Kinetics and Reactor Design(Part 2): Liquid Reactors
a 90 min or 2 hour Workshop

In the second of a series on kinetics and reactor design, this workshop design explores liquid phase reactors. When we combine a kinetic rate expression with a material balance, we have the most simple chemical reactor design. In this workshop, we’ll develop the design equations for the three reactor types that are important in industry: batch, continuous mixed flow, and plug flow.

All ChemEs should be familiar with these basic design tasks. We'll look at them from two angles. First, as on the PE exam in ChemE, we’ll look at the already-solved designs laid out in Perry’s and in Levenspiel's pre-computer-era reaction engineering text. Second, we'll look briefly at how to solve these numerically. Impossible in Levenspiel's time, this is easy today on any computer and allows us to model any reactor system, not just the simpler kinetics of the already-solved designs.

This workshop will use active learning, listening for a bit and then applying what was heard.

Given a rate expression for a liquid reaction, write a reactor material balance for: a Batch reactor a CSTR reactor a PFR reactor For simple rate expressions, use Perry’s or Levenspiel solution table to size the reactor For simple or complex rate expressions, explain how to size the reactor using numerical solution of the material balance

At the end of workshop, attendees should be able to:

• Given a rate expression for a liquid reaction, write a reactor material balance for:
• a Batch reactor
• a CSTR reactor
• a PFR reactor
• For simple rate expressions, use Perry’s or Levenspiel to size the reactor
• For simple or complex rate expressions, explain how to size the reactor using numerical solution of the material balance

Materials for this Cont Ed Workshop:

Workshop Title Page with contact info
Kinetics Exercise
Nonreacting Balance Exercise
CSTR Balance Exercise
Batch Reactor Balance Exercise
PFR Balance Exercise
CSTR Design Exercise
PFR Design Exercise
Numerical Solution Exercise (future)

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