External Mass Transfer

Determination of the dimensionless constants.

Since the kg is >> kr, therefore the C As is determined by using the following equation.

To determine the rate of reaction using kg and kr value, the following equation is used.

To determine the temperature difference between the bulk and the catalyst surface, the following
equation is used.
 Calculated  
Dab 2.71E-05
Sc 0.010357
Pr 0.010357
Sh 286.81654
Re 4809302.7
kg 0.0518455
kr 0.00016
jD 0.0007399
jH 87.945317
ΔC 4.117856
%C 0.3076597
Cas 1334.3273

()
2
U
A graph of −r A vs 1 is plotted to determine the factors of rate limiting.
2
d p

0.22

0.21

0.21

0.21

0.21

0.21

0.21

0.21

0.21

0.21

0.21
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

From the graph, the optimum flow superficial velocity is at about 0.3 m/s. The rate of reaction did
not have a very significant increasing trend once the flow is above the optimum point. Thus, the
graph had proved that the rate of reaction is the limiting factor.
A graph of ΔC vs Superficial Velocity is plotted to determine the optimum superficial flow velocity.

133 tubes, D=0.15, delta C=5.18

250

200

150

100

50

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

From the graph, the optimum point is about 0.9 m/s. Therefore, in order to achieve the highest
efficiency for the catalytic reaction, the velocity must be greater than 0.9 m/s, where the % of ΔC
change is less than 10%. This is because the smaller the value of ΔC, the more effective for the
diffusion of substrate from the bulk to the catalyst surface.