DEPENDENCEOFFRACTIONALCONVERSIONON INLET CONCENTRATION

A B,essentiallyirreversible reaction

Note: if you see plus-over-minus

signs in your printout, they should
be minus signs. Below is a test of
another equation editor.

Constantvolumeand volumetric flowrate,Isothermal

r A = k c nA where nisthe "order"below

= batch reaction timefor batch reactor

n
rA = kc A

= space time = V / 0 for PFRand CSTR

XA

x A = fractional conversionof species A

(1 X A )2

Resultsbelowobtained bysolvingbalance for speciesA

= C A,0 k

Batch and PFRgive same conversion at same for all orders

Second order, batch and PFR*

xA =

Second order, CSTR

c A,0 k
1 + c A,0 k

xA
(1 xA)2

= c A,0 k

x A increases with increasing c A,0

x A increases with increasing c A,0

CSTR gives lower conversion at same

First order, batch and PFR

First order, CSTR

xA = 1 ek

xA =

x A is independent of c A,0

x A independent of c A,0

k
1+k

CSTR gives lower conversion at same

Zero order, batch, PFR and CSTR

xA = 1

for c A,0 < k

x A = k for c A,0 k
c A,0
x A decreases with increasing c A,0
all reactors give same conversion at same

Negative-one order, batch and PFR

xA = 1
xA = 1

forc A,0 <

1 2 k2
c A,0

Negative-one order, CSTR

2k
for cA,0

x A decreases with increasing c A,0

xA = 1
2k

for c A,0 <

= 1 1
2
2

4k

1 4 2k
c A,0

for c A,0

x A decreases with increasing c A,0

CSTR gives higher conversion at same for > 2 k

Footnotes are on next page...

4k

* Interesting to note that, with constant inlet concentration only, the variation of conversion

with space time for a second-order reaction in a PFR is the same as for a first-order reaction
in a CSTR.
Even though FRACTIONAL conversion doesnt change, a greater number of moles of A

are reacted to product per unit time or space time as the initial or inlet concentration of A
increases.
This is the behavior obtained in The Reactor Lab. This is an interesting case. This is a

quadratic equation with a + sign possible between the one-halves. There is a bifurcation
point at c A,0 = 4 k with the mathematical solution bifurcating, or splitting, as c A,0 is
increased past this point. The upper branch of the solution with the + sign is a locus of
unstable steady states: a infinitesimal increase in concentration would cause the conversion
to drop to the lower, stable steady state branch; an infinitesimal decrease in concentration
would cause the conversion to go to one with an infinite rate, however, see the next footnote.
To check for stability, look at the unsteady-state mole balance and see how the system
responds to small perturbations from steady-state.
No real reaction would stay zero or negative order all the way down to zero concentration,

i.e., x = 1; it would eventually change its kinetics at some point, e.g., to first order, so the full
range for these cases is hypothetical.
FOR A SECOND ORDER REACTION IN A CSTR:
1
1
1
XA = 1 +

+
2kC A0
4(kC A0
kC A0

)2

0.5

Balance on A for i-th CSTR in series at steady-state:

accum =

in

out

+ gen by rxn

0 = v0 C A0 (1 X i 1 ) v0 C A0 (1 X i ) kC 2A0 (1 X i )2 V
1
X

2
X i 2 + X i + 1 + i 1 = 0 where K = kC A0 (1 X i1 )

K
K
Xi = 1 +

1 1
1
X i 1

+
2
2K K 4K
K

0.5

and

V
v0