VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY – HO CHI MINH CITY

UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY
FACULTY OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Chemical Reaction Engineering

(Homogeneous Reactions in Ideal Reactors)

Mai Thanh Phong, Ph.D.

FCE – HCMC University of Technology Chemical Reaction Engineering

 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

1. Material and energy balances

The starting point for all design is the material balance expressed for any
reactant (or product).

Figure 3.1 Material

balance for an element
of volume of the reactor.

Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 3.1, we have

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

In nonisothermal operations energy balances must be used in conjunction with

material balances.

Figure 3.2 Energy balance for

an element of volume
of the reactor.

Thus, as illustrated in Fig. 3.2, we have

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

In this chapter we develop the performance equations for a single fluid reacting
in the three ideal reactors shown in Fig. 3.3. We call these homogeneous
reactions.

Figure 3.3 The three types of ideal reactors: (a) batch reactor, or BR; (b) plug
flow reactor, or PFR; and (c) continuously stirred tank reactor, or CSTR.

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

2. Batch reactor (BR)

Make a material balance for any component A. Noting that no fluid enters or
leaves the reaction mixture during reaction, the material balance written for
component A is

or
(3.1)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

n n n (3.2)

By replacing these two terms in Eq. 3.1, we obtain

n (3.3)

Rearranging and integrating then gives

n (3.4)

If the density of the fluid remains constant, we obtain

with (3.5)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

For all reactions in which the volume of reacting mixture changes

proportionately with conversion, Eq. 3.4 becomes

n (3.6)

3. Continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR)

Figure 3.4 Notation for a CSTR

rAf = rA

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

By selecting reactant A for consideration, material balance for a CSTR can be

written as follows

(3.7)
As shown in Fig. 3.4, if FA0 = v0CA0 is the molar feed rate of component A to
the reactor, then considering the reactor as a whole we have

Introducing these three terms into Eq. 3.7, we obtain

(3.8)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

which on rearrangement becomes

(3.9)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

More generally, if the feed on which conversion is based, subscript 0, enters

the reactor partially converted, subscript i, and leaves at conditions given by
subscript f, we have

(3.10)

For the case of constant-density systems XA = 1 – CA/CA0:

(3.11)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

Figure 3.5 is a graphical representation of these mixed flow performance

equations.

3.9 3.11

Figure 3.5 Graphical representation of the design equations for CSTR.

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

4. Plug flow tubular reactor (PFTR)

Figure 3.6 Notation for a plug

flow tubular reactor.

At the steady-state, the material balance for reactant A becomes

(3.12)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

Referring to Fig. 3.6, we see for volume dV that

Introducing these three terms into Eq. 3.12, we obtain

Noting that

We obtain (3.13)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

For the reactor as a whole the expression must be integrated. Grouping the terms
accordingly, we obtain

Thus

(3.14)

For a more general expression, we have

(3.15)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

For the special case of constant-density systems

We have

(3.16)

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 Chapter 3. Ideal Reactors for a Single Reaction

3.14
3.16

Figure 3.7 Graphical representation of the performance equations for plug flow
tubular reactors.
Fig. 3.7 displays these performance equations and shows that the space-time
needed for any particular duty can always be found by numerical or graphical
Integration.
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