EXPERIMENT – 7

RTD Studies in PFR

Preethika .T
2019A1PS0193U

FACULTY : Dr. BG Prakash

Kumar
AIM:

Determine the mean residence time and variance for the given plug flow reactor and also plot
calibration curve and E curve. Determine the fraction of material leaving reactor that has spent
between ___8__ and __11___ min in the reactor.

THEORY:

Plug flow reactor is characterized by the fact that the flow of fluid through the reactor is orderly
with no element of fluid overtaking or mixing with any other element ahead or behind. The
necessary and sufficient condition for plug flow is for the residence time in the reactor to be the
same for all elements of fluid. But real equipment always deviates from these ideals. The three
interrelated factors make up the contacting or flow pattern:
1. The RTD or residence time distribution of material which is flowing through the vessel
2. The state of aggregation of the flowing material, its tendency to clump and for a group of
molecules to move about together
3. The earliness and lateness of mixing of material in the vessel.
The elements of fluid taking different routes through the reactor may take different lengths of
time to pass through the vessel. The distribution of these times for the stream of fluid leaving
the vessel is called the exit age distribution E, or the residence time distribution RTD of fluid.

The experimental determination of the residence time distribution is performed using indirect
methods. Usually a disturbance by a tracer (pulse, step cyclic or random function) is administered
at the reactor input. The response function is recorded at the reactor output. The quantity E(t) is
called the residence-time distribution function. It is the function that describes in a quantitative
manner how much time different fluid elements have spent in the reactor. The quantity E(t) dt is
the fraction of fluid exiting the reactor that has spent between time t and t + dt inside the reactor.

The volumetric flow rate ν is constant, and so we can define E(t) as: C (t )
E (t ) = 
The integral in the denominator is the area under the C curve.
 C (t )dt
0
PROCEDURE:

1. Fill the tank with 10 litre water

2. Switch on the air compressor
3. Set the pressure of the storage tank to 1 kg/cm2
4. Fix the flow rate to 10 LPH using rotameter and wait for it to attain steady state.
5. Fix the 10 ml beaker on the stand. And insert the conductivity meter.
6.Prepare 0.1 N NaOH solution (100 ml)
7. Inject 10 ml of NaOH into the tank and start stopwatch
8. Attain the values from the computer and plot graph till you reach the initial value again

FORMULAE:

1 t̅ = ∑t i E(Δti)
2 𝜎 2 = ∑t i 2 Ei Δt i − t̅ 2
𝜎2 1
3 𝜎0 2 = 2 =
𝑡t N
where,
t̅ = mean residence time
𝜎 2 = variance
Δt i = time interval
D
= Dispersion number
UL

OBSERVATIONS:

