INTRODUCTION TO REACTOR DESIGN

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 69
Assistant Professor
Comparison of batch and continuous operation
(A- advantage; D- disadvantage)

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 70
Assistant Professor
 System
General Mole Balances
Volume, V

Fj0 Gj Fj

 Molar Flow  Molar Flow   Molar Rate   Molar Rate 

 Rate of  −  Rate of  + Generation  =  Accumulation
       
 Species j in   Species j out  of Species j  of Species j 
dN j
Fj 0 − Fj + Gj =
dt
 mole   mole   mole   mole 
  −   +   =  
 time   time   time   time 
Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,
Department of Chemical Engineering 71
Assistant Professor
 General Mole Balances

If spatially uniform: G j = rjV

If NOT spatially uniform:



n
rji Vi
n
G j =  rji Vi Take limit Gj =  =  r dVj
i =1 i=1 lim V → 0 n → 

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 72
Assistant Professor
 General Mole Balances

Basic equation for CRE

𝒅𝑵𝒋
𝑭𝒋𝟎 – 𝑭𝒋 + 𝑮𝒋 = 𝒅𝑵𝒋 𝑽
𝒅𝒕
𝑭𝒋𝟎 – 𝑭𝒋 + න 𝒓𝒋𝒅𝑽 =
𝟎 𝒅𝒕
𝐹𝑗0 = Rate of flow of j into the system (𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠∕𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒)
𝐹𝑗 = Rate of flow of j out of the system (𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠∕𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒)
𝐺𝑗 = Rate of generation of j (Gj)is the product of the reaction volume (V) and rate of formation of species j (rj ) [ When
all system variables: temperature, catalytic activity, concentration of the chemical species are spatially uniform through the system
volume.]
𝑉
𝐺𝑗 = 𝑟𝑗 . 𝑉 (𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠∕𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒) = σ𝑀 𝑀
𝑖=1 ∆𝐺𝑗𝑖 = σ𝑖=1 𝑟𝑗𝑖 ∆𝑉𝑖 =‫׬‬0 𝑟𝑗𝑖𝑑𝑉
𝑟𝑗 = rate of generation of species j (𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠∕𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒.volume)
𝑉 = reaction system volume
𝑑𝑁𝑗
𝑑𝑡
= Rate of accumulation of j within the system (𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠∕𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒)
𝑁𝑗 = No. of moles of species j in the system at time t

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 73
Assistant Professor
 Batch Reactor - Mole Balances
➢ Small-scale operations/ small amounts of products
➢ No inflow/ outflow to reactor (closed system)
➢ Spatially uniform system/ volume is constant
➢ Composition & Temperature independent of position
➢ Concentration of species is function of time
➢ High conversions/ manufacturing expensive products
➢ Ideal to measure rates/ kinetics of reaction => design
➢ Disadvantages:
▪ high labor costs per batch
▪ variability of products from batch to batch
▪ Challenges in large-scale production

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 74
Assistant Professor
 Batch Reactor – Design Equation
dN A
FA0 − FA +  rA dV =
dt
FA0 = FA = 0
Time necessary to reduce the number of
moles of A from NA0 to NA.
Batch reactor For well-mixed

 r dV = r V
A A Batch reactor
NA
dN A
dNA
= rAV
On integrating, at t= N − rAV
dt
A0

t = 0 N A = N A0
t = t NA = NA

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 75
Assistant Professor
 CSTR – Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor
➢ Most industrial reactors operate in continuous mode
➢ Produce more products continuously with smaller
equipment
➢ Primarily used for Liquid phase reactions
➢ Steady state/ single reaction/ no density change with
reaction/Perfectly mixed
➢ In case of fluid partially mixed, it is nonideal behavior
➢ Composition/ temperature does not vary with position
➢ Every variable is the same at every point inside the
reactor.
➢ Reaction are very fast/no changes later with time/ position
➢ Properties of batch reactor/ CSTR are identical
everywhere

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 76
Assistant Professor
 CSTR – Design Equation
General mole balance equation, For CSTR
dNA
FA 0 − FA +  rA dV = At steady State, Well Mixed,
dt dNA
dt
=0  r dV = r V
A A

