ASSIGNMENT 1

Reference: Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 2nd Edition by Fogler

Chapter 1 Mole Balances

1. P1-4A, P1-5A, and P1-8A
2. The reaction A → B is first-order in concentration of A and can be conducted in either a 20
L PFR, a 100 L CSTR or a 100 L PFR. For which reactor is the consumption rate of A (-
rA) at the reactor outlet the highest? Assume the reaction is conducted isothermally. Justify
your answer.
3. Watch the screencast at http://youtu.be/2BKpfNB1FRs. Suppose the drug is eliminated
more rapidly than in the example, such that the first-order rate constant is triple the value
given in the example. What is the size of the bolus dose required? What is the practical
problem with a bolus dose when the rate constant is too high?
4. A CSTR is being used to carry out a certain reaction isothermally in the liquid phase. It is
observed that the conversion in the CSTR is actually higher than that which was predicted
from the design equations. It is also determined that the CSTR is not very well-mixed.
Could this explain the observation of high conversion? If so, explain how.

Chapter 2 Conversion and Reactor Sizing

1. P2-1A
2. P2-4B
3. The following conversion data are recorded as the reactant A is consumed in a
reaction. Temperature was held constant. Data were recorded using a starting
concentration of 2 mol/L A.

X -rA mol/(m3-s)
0 0.600
0.1 0.490
0.2 0.384
0.3 0.294
0.4 0.216
0.5 0.150
0.6 0.096
0.7 0.054
0.8 0.024
 A 10 L/s stream of A is available at a concentration of 2 mol/L.

a. How large of a CSTR would be required to reach 60% conversion?

b. If a second CSTR were added in series with the CSTR of part (a), how
big would it need to be to reach a final conversion of 0.8?
c. What would the volume be if a PFR (instead of a CSTR) were added in
series to the first CSTR to reach the conversion of 0.8?
d. If a batch reactor were used, how long would it take to convert 80% of a
2 mol/L solution of A to products? Assume constant density.

4. An isothermal reaction is run in both a 15 L PFR and a 15 L CSTR. The conversion

in each reactor is measured to be 54%. It is suggested that this result means that
the reaction is zeroth order in the reactants – that is, the reaction rate is not a
function of conversion. Could this hypothesis explain the result? Suppose that you
are to do an experiment to test this hypothesis, and that you have the ability to
change the total volumetric flow rate of the feed stream prior to re-establishment
of steady state. Explain how you would run this experiment and analyze the results
to prove or disprove the hypothesis.