University of Jordan

Faculty of Engineering and Technology

Department of Chemical Engineering

Chemical Engineering Laboratory

(4)
Manual Sheet

November/2016
Version 5
 University of Jordan
Faculty of Engineering and Technology
Department of Chemical Engineering
Chemical Engineering Laboratory (4)
Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor
Experiment (1)

Objective
To determine the kinetics and reaction rate constant of the essentially irreversible
reaction between ethyl acetate and sodium hydroxide by the capacity flow method and
to measure the residence time density function of the effluent stream.

Apparatus
Continuous stirred tank reactor-see Fig.(1)- consisting of reaction vessel, two feed
tanks with two pumps, two flow meters and sump tank. Brinkmann pc-600 Probe
Colorimeter, continuous chart recorder and glassware for concentration
measurements.

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Procedure
Part A

1. Prepare 40 liters of 0.04 M solution of ethyl acetate and 0.04 M sodium

hydroxide , 2 liters of 0.03 M solution of HCl and 0.03 M NaOH
(Chemicals prepared should be standardized).
2. Place the 40 liters solutions into the feed tanks.
3. Switch on the pumps, allow the solutions to be delivered to the reactor at
equal flow rates and set the stirrer to maximum speed.
4. At steady state find the conversion of NaOH.
5. Repeat the experiment at two different flow rates and at the same
temperature.
6. Determine the form of the rate equation between ethyl acetate and sodium
hydroxide.
Part B

1. Fill the reactor with tap water.

2. Calibrate the spectrophotometer-recorder combination by plotting a graph
of transmittance vs pen deflection.
3. At zero time introduce a pulse of colored tracer (phenol red) into the
reactor and record the change of transmittance vs time.
Calculations

1. Determine the reaction rate equation (n, K).

2. Determine E-curve of the effluent stream and determine the reactors flow
model.

References
1. Levenspiel, O., “Chemical Reaction Engineering”, Second Edition, John
Wiley and Sons, 1972.
2. Denbigh, K.G. and Page, F.H., Disc. Faraday Soc., 17 145 (1954).
3. Kendall, H.B., Chem. Eng. Progr. Symp. Ser. 70 (73), 3 (1976).
4. Wen, C.Y. and Chung, S.F., Can. J. Chem. Eng., 43, 101 (1965).

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 Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor's data sheet

Titrants:
Conc. of HCL

Conc. of NaOH

Reactants:
Volume of NaOH sample

Volume of HCl needed for titration

Volume of ethyl acetate sample

Volume of NaOH added

Volume of HCl needed for titration

Item Run 1 Run 2 Run 3

Flow rate of ethyl acetate

Flow rate of sodium

hydroxide
Residence time

Sample 1:
Volume of NaOH
Sample 2:
Volume of NaOH
Sample 3:
Volume of NaOH
Temperature