FA 0 − FA + rAV = 0
𝑭𝑨 = 𝑪𝑨 . 𝒗𝟎
FA 0 − F

V= A

 −rA 𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠
=
𝑚𝑜𝑙𝑒𝑠 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒
.
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
𝑭𝑨 = 𝑀𝑜𝑙𝑎𝑟 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒
CSTR volume necessary to reduce the molar flow 𝑪𝑨. = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐. 𝑜𝑓 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑠
Department of Chemical Engineering 𝒗Dr.𝟎Assistant
Jitendra Carpenter,
= 𝑣𝑜𝑙𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑟𝑖𝑐 𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑒 77
rate from FA0 to FA. Professor
 PFR – Plug Flow Reactor
➢ Steady state/continuous mode operation
➢ Flows down the tube as plug flow
➢ Concentration varies axial direction in reactor
➢
➢
Reaction rate is f(CA) also varies axially
No radial variation for reaction rate/ concentration
PFR
➢ Time spent by each and every molecules is same in
PFR
➢ Most often used for Gas-phase reactions
➢ Fluid is completely unmixed at the entrance
➢ Same design equation for variable/ constant cross-
sectional area
➢ Reaction completion is dependent only on reactor
volume, not the shape of the reactor

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 78
Assistant Professor
 PFR – Design Equation
General mole balance equation, For PFR
dNA
FA 0 − FA +  rA dV = At steady State, Small volume
dt element
dNA
=0 𝑉
න 𝑟𝐴𝑑𝑉 = 𝑟𝐴 ∆𝑉
dt 0
NO spatially uniform

FA
The integral form is: dFA
𝐹𝐴 ቚ – 𝐹𝐴 ቚ
𝑉 𝑉+∆𝑉
+ 𝑟𝐴 ∆𝑉 = 0

V= 
FA 0
rA
Rearrange and take limit as ΔV→0
This is the volume required to
FA V + V − FA V 𝑑𝐹𝐴
reduce the entering molar flow
lim = rA ⇒ 𝑟𝐴 = rate (mol/s) from FA0 to the exit
Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,
V →0 V 𝑑𝑉
Department of Chemical Engineering
molar flow rate of FA.
Assistant Professor
79
 Reactor Mole Balances Summary
The GMBE applied to the four major reactor types
(and the general reaction A→B)
Reactor Differential Algebraic form Integral form Feature
𝑁𝐴0
𝑑𝑁𝐴 𝑑𝑁𝐴
Batch = 𝑟𝐴 𝑉 - 𝑡= න No spatial variations
𝑑𝑡 −𝑟𝐴 𝑉
𝑁𝐴1

𝐹𝐴0 − 𝐹𝐴 No spatial variations,

CSTR - 𝑉= - Steady State
−𝑟𝐴

𝐹𝐴0
𝑑𝐹𝐴 𝑑𝐹𝐴
PFR = 𝑟𝐴 - 𝑉= න Steady state
𝑑𝑉 −𝑟𝐴
𝐹𝐴1
𝐹𝐴0
𝑑𝐹𝐴 𝑑𝐹𝐴
PBR = 𝑟𝐴′ - 𝑊= න
Department of Chemical Engineering−𝑟 ′
Steady
Dr. Jitendra Carpenter, state 80
𝑑𝑊 𝐴 Assistant Professor
𝐹𝐴1
 CONVERSION and REACTOR SIZING
Batch Reactor – Design Equation

Considering the general reaction:

Assuming limiting reactant as A:

Therefore, conversion w.r.t. A

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 81
Assistant Professor
 Batch Reactor – Design Equation
Considering the general reaction:

Conversion w.r.t. limiting reactant (A),

• For irreversible reactions, the maximum fractional N𝐴0 − N𝐴

conversion is 1.0, that is, complete conversion 𝑋=
(i.e., XMAX= X = 1). 𝑁𝐴0
• For reversible reactions, the maximum conversion is the Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,
82
equilibrium conversion Xe (i.e., XMAXDepartment
= XE). of Chemical Engineering Assistant Professor
 Batch Reactor – Design Equation
Considering the general reaction:

Since, the design equation for Batch reactor is;

