BITS Pilani

Pilani Campus

Module 3: Reactor Design

Lecture-12
Choice of reactor - Reactor conditions
Course: Process Plant Design CE 1705/1701

Nandana Chakinala
Department of Chemical Engineering
CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reaction equilibrium
• Equilibrium conversion: Max conversion
• Equilibrium conversion can be changed by appropriate
changes to concentration of reactants, T, P

• System at equilibrium

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Equilibrium constant

Homogenous Gas phase reactions

Homogenous liquid reactions

Heterogenous reactions: Non uniform state of all compounds.

Standard states to be defined for each component
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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Variation of equilibrium composition

with Gibbs free energy change

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor Temperature

Effect of temperature on
equilibrium conversion

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor temperature

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor Temperature

Illustration: Effect of reactor temperature on equilibrium

conversion for exothermic reactions

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Effect of reactor temperature

on kinetics
➢ Increase in temperature of 10oC from room temperature
typically doubles the rate of reaction for organic species
in solution

➢ Generally, the higher the rate of reaction, the smaller is

the reactor volume
➢ Choice of temperature depends on type of reaction

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Single endothermic and

exothermic reactions

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Multiple reactions

If k1 increases faster than k2, operate at high temperature

• If k2 increases faster than k1, operate at low temperature
(but beware of capital cost, since although increasing
selectivity, also increases reactor size)

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor pressure

➢ For reversible reactions, pressure can have a significant

effect on the equilibrium conversion
➢ equilibrium constant is only a function of temperature and
not a function of pressure
➢ equilibrium conversion can still be influenced through
changing the activities (fugacities) of the reactants and
products
➢ Effect of pressure for single reactions
➢ Decrease in number of moles
➢ Increase in number of moles

➢ Effect of pressure for multiple reactions

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor phase

➢ The reactor phase can be gas, liquid or multiphase

➢ Given a free choice between gas and liquid-phase
reactions, operation in the liquid phase is usually
preferred

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor concentration

➢ Usage of excess reactants

➢ Single irreversible reactions
➢ Single reversible reaction
➢ Feed ratio – Numerical Illustration
➢ Inert concentration
➢ Product removal during reaction

➢ Multiple parallel reactions

➢ Multiple series reactions

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Inert concentration
➢ Might be a solvent or inert gas
➢ The effect of increase in number of moles can be artificially decreased
by adding inert material

➢ Adding inerts increases Nt which will increase ratio of products to

reactants
➢ But separation of inert is an important consideration
➢ If the reaction does not involve any change in the number of moles,
inert material has no effect on equilibrium conversion
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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Product removal during

reaction
➢ Sometimes the equilibrium conversion can be increased
by removing the product (or one of the products)
continuously from the reactor as the reaction progresses
➢ Another way is to carry out the reaction in stages with
intermediate separation of the products.
➢ Intermediate separation followed by further reaction is
clearly most appropriate when the intermediate
separation is straightforward, as in the case of sulfuric
acid production

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Multiple parallel reactions

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Multiple series reactions

➢ Series reaction is inhibited by low concentration of

product – operate at low concentration
➢ If more than one feed is involved, it is not necessary to
operate with the same low conversion on all the feeds
➢ Using an excess of one of the feeds enables operation
with a relatively high conversion of other feed material
and still inhibits series reactions

➢ Remove the product as the reaction progresses

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Mixed parallel and series

reactions
➢ Using excess feed can be effective in improving
selectivity
➢ Removal of product as reaction progresses
➢ Changing the concentration of inert material

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Catalysts
➢ Choice of catalyst is of crucial importance
➢ For multiple reactions, the catalyst have different effects
on the rates of the different reactions
➢ Catalysts to be developed that increase the rate of the
desired reactions relative to the undesired reactions
➢ Hence the choice of catalyst can have a major influence
on selectivity
➢ The catalytic process can be homogeneous,
heterogeneous or biochemical

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The overall rate of

heterogenous G-S reactions

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Effectiveness factor

Size of pellet
Shape of pellet
Distribution of active material

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 BITS Pilani
Pilani Campus

Module 3: Reactor Design

Lecture-12
Choice of reactor - Reactor Configuration
Course: Process Plant Design CE 1705/1701

Nandana Chakinala
Department of Chemical Engineering
Introduction

1. Types of reactors and selection criteria

1. Fluid-Fluid reactors
2. Fluid-Fluid-Solid reactors
2. Selection of reactors
3. Design and costing of reactors
4. Problem solving on reactor design and cost
CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

1. T control
Adiabatic operation to be considered as it is cheapest and
simplest option
On other hand, following options can be considered
a. Cold shot and hot shot for exothermic and endothermic
reactions
b. Indirect heat transfer with the reactor
c. Heat carrier
d. Catalyst profiles

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Catalyst profiles

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

2. Catalyst degradation

a. Physical loss
b. Surface deposits
c. Sintering
d. Poisoning
e. Chemical change

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

3. G-L and L-L reactors

1. G-L reactors
Consider no resistance to reaction
Rate of transfer of comp, I through liq film

Assume equilibrium at interface:

Henry’s law

Henry’s law constant varies for different gases to be

determined experimentally
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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

