Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor

Introduction

In this module we consider a perfectly mixed, continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The case is of a single, first-order exothermic irreversible reaction, . We will show that very interesting behavior that can arise in such a simple system.


Figure 1 Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor with Cooling Jacket.


In Figure 1 we see that a fluid stream is continuously fed to the reactor and another fluid stream is continuously removed from the reactor. Since the reactor is perfectly mixed, the exit stream has the same concentration and temperature as the reactor fluid. Notice that a jacket surrounding the reactor also has feed and exit streams. The jacket is assumed to be perfectly mixed and at a lower temperature than the reactor. Energy then passes through the reactor walls into the jacket, removed the heat generated by reaction.

There are many examples of reactors in industry similar to this one. Examples include various types of polymerization reactors, which produce polymers that are used in plastic products such as polystyrene coolers or plastic bottles. The industrial reactors typically have more complicated kinetics than we study in this module, but the characteristic behavior is similar.


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