Reactor design equations

Biological Rate Processes

Instructor: Vignesh Muthuvijayan

Reactor design equations

• Equations that can be used to determine the time or reactor
volume needed to convert a specified amount of reactants
into products
• What are the different types of reactors?
• Batch
• Semi-batch
• Continuous
• Stirred tank
• Tubular
• Packed bed
• Design equations are based on mole balances

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 General mole balance equation
• System boundaries must be specified
• Volume enclosed by the system boundary is called the
system volume
System
volume, 𝑉
𝐹𝑗0
𝐺𝑗
𝐹𝑗

• What is the general mole balance for species 𝑗 at time

𝑡?

General mole balance equation

𝑑𝑁𝑗
𝐹𝑗0 − 𝐹𝑗 + 𝐺𝑗 =
𝑑𝑡
• 𝐹𝑗0 is the inlet molar flow rate of species 𝑗
• 𝐹𝑗 is the outlet molar flow rate of species 𝑗
• Generation 𝐺𝑗 can include both generation and
consumption
• Accumulation is the rate of change of number of
moles of species 𝑗
• 𝑁𝑗 is the number of moles of species 𝑗 at a time 𝑡

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 ‘Generation’ term
• Assume the following system variables are uniform
through out the system volume
• Temperature
• Concentration
• Catalytic activity
• Now, generation 𝐺𝑗 can be written as the product of
rate of formation of species 𝑗 and system volume 𝑉
𝐺𝑗 = 𝑟𝑗 𝑉
𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠
= . 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒. 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒

‘Generation’ term
• What happens when the reaction rates of species 𝑗
varies with position?

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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‘Generation’ term
𝑉

𝐺𝑗 = න 𝑟𝑗 𝑑𝑉
0
• 𝑟𝑗 can be an indirect function of position
• properties of reacting materials and reaction conditions can change
• Substituting the integral form of 𝐺𝑗 in the general mole
balance equation, we get
𝑉
𝑑𝑁𝑗
𝐹𝑗0 − 𝐹𝑗 + න 𝑟𝑗 𝑑𝑉 =
𝑑𝑡
0

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 Developing design equations
An Introduction

Batch reactors
• What are batch reactors?
• Reactors operated under batch conditions, i.e., no inlet or outlet during the
operation
• When are batch reactors used?
• small-scale operations
• testing new processes
• processes that are difficult to operate continuously
• Advantage
• high conversions can be obtained by prolonging the reaction time
• Disadvantages
• high labor costs per batch
• variability of products from batch to batch
• difficulty of large-scale production

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 Batch reactors

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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Design equation for batch reactors

• Assume a simple reaction A → B is taking place in a
batch reactor
• As time progresses
• moles of A decreases
• moles of B increases
• What do we want to find?
• Reaction time

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 Design equation for batch reactors
• Design question: How long does it take to reduce
the initial number of moles of A 𝑁𝐴0 to a desired
final number of moles of A 𝑁𝐴1 ?

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Design equation for batch reactors

• Integral form of the design equation for batch
reactors is given as
𝑁𝐴0
𝑑𝑁𝐴
𝑡𝑓 = න
−𝑟𝐴 𝑉
𝑁𝐴𝑓
• 𝑡𝑓 is the time taken to reduce the number of moles
of A from 𝑁𝐴0 to 𝑁𝐴𝑓

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 Example #1
• Consider the liquid phase cis-trans isomerization of 2-
butene

• which can be written as 𝐴 → 𝐵. The reaction is first order in

A −𝑟𝐴 = 𝑘𝐶𝐴 and is carried out in a constant volume
batch reactor. Calculate the time to reduce the number of
moles of A to 1% of its initial value. The specific reaction
rate, 𝑘, is 0.23 min-1.

Problem from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

15

Continuous-flow reactors
• Almost always operated under steady state
• Three types
• Continuous-stirred tank reactor (CSTR)
• Plug-flow reactor (PFR)
• Packed-bed reactor (PBR)

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 Continuous-stirred tank reactor
• Commonly used in industrial
processing
• Also called as vat or back-mix
reactor
• Primarily used in liquid-phase
reactions
• Operated under steady state
• Assume perfect mixing

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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Continuous-stirred tank reactor

• No time or position-dependence
of
• temperature
• concentration
• reaction rate
• Temperature and concentration
are the same at the exit as they
are at any point in the reactor

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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 Continuous-stirred tank reactor
• Design question: What is the reactor volume
required to reduce the inlet molar flow rate of
species 𝑗 𝐹𝑗0 , to the outlet molar flow rate 𝐹𝑗 ,
when species 𝑗 is getting consumed at a rate of −𝑟𝑗 ?

