OBJECTIVES 1. To install and converge a plug flow reactor 2.

To simulate a process involving reaction THEORY Plug flow reactor is a pipe-shaped tank where a chemical reaction takes place where wall coated with a catalyst and an inlet flow of pure reactant. Plug flow reactor sometimes is called continuous tubular reactor or piston flow reactor. The plug flow reactor has an inlet contained of the reactants. The reactants will flow through the inlet into the reactor and then is converted into the product by a certain chemical reaction. The product is then flow from the reactor through the outlet. In many scenarios that occur in the plug flow reactor are involve the catalyst. Catalyst is the substance that is not involved in the chemical reaction but help the reaction occur at the fast rate. It is used to describe chemical reactions in continuous, flowing systems of cylindrical geometry. The PFR model is used to predict the behaviour of chemical reactors of such design. So that, key reactor variable such as dimension of the reactor can be known. It is commonly used in the chemical industry due to the non-mixing property of the reactors.The assumptions that need to be made in the plug flow reactor are perfectly mixed in the radial direction but not in the axial direction. Each plug of differential volume is considered as a separate entity. Plug flow reactor also used to model the chemical transformation of compounds as they are transport in systems resembling pipes. The "pipe" can represent a variety of engineered or natural conduits through which liquids or gases flow. For example are rivers, pipelines, regions between two mountains and many more. The ideal plug flow reactor has a fixed residence time. Any fluids that enter the reactor at time t will exit the reactor at time t, where t is the residence time of the reactor. In any reactor, there is something that limits the rate of the production. There are three major kinds of type that limits the reaction production which are mass transfer limitation, thermodynamic limitation and kinetic limitation.

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General mole balance equation:

IN - OUT + GENERATION = ACCUMULATION

FA0 FA + At steady state:

Differentiating that gives:

For single reaction in term of conversion:

The differential form of the PFR mole balance is :

The integral form is: Advantages High conversion per unit volume Low operating (labor cost) Continuous operation Good heat transfer Disadvantages Undesired thermal gradient may exist Poor temperature control Shutdown and cleaning may be expensive

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PROCEDURE 1. The unit or apparatus used in the process were identified. 2. The apparatus used is plug flow reactor. The plug flow reactor is chosen and drawn on the diagram. 3. Then, the feed and output streams to and from the plug flow reactor is drawn.

4. The blocks and the streams were renamed. For example, to rename the block B1, right click the B1 and choose the rename block and the same method is used to rename the streams but with the choice of rename stream instead of rename block after the right click. B1 is renamed as PFR. Stream 2 is renamed as feed and stream 1 is renamed as product.

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5. Then, the property method used is chosen by clicking the properties toolbar and press the property method. In this process, the method used is SYSOPO fluid package.

6. Then, the component toolbar is clicked and the components used in the process are inserted. The components used in this process are acetone, ketene and methane.

7. Then, the streams toolbar is clicked and the feed input button is chosen. The properties (data) of the feed stream are inserted as follow: Temperature Pressure Total Flow : : 1.6 atm : 8000 kg/hr

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8. Then, the blocks toolbar is clicked. By clicking PFR , all the properties for that apparatus are filled. I. By clicking the specifications toolbar which is located at the top of the diagram, the reactor type is filled. Reactor type: Adiabatic

II.

Next, the configuration toolbar is clicked. At this step, the length and the diameter of the reactor is inserted.

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III.

Next, the reactions toolbar is clicked and by right click the selected reaction sets, the new button is pressed and then clicked OK. The reaction type is chosen. For this process, the reaction type is LHHW.

IV.

Then, the reactions toolbar located at the left side is pressed. The reaction equation is edited by clicked the new button. Then, the reactant and the product are inserted.

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V.

Then, the kinetics of the reaction is inserted.

VI.

Then, by clicking the driving force button, the characteristic for the driving force both for term 1 and 2 is inserted as below: Term 1: Reactants : acetone exponent to 1 Products : ketene and methane exponent to 0 and constant A,B,C,D=0

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Term 2 : All exponents and constants B,C,D=0 Constant A = -1000000

9. After finishing inserts all the data, the process is run. This is done by clicking the start button located at the toolbars above of the diagram.

10. Then, the result summary is obtained. To get the result summary table, the data button located at the top of the diagram is clicked, then result summary is chosen, then the streams is chosen. Then, the result summary table will be obtained as bellow:

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11. Then, the result summary table is put together in the Process Flow Diagram by clicking the stream table.

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PROCESS FLOW DIAGRAM

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WORKBOOK

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QUESTIONS 1. What volume required for at least 20% conversion?

Where : R= radius of the reactor H= height of the reactor

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DISCUSSION This experiment is about the adiabatic production of acetic anhydride. The objectives of the simulation are to install and converge a plug flow reactor and to simulate a process involving reaction. To achieve these two objectives, the simulation is run with different conditions. The chemical components involved in this simulation are acetone, ketene and methane. The ketene and methane are produced from the cracking of the acetone with this following chemical equation. CH3COCH3 CH2CO + CH4 From the chemical equation above and with the assumption that the chemical reaction is elementary reaction, it can be concluded that the reaction is first order reaction with respect to the acetone. The acetone is fed into the adiabatic plug flow reactor with the mass flow rate of 8000 kg/hr at temperature equal to 1035 K and pressure equal to 1.6 atm. After all the procedure is done, the simulation is run. For the first condition, the
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length and diameter of the reactor is assumed 3m and 1m respectively. Then, the conversion of the chemical reaction is calculated. By using the formula as stated in the theory, the conversion for the first condition is 20.55%. This value is calculated based on the result obtained. From the result obtained, the value of mole in the feed is 303.6668 lbmole/hr and the value of the mole in the output is 241.2676 lbmole/hr. By using the simple calculation, the conversion is obtained. This value is too different from the value that had to be achieved which is at least 20% and because of the different, the simulation is run for a few times by changing the length and diameter of the reactor. By maintain the value of the diameter, the length of the reactor is changing for three times and the conversion is calculated again for every condition. The results obtained from the changing of the length of the reactor are as follow: Length of the reactor (m) 2.63 2.621 2.617 Conversion (%) 20.0198 20.007 20.0008

The last value is acceptable because it is very close from the value that had to be achieved. In this conversion, the length of the reactor used is 2.617 and the diameter is 1. From this, it can be concluded that as the length of the reactor decreased, the conversion also decreased. Based on the diameter and the length used, the volume of the reactor is calculated. By using the simple calculation which is x , the volume

obtained is 2.06 m3. The volume for the length equal to 3 m is 2.36 m3, the length equal to 2.63 is 2.07 m3 and for the length equal to 2.621 is 2.058 m3. Based on the result obtained, the volume of the reactor by using the length equal to 2.617 m is the lowest volume compared to the other valued.

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REFERENCES
http://www.engin.umich.edu/dept/che/kinetics/asyLearn/bits/pfrfinal/index.htm http://www.scribd.com/doc/29195386/Plug-Flow-Reactor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_flow_reactor_model http://solve.nitk.ac.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=99:reactionkinetic-studies-in-a-plug-flow-reactor&catid=61:processcontrol&Itemid=98 5. http://www.reviewpe.com/penotes/kinetics/b1_5t.htm 6. http://unix.eng.ua.edu/~checlass/che354/Che354Site/Library/Modules/Chapter2/Mod3Desi gnEquations2.pdf

1. 2. 3. 4.

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APPENDICES For length of the reactor equal to 2.617 m:

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