Chemical Reaction Engineering

Isothermal Reactor Design

Dr.-Eng. Zayed Al-Hamamre

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888

Content

 Batch Reactor
 Design of CSTR Reactors
o Single CSTR
o CSTR’s in Series
o CSTR’s in Parallel
 Design of PFR Reactors
 Flow Through a Packed Bed

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888
 Isothermal reaction design
algorithm For conversion

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888

Algorithm Isothermal reactor

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Batch Reactors
 For constant volume batch reactors

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example
calculate the time necessary to achieve a given conversion X for the irreversible second-order
reaction

and

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888
Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888

Example

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888
Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888
Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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CSTR’s Design

Knowing that

This equation applies to a single

CSTR or to the first reactor of
CSTRs connected in series.

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CSTR’s Design
A Single CSTR

 For a first-order irreversible reaction

 For liquid-phase reactions, there is no volume change during the course of the reaction,

also

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CSTR’s Design

 The Damkohler number

 Is the ratio of the rate of reaction of A to the rate of convective transport of A at the
entrance to the reactor
 Give us a quick estimate of the degree of conversion that can be achieved in continuous
flow reactors

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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CSTR’s Design

 For a first-order liquid-phase reaction in a CSTR

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CSTR’s Design
CSTR’s in Series

 The effluent concentration of reactant A from

the first CSTR can be found

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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CSTR’s Design

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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CSTR’s Design

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CSTR’s Design
Conversion as a function of the number of tanks in series for
different Damkohler numbers for a first-order reaction

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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CSTR’s Design
CSTR’s in Parallel

 If the reactors are of equal size, operate at the same temperature,

and have identical feed rates.
 The conversion will be the same for each reactor

 The rate of reaction in each reactor

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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CSTR’s Design

 The total molar flow rate

 Since

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CSTR’s Design
A Second-Order Reaction

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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CSTR’s Design

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example

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Example Cont.

the single CSTR volume to achieve 80% conversion

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888
Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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PFR Reactors
 Gas-phase reactions are carried out primarily in tubular reactors where the flow i s generally
turbulent

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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PFR Reactors
 For the reaction

 For the isothermal operation,

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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PFR Reactors
 Known that

 For reaction in a Gas Phase

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PFR Reactors
 For the isothermal operation,

the effect of volume change with reaction

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PFR Reactors
there i s no change in the number of mole with reaction

fluid moves through the reactor at a constant

volumetric flow rate as the conversion increases

there is a decrease in the number of moles in the gas phase

the gas molecules will spend longer in the reactor than
they would if the flow rate were constant resulting in a
higher conversion

there is an increase in the number of moles in the gas phase

then the volumetric flow rate will increase as the
conversion increase and the molecules will spend less time
in the reactor resulting in a lower conversion
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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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PFR Reactors

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example
Determine the plug-flow reactor volume necessary to produce 300 million pounds of ethylene a
year from cracking a feed stream of pure ethane. The reaction is irreversible and fallows an
elementary rate law. We want to achieve 80% conversion of ethane. operating the reactor
isothermally at 1100 K at a pressure of 6 atm.

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.
 For 2-in. schedule 80
pipes in parallel that are
40 ft in length.

The number of pipes

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PFR Reactors
Pressure Drop and the Rate Law

 In packed-bed reactor

Since And for

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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PFR Reactors

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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PFR Reactors
Flow Through a Packed Bed

 The pressure drop in a packed porous bed to be calculated

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

 For PBR operating at steady state,

or

but

hence

Combining with Ergun Equation

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

mass of catalyst per volume of reactor bed

let

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

or

and

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

 In conclusion, for isothermal reactors

Two coupled first-order

differentia1 equations

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

then

or

or

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

or

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Flow Through a Packed Bed

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example
For the case where a second-order reaction

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Example

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888
Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example
Calculate the catalyst weight necessary to achieve 60% conversion when ethylene oxide is to be
made by the vapor-phase catalytic oxidation of ethylene with air

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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Example Cont.

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Example Cont.

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SemiBatch Reactor

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SemiBatch Reactor

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

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SemiBatch Reactor

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Chemical Engineering Department | University of Jordan | Amman 11942, Jordan

Tel. +962 6 535 5000 | 22888