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Design equation for CSTRs

• Algebraic equation
𝑉 𝑐𝑗0 − 𝑐𝑗
=
𝑣 −𝑟𝑗
• 𝑉 is the volume of the reactor
• 𝑣 is the volumetric flow rate
• 𝑐𝑗0 is the inlet concentration of species 𝑗
• 𝑐𝑗 is the outlet concentration of species 𝑗
• −𝑟𝑗 is the rate at which species 𝑗 is disappearing

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 Example #2
• Consider the liquid phase cis-trans isomerization fo 2-
butene

• which can be written as 𝐴 → 𝐵. The reaction is first order in

A −𝑟𝐴 = 𝑘𝐶𝐴 and is carried out in a CSTR with a constant
volumetric flow rate 𝑣 = 𝑣0 . Calculate the reactor volume
necessary to reduce the exiting concentration to 10% of the
entering concentration, when 𝑣0 = 10 𝑑𝑚3 /𝑚𝑖𝑛 and the
specific reaction rate, 𝑘, is 0.23 min-1.

Problem from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

21

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 Plug-flow reactor
• Tubular reactor
• A cylindrical pipe operated under steady state
• Often used for gas-phase reactions

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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Plug-flow reactor
• Reactants are continually consumed as they flow
down the length of the reactor
• Concentration varies continuously in the axial direction
• Reaction rate will vary axially
• Can you think of an exception?
• Plug-flow profile is assumed
• No radial variation in concentration or reaction rate

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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 Plug-flow reactor
• Design question is the same as CSTR
• Can be derived from a mole balance on species 𝑗 in a
differential segment of the reactor with volume Δ𝑉

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

25

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Design equation for PFRs

• The differential form of the steady state mole balance of
PFR is given as
𝑑𝐹𝑗
= 𝑟𝑗
𝑑𝑉
• This equation doesn’t change with the shape of a PFR
• The equation is applicable even for the reactor shown here,
if plug-flow conditions are met

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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 Design equation for PFRs
• Volume of a PFR required to reduce the inlet molar
flow rate of A 𝐹𝐴0 to outlet molar flow rate of A
𝐹𝐴𝑓 when A is consumed at a reaction rate of −𝑟𝐴
is given as
𝐹𝐴
𝑑𝐹𝐴
𝑉𝑅 = න
−𝑟𝐴
𝐹𝐴𝑓

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Example #3
• Consider the liquid phase cis-trans isomerization fo 2-
butene

• which can be written as 𝐴 → 𝐵. The reaction is first order in

A −𝑟𝐴 = 𝑘𝐶𝐴 and is carried out in a PFR with a constant
volumetric flow rate 𝑣 = 𝑣0 . Calculate the reactor volume
necessary to reduce the exiting concentration to 10% of the
entering concentration, when 𝑣0 = 10 𝑑𝑚3 /𝑚𝑖𝑛 and the
specific reaction rate, 𝑘, is 0.23 min-1. Compare this volume
with the volume of CSTR obtained in Example #2.
Problem from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction
Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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Packed-bed reactor
• Fluid-solid heterogeneous
reactions
• Reactions occur at the interface
• One of the factors that can
increase the surface area for the
reaction is mass of the catalyst
• Greater the mass of the catalyst,
the greater is the surface area
• Hence, the reaction rate is based
on the mass of the catalyst and not
on the reactor volume
Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction
Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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 Packed-bed reactor
• Derivation of design equation is analogous to plug-
flow reactor
• Volume coordinate is replaced with weight of catalyst W

Figure from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

33

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 Design equation for PBRs
• Weight of catalyst in a PBR that is required to
reduce the inlet molar flow rate of A 𝐹𝐴0 to outlet
molar flow rate of A 𝐹𝐴𝑓 when A is consumed at a
reaction rate of−𝑟𝐴′ is given as
𝐹𝐴0
𝑑𝐹𝐴
𝑊= න
−𝑟𝐴′
𝐹𝐴𝑓

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Summary

Table from Scott H. Fogler, Elements of Chemical Reaction

Engineering, 4th Edition, 2015, Pearson

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