EDURIA, Art Jared E.

BSEnE 3B

Assignment No. 3
ES 329 – Biological Treatment Process Design

1. Compare BR and CSTR with respect to open/closed system, environmental constraints

and operational complexity.
For Batch Reactor (BR), the cell cultivation, polymer synthesis, and crystallization are only a
few of the industries that use it to make small amounts of high-value products. To
successfully run a batch reactor, the final quality level must be maintained at a low cost. The
batch process has batch-to-batch differences in its prescribed trajectories, while using the
same recipe. As a result, online process control is critical for batch operation performance. on
the other hand, the Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) used as an idealized flow
reactor in which all of the contents are well combined though it is still similar to a batch
reactor. This idealization greatly simplifies flow reactor research so the whole reactor can
now be seen as a single entity. One can observe that the reactor resembles a batch reactor but
with inlets and outlets attached to it.
2. Compare the PFR and CSTR and BR in terms of the ff.
 Concentration of the influent and effluent components
 Mixing
 Process continuity
 Uniformity of reactor environment (desired)

PFR CSTR BR
1. Concentration of Influent (containing The effluent There is no
the influent and nutrients and volumetric flow rate withdrawal of
effluent microbial inoculum) must equal the effluent during the
components enter the reactor at influent volumetric batch process.
one end while flow rate (assuming
effluent (product and that density changes
cell mass, residual are negligible). The
nutrients, substrate) concentrations
exits at the other end. of the substrate,
product and biomass
change in time during
this transient state.
2. Mixing Liquid mixing is CSTR is the ideal This is to reduce this
assumed to be limited limit of complete distance and to
to the radial direction mixing in reactor increase the rate of
 (with the same design, which is the mess (nutrient)
point/plane); No complete opposite of transport from the
mixing between a plug flow reactor bulk liquid to the
regions of different (PFR) cell.)
length/height
(absence of mixing in
the direction of
flow)
3. Process continuity No considerable To meet both One cycle (lag,
downtime; Not suited requirement of more exponential,
for some processes or less continuous stationary, and death)
(example, operation and to new cycle
when idiophase is continuously to considerable
independent of the changing downtime (time in
tropophase; more environment. which reactor is not
complex  When nutrients productive)
operation) approach depletion,
fresh nutrients are
‘fed’ to the reactor.
 The concentration
of the nutrients added
is so high that volume
4. Uniformity of Production of 1. Continuous 1) Time variant
reactor biodiesel and other production conditions
environment biofuels with a 2. Steady state after 2) Discontinuous
(desired) recycle system. The start-up period production
plug flow reactor is (usually) 3) Downtime for
mostly preferred for 3. No variation of cleaning and filling
bioenergy production concentrations with 4) Flexibility
because of its steady- time
state operation. 4. Constant reaction
rate
5. Ease of balancing
to determine kinetics
6. No down-time for
cleaning, filling, etc.
3. For a given conversion of S to P (example 90% of C i = Csl), calculate the required CSTR
volume (without recycling):
Given: F = 100 m3 /d
Csi = 200 g C/m3
Kinetic parameters: Ks = 1.4 g C/m3, m = 2 h-1, Ysx = 0.19 g C/g C
Ysp=0.30 g C/g C, Kpg = 2.1 g C/g C,
Kpn = 0.07 g C/gCh