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Crossing Reaction Equilibrium in an Adiabatic Reactor System
Author(s) -
Nicol W.,
Hildebrandt D.,
Glasser D.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
developments in chemical engineering and mineral processing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1932-2143
pISSN - 0969-1855
DOI - 10.1002/apj.5500060104
Subject(s) - adiabatic process , exothermic reaction , work (physics) , heat exchanger , thermodynamics , energy conversion efficiency , chemistry , process engineering , nuclear engineering , materials science , physics , engineering
The work presented in this paper looks at maximizing the conversion of an exothermic reversible reaction that is adiabatic overall, i.e. only allowing for internal heat exchange between streams. In a single adiabatic reactor the highest possible conversion is the equilibrium conversion. It is shown that an improvement can be made on this equilibrium conversion by using two reactors with two heat interchanging units. The heat interchange system can be further optimized by adding more reactors and heat interchangers. The optimum theoretical conversion for an adiabatic system was found to be the equilibrium conversion at the original feed temperature. This is achieved by operating a simultaneous heat interchanging and reactor structure. The work was extended to find a maximum conversion for a more practical system where account is taken of minimum temperature driving forces and incomplete conversions.