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University of the Witwatersrand WITS, 2050 Johannesburg, South Africa
sk a graduating chemical engineering student the fol-
lowing question: What makes one reactor different
Matthew Metzger is pursuing his Ph.D. at Rutgers University. He received
his B.S. from Lafayette College and spent two summers working with the
from the next? The answers received will often be chemical engineering department at the University of the Witwatersrand.
unsatisfactory and vary widely in scope. Some may cite the His interests lie in applying the attainable region approach to particle
processing in the pharmaceutical field.
difference between the basic design equations, others may
point out a PFR is longer, and still others may state that it Benjamin J. Glasser is an associate professor of chemical and bio-
chemical engineering at Rutgers University. He has earned degrees in
all depends on the particular reaction network. Though these chemical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand (B.S.,
answers do possess a bit of truth, they do not capture the true M.S.) and Princeton University (Ph.D.). His research interests include
difference between reactors: the degree of mixing achieved.
granular flows, gas-particle flows, multiphase reactors, and nonlinear
dynamics of transport processes.
This is the inherent difficulty with teaching chemical reaction
engineering. The students learn the technical skills required Diane Hildebrandt is the co-founder of COMPS at the University of
the Witwatersrand. She received her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from the
to perform the calculations to determine maximum yields and University of the Witwatersrand, and currently leads the academic and
shortest space-times, but very rarely are they able to grasp and consultant research teams at the university. She has published more than
50 refereed-journal articles on topics ranging from process synthesis to
thoroughly understand the theory and underlying differences thermodynamics.
between reactors.[1] Often, too much time is devoted to tedious
and involved calculations to determine the correct answer on
Brendon Hausberger is a director at the Centre of Material and Process
Synthesis (COMPS) at the University of the Witwatersrand. He received
homework instead of focusing on the concepts to enforce the his B.S. and Ph.D. from the University of the Witwatersrand, and is cur-
benefits offered by each reactor presented. rently overseeing the launch of Fischer-Tropschs plants in both China
and Australia.
Reactor network optimization is traditionally not covered
David Glasser is a director of the Centre of Material and Process Syn-
in any depth at the undergraduate level.[2-4] The way reactor thesis at the University of the Witwatersrand. He is acknowledged as a
network optimization is traditionally taught to graduate stu- world-leading researcher in the field of reactor and process optimization,
dents often involves large numbers of coupled equations that
and is a NRF A1 rated researcher. His extensive publication record and
research areas extend from reactor design and optimization to distillation
can sometimes hide the final goal of the analysis. Attempts and process optimization and intensification.
CB105 (kmol/m3)
0.8 8 In this particular example, the fundamental processes are
0.6 6
reaction and mixing. Let us first look at mixing. There are two
limits on mixing in a reactor: a plug flow reactor, in which
0.4 `
4 a slug of fluid does not experience any axial mixing along
0.2 2 the reactor length, and a continuously stirred tank reactor, in
0 0 which each volume element experiences complete mixing.
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 Before moving further into the analysis, it is useful to deter-
Space Time (s) mine the dependence of species concentrations on space-time
in these two environments. For a PFR, this is determined by
(b) 1.2 12 numerically solving the mass balances in Eqs. (3)-(6), giving
1 10 the concentration profiles of CA and CB in Fig. 1(a).
CB105 (kmol/m3)
CA (kmol/m3)
dC A
0.8 8 = k1C A + k 2 CB k 4 C2A ( 3)
d
0.6 6
dCB
0.4 4 = k1C A k 2 CB k 3CB (4 )
d
`
0.2 2 dCC
= k 3C B (5 )
0 0 d
0.00 0.25 0.50 0.75 1.00 1.25 1.50 dCD
Space Time (s) = k 4 C2A (6 )
d
Figure 1. Concentration as a function of space-time Similarly, the set of mass balances in Eqs. (7)-(10) can be
in a PFR (a) and CSTR (b). Note that profiles for
Figure 2
solved to give the locus for a CSTR as is varied, provided
CC and CD are not shown. in Fig. 1(b).
12 C A C0A = (k1C A + k 2 CB k 4 C2A ) (7)
CB10 (kmol/m )
X PFR
3
4
O In Eqs. (3)-(10), Ci represents the concentration of species i,
2
0 C0i represents the feed concentration of species i, is the space-
time of the reactor, and kj represents the rate of reaction j. Figure
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 1 only shows the profiles for CA and CB because, as will be
CA (kmol/m3) explained shortly, CC and CD do not influence the determina-
Figure 2. State-Space diagram. Point O represents the tion of the AR.
feed point. Point X represents an arbitrary CSTR effluent II. Choose the State Variables
point. The diagram on the top right is a PFR representing
the PFR profile, (J). The diagram in the bottom left is a The state variables for this example are CA and CB. CB is a
CSTR representing the CSTR locus, (K). state variable because it is the value that we wish to optimize.
260 Chemical Engineering Education
Figure 3
CB10 (kmol/m )
3
PFR Rate Vector
T
it is the independent variable in the system. 8 Mixing Rate Vector
5
4
the autonomous relation between CA and CB. First, we must
do this for the PFR using the data in Figure 1(a). Figure 1(a) 2 O
shows CA and CB as a function of , so for any given we 0
can determine a CA, CB pair, which allows us to plot curve (J) 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
(solid line) in Figure 2. For example, the point W in Figure 2 CA (kmol/m3)
corresponds to CA = 3.8110-2 kmol/m3 and CB = 3.9510-5
kmol/m3, and can be traced back to = 0.25 seconds in Figure Figure 3. Rate vectors of the fundamental processes in-
volved in the example. The CSTR rate vector points from
1(a). The same can be done for the data in Figure 1(b) for the
the feed point, O, to the particular effluent point, T. The
CSTR that leads to curve (K) (dashed line) in Figure 2. While PFR rate vector is tangent to the current concentration.
space-time is not explicitly shown in Figure 2, the relevant The mixing rate vector is a straight line pointing
space-time to achieve a given concentration can always be Figure 4
from the current state to the added state.
obtained from Figure 1 (or an equivalent figure). A candidate
(a)
for the attainable region (ARC) is identified as the union of
15
CB105 (kmol/m3)
the regions contained under both curves. PFR
III. Define and Draw the Process Vectors X CSTR
10 Mixing
A process vector gives the instantaneous change in system ( J)
(K) (L)
state caused by that fundamental process occurring. For ex- 5
ample, if only reaction is occurring, the reaction vector, r[CA, O
CB], will give the instantaneous direction and magnitude of 0
change from the current concentration position. For mixing, (b)
this vector gives the divergence from the current state, c, 15
CB10 (kmol/m )
(M)
arbitrary effluent concentration from a CSTR shown strictly 10 X
for demonstration purposes. (J)
(K) (L)
The vectors can be graphically represented by considering 5
5
CSTR
3
state with the added state. The resulting mixed state lies on X
the mixing line and its position can be determined from the 10 PFR CSTR with
Bypass
Lever Arm Rule. One can also consider a PFR rate vector (L)
which originates at the current concentration and is tangent 5
5
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