Advanced Reaction Engineering

TASK - RESIDENCE TIME DISTRIBUTIONS

The objective of this task is to use the simulator to generate residence time distribution (RTD) data for a reactor system (a series of CSTRs with unequal volumes). You will then use the measured

RTD to work out the conversion of a first order reaction. The concepts covered in this task are:

- Residence time distributions
- Residence time, Dispersion and tanks in series
- Convolution of reaction and residence time

THE PROBLEM

Your boss has been asked to assess whether reactor R100 can be used for a particular production campaign. He knows that R100 is a series of tanks of unequal size, but there is no data as to the exact volume of the various tanks. Your project manager wants to know if a production rate of 50L/min is feasible for the system, and has asked you to work out the yield.

The team brainstorms how best to work out the capacity of the reactor to convert. The chemist, having learned from your explanations of rates has offered to work out the kinetics, and you have suggested to measure the RTD of the reactor so as to allow the calculation of the performance of the system. You installed a UV detector just before the reactor, and one just after. A 50 L charge pot on weigh cells is available upstream of the reactor.

COURSEWORK QUESTIONS

1) Calibrate the UV meters by running through different concentrations of A. Provide the parameters a and b of Equation (1).

2) Work out the volume of the system from the residence time distribution data.

Hint: The inlet peak is not a perfect Dirac function.

3) Work out the variance, σ², for the reaction systems, using a (solvent) flow of 10, 25, 50 and 20 100 L/min.

Hint: Once the charge is made, use the "!faster" and "!complete" commands to speed things up! Use the "RTD analysis" sheet (see section 4.3) to work out the UV parameters, volume and variance for questions 1, 2 and 3.

4) Predict the conversion of a reagent in the solvent flow with a first order reaction (k=0.03 1/min) in this system at 50L/min main flow.

Work Structure -

1. Need intermediate drafts

2. Proper Academic references from various sources

3. Non Plagiarized work (Below 5%)

4. Work in proper referencing style

5. Correct British Grammar

6. Correct Citations

7. Learning Sessions (If required)

Attachment:- Assignment.rar