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A transport‐oriented approach to residence time distributions and two‐phase chemical reactors
Author(s) -
Rumschitzki David S.
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
the canadian journal of chemical engineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.404
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1939-019X
pISSN - 0008-4034
DOI - 10.1002/cjce.5450700208
Subject(s) - residence time distribution , chemical reactor , residence time (fluid dynamics) , continuous stirred tank reactor , interphase , phase (matter) , scale (ratio) , chemistry , mechanics , thermodynamics , engineering , flow (mathematics) , physics , organic chemistry , geotechnical engineering , genetics , quantum mechanics , biology
Abstract This paper focuses on two‐phase (e.g., fluid‐solid catalyst) chemical reactors where one phase participates in the feed and effluent, first order chemical reactions proceed in the other phase and linear, species‐dependent, interphase transport connects the phases. A class of reactors exists in which the Laplace transform of the dynamic reaction/interphase transport equations reduces to essentially that of an effective set of first order reactions amongst effluent phase species only, in an imaginary single phase reactor. This result bears on scale‐up: Since the imaginary reactor simply scales with the usual residence time distribution, so too do reactors of this class scale with its analog. This easily measurable analog turns out to be just the non‐adsorbing tracer experiment. Significantly, certain reactors outside of this class do not scale likewise, even with first order chemistry; an example illustrates. The class in question includes, but is not limited to, fixed bed and Berty (CSTR) reactors. The analysis allows design inferences for two‐phase reactors, including fluidized beds.