Cesar Manuel Romero López

ID: 00000213251

HOMOGENEOUS REACTORS
Competency I
Introductory Concepts

Investigate the following:

1.- What is Chemical kinetics?

R: Chemical kinetics is one of the oldest branches of physical chemistry, and its study is
intrinsically tied to understanding mechanisms and assigning specific rate constants to
individual mechanistic steps, chemical kinetics, the branch of physical chemistry that is
concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is to be contrasted with
thermodynamics, which deals with the direction in which a process occurs but in itself tells
nothing about its rate.

2.- Importance of chemical reactors for Chemical Engineering

Chemical reactors have always been considered as the heart of chemical processes.
Improved reactor design and operation will usually translate into significant cost savings and
revenue potentials for the chemical plants, then the chemical engineer usually takes a
fundamental role in this field since he is in charge of optimizing and improving the processes
by using these tools.

3.- Definition of the rate of reaction

The rate of reaction tells us how fast a number of moles of one chemical species are being
consumed to form another chemical specie

4.- Characteristics of Homogeneous Reactors

The simplest operation of homogeneous reactors is the reaction of a single reactant in a

single phase present inside the equipment. However, these reactors can operate with a
mixture of reactive agents, as long as they are all in the same phase. For this purpose,
Cesar Manuel Romero López
ID: 00000213251
homogeneous solutions or mixtures of reactives are created that will react inside the
equipment at the operating conditions appropriate for the process.

5.- What is a chemical specie?

The term chemical species refers to any chemicaI component or element with a given
identity. The identity of a chemical species is determined by the kind, number; and
configuration of that species atoms.

6.-The General Mole Balance Equation (equation and meaning-units of the parameters)

To perform a mole balance on any system, the system boundaries must first be specified.
The volume enclosed by these boundaries is referred to as the system volume. We shall
perform a mole balance on species j in a system volume. where species j represents the
particular chemical species of interest.

𝑖𝑛 − 𝑜𝑢𝑡 + 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑒𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 = 𝑎𝑐𝑐𝑢𝑚𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

𝑑𝑁𝑗
𝐹𝑗0 − 𝐹𝑗 + 𝐺𝑗 =
𝑑𝑡

in Rate of flow of j into the system

(moles/time)
out Rate of flow of j out of the system
(moles/time)
generation Rate of generation of j by chemical
reaction within the system (moles/time)
accumulation Rate of accumulation of j within the
system (moles/time)

Where N, represents the number of moles of species j in the system at time t. If all the
system variables ( eg,temperature, catalytic activity, concentration of the chemical species)
Cesar Manuel Romero López
ID: 00000213251
are spatially uniform throughout the system volume, the rate of generation of species j, G,. is
just the product of the reaction volume. V and the rate of formation of species j, r.
𝐺𝑗 = 𝑟𝑗 ∗ 𝑉

𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠
= ∗ 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 ∗ 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

Bibliography

1. Scott-Fogler, H., Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering. Prentice Hall

International
2. Octave Levenspiel, Chemical Reaction Engineering. John Wiley & Sons.
3. Laidler, K. J. (1996). A glossary of terms used in chemical kinetics, including reaction
dynamics (IUPAC Recommendations 1996). Pure and applied chemistry, 68(1), 149-
192.

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