Comparison of Real and Plug Flow Reactors for a First-Order Reaction

D

uL

1

Consider a first-order reaction

A→B

in a real reactor where chemical reaction and dispersion are occurring. The Demonstration plots the ratio

V

real

V

plug

of the volumes of the real and plug flow reactors as a function of

1-

X

A

, where

X

A

is the reactor's conversion. You can change the value of the dispersion dimensionless group

D

uL

, where

D

is the dispersion coefficient due to axial mixing,

L

is the reactor's length, and

u

is the fluid's velocity. With

D

near zero one recovers the plug flow behavior. As

D→∞

, the behavior of a mixed flow reactor is observed.

O. Levenspiel, Chemical Reaction Engineering, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1999.

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