Attached next page

Time (s) COND(uS/c Conc C(t)*(dt) E(t) E(t)*dt t*E(t)*dt (t^2)*E(t)*dt
m)
0 220 -2.2E-05 0 0 0 0 0
9 220 -2.2E-05 -0.000198 -2.407E-05 -0.0002167 -0.0019499 -0.01754942
18 220 -2.2E-05 -0.000396 -4.815E-05 -0.0004333 -0.0077997 -0.14039538
27 220 -2.2E-05 -0.000594 -7.222E-05 -0.00065 -0.0175494 -0.47383442
36 220 -2.2E-05 -0.000792 -9.629E-05 -0.0008666 -0.031199 -1.12316307
45 220 -2.2E-05 -0.00099 -0.0001204 -0.0010833 -0.0487484 -2.19367787
54 220 -2.2E-05 -0.001188 -0.0001444 -0.0013 -0.0701977 -3.79067537
63 219 -2.69E-05 -0.001695 -0.000206 -0.0018544 -0.1168277 -7.36014823
72 219 -2.69E-05 -0.001937 -0.0002355 -0.0021193 -0.1525913 -10.986577
81 219 -2.69E-05 -0.002179 -0.0002649 -0.0023842 -0.1931234 -15.6429973
90 219 -2.69E-05 -0.002421 -0.0002944 -0.0026492 -0.238424 -21.4581581
99 219 -2.69E-05 -0.002663 -0.0003238 -0.0029141 -0.288493 -28.5608085
108 219 -2.69E-05 -0.002905 -0.0003532 -0.003179 -0.3433305 -37.0796972
117 219 -2.69E-05 -0.003147 -0.0003827 -0.0034439 -0.4029365 -47.1435734
126 218 -3.18E-05 -0.004007 -0.0004872 -0.0043844 -0.5524346 -69.6067551
135 219 -2.69E-05 -0.003632 -0.0004415 -0.0039737 -0.536454 -72.4212836
144 219 -2.69E-05 -0.003874 -0.000471 -0.0042386 -0.6103654 -87.8926157
153 218 -3.18E-05 -0.004865 -0.0005915 -0.0053239 -0.8145591 -124.627546
162 218 -3.18E-05 -0.005152 -0.0006263 -0.0056371 -0.9132082 -147.939721
171 218 -3.18E-05 -0.005438 -0.0006611 -0.0059503 -1.0174943 -173.991521
180 218 -3.18E-05 -0.005724 -0.0006959 -0.0062634 -1.1274175 -202.935146
189 218 -3.18E-05 -0.00601 -0.0007307 -0.0065766 -1.2429778 -234.922798
198 218 -3.18E-05 -0.006296 -0.0007655 -0.0068898 -1.3641751 -270.106679
207 218 -3.18E-05 -0.006583 -0.0008003 -0.0072029 -1.4910096 -308.63899
216 218 -3.18E-05 -0.006869 -0.0008351 -0.0075161 -1.6234812 -350.671932
225 218 -3.18E-05 -0.007155 -0.0008699 -0.0078293 -1.7615898 -396.357707
234 218 -3.18E-05 -0.007441 -0.0009047 -0.0081425 -1.9053355 -445.848516
243 218 -3.18E-05 -0.007727 -0.0009395 -0.0084556 -2.0547184 -499.29656
252 218 -3.18E-05 -0.008014 -0.0009743 -0.0087688 -2.2097383 -556.85404
261 221 -1.71E-05 -0.004463 -0.0005426 -0.0048837 -1.2746465 -332.682737
270 228 0.0000172 0.004644 0.00056463 0.00508165 1.3720458 370.452365
279 239 7.11E-05 0.0198369 0.00241181 0.02170633 6.05606657 1689.64257
288 259 0.0001691 0.0487008 0.00592115 0.05329037 15.3476263 4420.11637
297 300 0.00037 0.10989 0.01336067 0.12024605 35.7130758 10606.7835
306 364 0.0006836 0.2091816 0.02543277 0.2288949 70.0418389 21432.8027
315 445 0.0010805 0.3403575 0.04138143 0.37243283 117.316342 36954.6476
324 486 0.0012814 0.4151736 0.05047773 0.45429961 147.193073 47690.5557
333 494 0.0013206 0.4397598 0.05346698 0.48120281 160.240537 53360.099
342 484 0.0012716 0.4348872 0.05287456 0.47587102 162.747889 55659.7781
351 465 0.0011785 0.4136535 0.05029292 0.45263625 158.875325 55765.2392
360 443 0.0010707 0.385452 0.04686412 0.42177704 151.839735 54662.3046
369 424 0.0009776 0.3607344 0.04385889 0.39473005 145.655389 53746.8386