G-L reactors
Under SS conditions

Gases with low solubilities have high H values, meaning liquid

film resistance is larger relative to gas-film resistance

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

L-L reactors
➢ Much of the discussion of G-L reactors apply
➢ In L-L reactions, mass to be transferred b/w two immiscible liquids
for the reaction to take place
➢ Two liq film resistances in place unlike G-L reactors
➢ Reaction might occur in one phase or both phases simultaneously
➢ For the mass transfer (and hence, reaction) to take place,
one liquid phase must be dispersed in the other.
➢ A decision must be made as to which phase should be dispersed
in a continuous phase of the other.
➢ The liquid with the smaller volume flowrate will be dispersed in the
other
➢ Overall mass transfer coefficient depends on the physical
properties of liquid and the interfacial area, which in-turn is function
of size of droplets and volume-fraction of dispersed phase
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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration

1. Tubular reactors
➢ Similar to Shell and Tube HEX
➢ Reactants pass through tube and coolant flows over tube
➢ Tubes constructed in radiant section of furnace if very high T
required
➢ Tubular reactors approximate PFR and hence used when
control of residence time is important (E.g: Multiple reactions in
series)
➢ High heat transfer surface area to volume ratio
➢ Used for multiphase reactions but difficult to achieve good
mixing

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration

2. Stirred tank reactors

➢ Simple agitated tank for reactions involving liquid
➢ Resembles idealized CSTR
➢ Applied for homogenous liquid phase reactions, heterogenous
G-L, L-L, S-L, G-L-S reactions
➢ Operated in batch, semi-batch and continuous mode
➢ Unfavourable if reaction at high P
➢ For a given conversion, larger inventory of raw materials is
required, unlike tubular reactor. This is not desirable for safety
reasons
➢ Heat can be added/removed via external jackets, coils, heat
exchangers in flow loop

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Means of providing/removing
heat

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration

3. Fixed bed catalytic reactors

➢ Most designs approximate to plug flow behaviour
➢ Simplest is adiabatic fixed bed
➢ If not, hot and cold shot can be used
➢ Or series of adiabatic beds with intermediate cooling
➢ Tubular reactors similar to a shell and-tube heat exchanger can
be used, in which the tubes are packed with catalyst
➢ Temp control in fixed beds is difficult
➢ Not suitable if frequent regeneration is required. A moving bed
or fluidized bed is preferred

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Heat transfer arrangements for

fixed bed catalytic reactor

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration
4. Fixed bed non-catalytic reactors
➢ Fixed-bed reactors in the form of gas absorption equipment
are used commonly for noncatalytic G-L reactions.
➢ Here, the packed bed serves only to give good contact
between the gas and liquid.
➢ Disadvantages: The operation is not under steady state
conditions, and this can present control problems.
➢ Eventually, the bed must be taken off line to replace the
solid.
➢ Fluidized beds (to be discussed later) are usually preferred.

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration
5. Moving bed reactors
➢ If a solid catalyst degrades in performance, the rate of
degradation in a fixed bed might be unacceptable.
➢ In this case, a moving-bed reactor can be used. Here, the
catalyst is kept in motion by the feed to the reactor and the
product.
➢ This makes it possible to remove the catalyst continuously
for regeneration

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration
6. Fluidized bed catalytic reactors
➢ The performance of fluidized-bed reactors is not
approximated by either the mixed-flow or plug-flow
idealized models.
➢ The solid phase tends to be in mixed-flow, but the bubbles
lead to the gas phase behaving more like plug flow.
➢ In addition to the advantage of high heat transfer rates,
fluidized beds are also useful in situations where catalyst
particles need frequent regeneration
➢ Disadvantage: attrition of the catalyst can cause the
generation of catalyst fines, which are then carried over
from the bed and lost from the system

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Fluidized bed catalytic reactors

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration
7. Fluidized bed non-catalytic reactors
➢ Fluidized beds are also suited to gas–solid noncatalytic
reactions.
➢ All the advantages described earlier for gas–solid catalytic
reactions apply here.

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration
8. Kilns
➢ Reactions involving free-flowing solid, paste and slurry
materials can be carried out in kilns
➢ The behavior of the reactor usually approximates plug-flow
➢ High-temperature reactions demand refractory lined steel
shells and are usually heated by direct firing

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CE 1705/1701 Process Plant Design

Reactor configuration for heterogenous

solid catalysed reactions

Can be configured in any of the following

✓ Fixed-bed adiabatic
✓ Fixed bed adiabatic with intermediate cold/hot shot
✓ Tubular with indirect heating or cooling
✓ Moving/fluidized bed

➢ Of all, fixed bed adiabatic reactors are the cheapest in

terms of capital cost
➢ Tubular reactors expensive than fixed bed
➢ Choice of reactor configuration dominated by catalyst
deactivation characteristics

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Criteria for selection of
reactors
T, P of operation
Need for removal/addition of reactants/products
Required pattern of product delivery
Catalyst type and use
Relative reactor cost
Operational/process limitations
Safety, environmental risk factors

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Rules of thumb for reactor
selection
1. For conversions up to 95%, performance of 5 CSTRs in
series equivalent to 1 PFR
2. CSTRs for slow liquid phase reactions or slurry reactors
3. Batch reactors for very slow reactions, small scale
production, fouling maintenance control
4. Typical size of catalyst particle
1. 3 mm Fixed bed reactor
2. 1 mm Slurry reactors
3. 0.1 mm Fluidized bed reactors

No of connected reactors are more economical

and flexible than a single reactor

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