On integrating the equation,
dNA
= rAV
When t = 0, X = 0, and t = t, X = X

dt

Also,

On combining above two equations, we get,

Note: The longer the reactants are
left in the reactor, the greater the
Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,
Department of Chemical Engineering
conversion will be Professor 83
Assistant
 CSTR – Design Equation
➢ For continuous-flow systems, the bigger/longer the reactor, more time it will take the reactants to
flow completely through the reactor and thus, the more time to react.
➢ Consequently, the conversion X is a function of reactor volume V. For Liquid phase system:
Molar flow rate of A fed = FA0 (moles of A fed/time)
FA0 = CA0 . v0
Molar flow rate of species A reacted in system = FA0 . X
For Gas phase system:
Feed Molar flow Molar flow rate Molar flow rate
− =
rate of A of species reacted of A leaves system PA0 yA0 P0
CA0 = =
RT0 RT0
Therefore, Molar flow rate of A leaves the system, FA: yA0 P0
FA0 = v0
FA = FA0 − FA0 X = FA0 1 − X RT0

𝑃0 = Total pressure of feed (kPa) 𝑦𝐴0 = Entering mole fraction of A

PA0 = Partial pressure of A in feed (kPa) 𝐶𝐴0 = Entering concentration
Dr. Jitendra Carpenter, (mol/dm3)
Department of Chemical Engineering 84
T0 = Feed temperature (K) 𝑣0 = Volumetric flowProfessor
Assistant rate of feed (dm3)
 CSTR – Design Equation
Considering the general reaction:

Since, the design equation for CSTR is; CSTR volume necessary to achieve a
specified conversion X

Also, FA = FA0 1 − X

❖ Since the reactor is perfectly mixed,

On combining above two equations;
(CA)INSIDE = (CA)EXIT

❖ Thus, the rate of reaction, –rA, is

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,
Department of Chemical Engineering 85
evaluated at the exit conditions.
Assistant Professor
 PFR – Design Equation
Considering the general reaction:

Since, the design equation for PFR is;

On integrating the equation
𝑑𝐹𝐴 OR
𝑑𝐹𝐴 V X
𝑟𝐴 = ⇒ −𝑟𝐴 = − FA0 dX FA0 dX
𝑑𝑉 𝑑𝑉 ⇒ න dV = න
⇒ dV = −rA
−rA 0 0
Also, FA = FA0 1 − X
Design equation of PFR
Thus,

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 86
Assistant Professor
 Reactor Mole Balances Summary
The GMBE applied to the four major reactor types for a general reaction A→B

Reactor Differential Algebraic form Integral form Feature

𝑑𝑋 𝑋
𝑁𝐴0 = −𝑟𝐴 𝑉 𝑑𝑋
Batch 𝑑𝑡 𝑡 = 𝑁𝐴0 න No spatial variations
−𝑟𝐴 𝑉
0
𝑉
No spatial variations,
𝐹𝐴0 (𝑋𝑜𝑢𝑡 − 𝑋𝑖𝑛 )
CSTR = Steady State
−𝑟𝐴 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑡

𝑑𝑋 𝑋𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝐹𝐴0 = −𝑟𝐴 𝑑𝑋
PFR 𝑑𝑉 𝑉 = 𝐹𝐴0 න Steady state
−𝑟𝐴
𝑋𝑖𝑛
𝑑𝑋 𝑋𝑜𝑢𝑡
𝐹𝐴0 = −𝑟𝐴′ 𝑑𝑋
PBR 𝑑𝑊 𝑊 = 𝐹𝐴0 න Steady
Dr. Jitendra Carpenter, state
Department of Chemical Engineering −𝑟𝐴′ 87
Assistant Professor
𝑋𝑖𝑛
 Reactor Sizing
Given –rA as a function of conversion, -rA= f(X), one can size any type of reactor. We
do this by constructing a Levenspiel plot. Here we plot either (FA0/-rA) or (1/-rA) as a
function of X. For (FA0/-rA) vs. X, the volume of a CSTR and the volume of a PFR can
be represented as the shaded areas in the Levenspiel Plots shown as:

Area = Volume of CSTR

Levenspiel Plots  FA0 
V = of Chemical Engineering
Department 
X1 Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,
 − rA  X
88
Assistant Professor
 Reactor Sizing
The volume of a CSTR and the volume of a PFR can be represented as the shaded
areas in the Levenspiel Plots shown as:

Levenspiel Plots

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 89
Assistant Professor
 Numerical Evaluations of Integrals
The integral to calculate the PFR volume can be evaluated using method
as Simpson’s One-Third Rule
Other numerical methods are:
 Trapezoidal Rule
where
X= sum of the end points
I= sum of the intermediate ordinates.

