Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 5th Edition

18. Models for Nonideal Reactors

Success is a journey, not a destination.

—Ben Sweetland

Overview. Not all tank reactors are perfectly mixed nor do all tubular reactors exhibit plug-flow behavior. In these situations, some means must be used to allow for deviations from ideal behavior. Chapter 17 showed how the RTD was sufficient if the reaction was first order or if the fluid was either in a state of complete segregation or maximum mixedness. We use the segregation and maximum mixedness models to bound the conversion when no adjustable parameters are used. For non-first-order reactions in a fluid with good micromixing, more than just the RTD is needed. These situations compose a number of reactor analysis problems and cannot be ignored. For ...