378 405 0.0008845 0.334341 0.04064993 0.36584933 138.291049 52274.0164
387 386 0.0007914 0.3062718 0.03723721 0.33513489 129.697203 50192.8174
396 368 0.0007032 0.2784672 0.03385666 0.30470998 120.665153 47783.4005
405 353 0.0006297 0.2550285 0.03100694 0.27906242 113.020278 45773.2127
414 338 0.0005562 0.2302668 0.02799635 0.25196717 104.314408 43186.1651
423 321 0.0004729 0.2000367 0.02432091 0.21888818 92.589701 39165.4435
432 304 0.0003896 0.1683072 0.02046317 0.18416849 79.5607878 34370.2603
441 288 0.0003112 0.1372392 0.01668585 0.15017264 66.2261335 29205.7249
450 278 0.0002622 0.11799 0.01434549 0.12910939 58.0992261 26144.6518
459 268 0.0002132 0.0978588 0.01189789 0.10708102 49.1501904 22559.9374
468 262 0.0001838 0.0860184 0.01045831 0.09412478 44.0503989 20615.5867
477 256 0.0001544 0.0736488 0.00895439 0.08058947 38.4411779 18336.4419
486 252 0.0001348 0.0655128 0.00796519 0.07168673 34.8397527 16932.1198
495 248 0.0001152 0.057024 0.00693311 0.06239795 30.8869845 15289.0573
504 245 0.0001005 0.050652 0.00615838 0.05542545 27.934427 14078.9512
513 242 8.58E-05 0.0440154 0.00535149 0.04816342 24.7078326 12675.1181
522 240 7.6E-05 0.039672 0.00482341 0.04341069 22.6603822 11828.7195
531 238 6.62E-05 0.0351522 0.00427388 0.03846495 20.4248871 10845.615
540 235 5.15E-05 0.02781 0.0033812 0.03043082 16.4326415 8873.62643
549 233 0.0000417 0.0228933 0.00278342 0.02505077 13.7528712 7550.32631
558 232 0.0000368 0.0205344 0.00249662 0.02246956 12.5380169 6996.21341
567 230 2.7E-05 0.015309 0.0018613 0.01675172 9.49822635 5385.49434
576 228 0.0000172 0.0099072 0.00120454 0.01084086 6.24433288 3596.73574
585 227 0.0000123 0.0071955 0.00087484 0.0078736 4.60605879 2694.54439
594 225 2.5E-06 0.001485 0.00018055 0.00162495 0.96521826 573.339649
603 224 -2.4E-06 -0.001447 -0.000176 -0.0015836 -0.9549013 -575.805503
612 223 -7.3E-06 -0.004468 -0.0005432 -0.0048886 -2.9918398 -1831.00597
621 223 -7.3E-06 -0.004533 -0.0005512 -0.0049605 -3.0804821 -1912.9794
630 222 -1.22E-05 -0.007686 -0.0009345 -0.0084103 -5.2985076 -3338.05979
639 221 -1.71E-05 -0.010927 -0.0013285 -0.0119567 -7.6403008 -4882.15224
648 221 -1.71E-05 -0.011081 -0.0013472 -0.0121251 -7.8570362 -5091.35947
657 220 -2.2E-05 -0.014454 -0.0017573 -0.0158161 -10.391208 -6827.02389
666 219 -2.69E-05 -0.017915 -0.0021782 -0.0196037 -13.056097 -8695.36067
675 219 -2.69E-05 -0.018158 -0.0022076 -0.0198687 -13.411349 -9052.66046
5.6598858 2344.90178 896629.607
RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS:

1.
Normality y = 0.0049x - 0.0012
R² = 0.9981
0.1
0.09
0.08
0.07
0.06
Normality

0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Conductivity

2.

Conc vs Time
0.0014

0.0012

0.001
Concentration

0.0008

0.0006

0.0004

0.0002

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
-0.0002

Time (s)
3.

E curve
0.06

0.05

0.04

0.03
E(t)

0.02

0.01

0
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
-0.01
Time (s)

4. t̅ = 2344.90178 s = 39.08 min

5. 𝜎 2 = 624496.327 𝑠 2 = 173.47 𝑚𝑖𝑛 2

6. 𝜎0 2 = 0.11357443

7. Fraction of molecules residing between 8 and 11 mins 25 s = 0.41596761