 Simpson’s 1/3rd Rule

where
X= sum of the end points
O = sum of the odd ordinates.
E = Sum of even ordinates

 Five-Point Quadrature Formula

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 90
Assistant Professor
 CSTR

PFR

Batch
1. Conversion, temperature and 1. Conversion, temperature and 1. No mixing in the direction of flow
composition changes with time composition are uniform 2. NO Axial mixing
2. Spatial distribution 2. Spatial distribution 3. No spatial mixing but radial mixing
3. Unsteady state operation 3. Steady state operation 4. Steady state operation
4. Liquid phase reaction 4. Liquid phase reaction 5. Gas phase reaction
5. Used for small scale operation 5. Used for large scale operation 6. Used for large scale operation
6. High conversion – at large 6. High conversion – using large 7. Highest conversion among all
residence time volume reaction 8. Exothermic reaction – difficult to
7. Used when heat of reaction is control
high 9. Can be used for high pressure
8. Cannot used for high pressure

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 91
Assistant Professor
 CSTR

PFR

Batch
dNA
General mole balance
FA 0 − FA +  rA dV =
equation:
dt
Design equation Design equation Design equation

dNA 𝑑𝐹𝐴
= rAV 𝑟𝐴 =
dt 𝑑𝑉

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 92
Assistant Professor
 TUTORIAL 2
For a general reaction, A → B is to be carried out in CSTR. The entering molar flow of
reactant A is FA0= 0.4 mol/s. The temperature was constant at 500 K (440°F), the total
pressure was constant at 830 kPa (8.2 atm), and the initial charge to the reactor was
pure A.
1. Calculate the volume necessary to achieve 80% conversion in a CSTR
2. Calculate the volume necessary to achieve 80% conversion in a PFR

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 93
Assistant Professor
Approach 1: For CSTR
Since,

When X= 0.8, Then

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 94
Assistant Professor
Approach 2: For CSTR
Since,

The volume is equal to the area of a rectangle with

a height (FA0/–rA= 8 m3) and a base (X= 0.8).

V= Levenspiel rectangle area = height ×width

V= 8 x 0.8 = 6.4 m3

When X= 0.8, Then

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 95
Assistant Professor
Approach 1: For PFR
Using five-point
quadrature formula
The five-point formula with a final
conversion of 0.8 gives four equal
segments between X= 0 and X=
0.8 with a segment length of:

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 96
Assistant Professor
Approach 2: For PFR

Using Simpson 1/3rd rule

0.2
V= ( )*[0.89+8+4*(1.33+3.54)+2*(2.05)]
3
= 2.164 m3
𝑏−𝑎 0.8−0
Where, h = = = 0.2
𝑛 4

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 97
Assistant Professor
Approach 3: For PFR

Area under the curve between X= 0 and X= 0.8

(see shaded area in Figure)

For 80% conversion, the shaded area is

roughly equal to 2.165 m3

V = 2.165 m3
When X= 0.8, Then

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 98
Assistant Professor
 PFR
Reaction rate profile One observes that for most of all
isothermal reactions the reaction
rate, –rA, decreases as we move
down the reactor while the
conversion increases. These plots
are typical for reactors operated
isothermally.
PFR
Conversion profile
Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,
Department of Chemical Engineering 99
Assistant Professor
Why does PFR has higher conversion than CSTR for same V?

After entry into the CSTR the substrates/reactants are immediately diluted from feed concentration
CA0 to effluent concentration CA. Therefore, -rA is always on is lowest possible value. In the PFR the
concentration is decreasing during reaction and the rates are always higher compared to the CSTR.

Dr. Jitendra Carpenter,

Department of Chemical Engineering 100
Assistant Professor