields

We differentiate this expression to obtain the RTD function E(t);

Relationship between E curve and F curve
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF STEP
INJECTION
ADVANTAGE
• Easy to carry out compared to
pulse test
• The amount of tracer in the feed
over the period of the test does
not have to be known as in the
pulse test
DISADVANTAGE
• Difficulty in maintaining a constant
tracer concentration in feed
• Data extraction from experimental
results is tough and prone to error
due to differentiation
• A large concentration of tracer is
needed. So if the tracer is a costly
material pulse injection Is used
 C CURVE E CURVE F CURVE
When a pulse or delta input is used, Exit Age or residence time When the tracer is introduced as
the effluent concentration profile is distribution curve step function (Continuous input),
the C Curve the effluent tracer concentration
profile is F Curve
C curve shows how fluid elements Area under the C curve
are distributed in time as they pass
through the reactor
Total area under the E curve is 1
E curve shows a time- normalized
or fractional age distribution
 KEY CONCEPTS ASSOCIATED WITH EXIT AGE
DISTRIBUTION
1. The flowing fluid contains entities that are conserved. These entities may
be molecules, atoms , particles etc- they are called Fluid elements
2. Every fluid element has some original entry point and final departure
point from the system
3. The system consists of a volume in a three dimensional space and there
is no ambiguity with regard to its boundaries.
4. Fluid element have zero age as they enter and acquire age equal to the
time spent in the system.
5. Aging stops if the fluid element leaves the system but resumes if the
same element returns into the system and completely when the element
leaves never to return again. At that point its age becomes the residence
time
Characteristics of Residence Time Distribution
• E(t) is called the exit age distribution
• From studying E(t) we can understand how long different molecules
have been in the reactor
• It is the most used of the distribution functions connected with
reactor analysis because it characterizes the lengths of time various
reactions spend at the reaction conditions
Integral relationships
• The fraction of exit stream that has resided in the reactor for a period
of time shorter than a given value t is equal to the sum over all times
less than t of E(t) del t or expressed continuously as

• Analogously, we have
MEAN RESIDENCE TIME
For Ideal reactor, space time is equal to mean residence time

If we know the mean residence time we can determine the total reactor volume using cumulative
distribution function
 Proof that Mean residence time is equal to Space
Mean Residence time= Space time Derivation

time for a constant volumetric flow V=Vo

• Consider the following situation:
• We have a reactor completely filled with maize molecules
At time t=0 , we start to inject blue molecules to replace the maize
molecules that currently fill the reactor.
Initially, the reactor volume V is equal to the volume occupied by the
volume occupied by the maize molecules.
Now, in a time dt, the volume of molecules that leave the reactor is v dt
The fraction of these molecules that have been in the reactor a time t
or greater is 1 – F(t)
 • Because only the maize molecules have been in the reactor in a time t
Mean Residence time= Space time Derivation

or greater, the volume of maize molecules dV , leaving the reactor in a

time dt is
Mean Residence time= Space time Derivation
Other moments of RTD
Variance
The magnitude of this moment is
an indication of the spread of the
distribution
The greater the value of this
moment, greater a distribution
spread will be
Skewness
• The magnitude of this moment
measures the extent that a
distribution is skewed in one
direction or another in reference
to mean
VARIANCE SKEWNESS