Ideality of a CSTR

Jordan H. Nelson
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 Brief Overview

Introduction – General CSTR Information

Three Questions

Experimental Conclusions

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Schematic of the CSTR
Item Description
1 Mixing Point
2 Mixing Point
3 Mixing Point
4 Mixing Points
5 Water Bath Inlet and Outlet
6 Four Wall Mounted Baffles
7 Mixer Drive
8 Marine Type Impeller
9 CSTR Vessel
10 Water Bath Vessel

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 3 Questions ?
 Where is the best mixing in the CSTR?

 What is τmean and how does it compare to

τideal?

 What configuration of PFR-CSTR will

produce the greatest conversion?

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 Where is the Best Mixing?
 Impeller selection

 Food Dye Test

 Dead Zones

 Impeller Speed

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Flow Patterns of different impellers

Rushton Impeller Marine Impeller

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 τMean vs τIdeal ?

 τMean – Measured mean residence time

 The amount of time a molecule spends in
the reactor
 τIdeal – Ideal residence time is calculated
from the following equation
V
τ ideal =
νo
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 Experiment
 Fill reactor with low concentration salt
(baseline)
 Spike reactor at most ideal mixing
 Create spike concentration at least one
order of magnitude larger than baseline
 Measure change in conductivity over time
 Run experiment at different impeller
speeds
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 Yikes!
Plot of Concentration vs Time with Error

35
30 RPM
15 RPM
30
Concentration NaCl(g/mL)

25

20

15

10
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800
Time(s)

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Measured Concentration over time
in the CSTR.
26

25
Concentration NaCl(g/mL)

24
30 RPM
15 RPM
23

22

21

20
0 200 400 600 800
Time(s)

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 RTD Function E(t)
 Measured concentrations are used to
create the residence time distribution
function

C (t ) − C (t = 0)
E (t ) = t end

∫ [C (t ) − C (t = 0)]dt
0

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Plot of an ideal residence time distribution
function

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Residence time distributions
0.0023

0.0021

0.0019

0.0017

0.0015
E(t)

0.0013

0.0011
Ideal E(t)
0.0009
E(t) Conductivity 15 RPM
0.0007 E(t) Conductivity 30 RPM

0.0005
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200
Time(s)

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 Mean Residence Time
 Using E(t) the following equations produce
the mean residence time
t end

t mean = ∫
0
tE (t ) dt = τ mean

t end

σ = ∫ (t − t m ) E (t )dt
2

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Comparison of Residence Times
Mean
Residence Standard Sigma/
RPM Time Deviation Sigma Tau

15 357.57 11.58 206.87 0.58

30 358.14 11.58 206.35 0.58

Ideal
CSTR 466.97 5.90

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 Loss of Data
 Over an hour of data was lost from Opto 22
 Calculation of Reynolds number over 4000
2
(Turbulent)
ND
ℜ=
υ
 Equation applies to a baffled CSTR
 RPM speed of 300 obtained full turbulence

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 CSTR-PFR Configurations ?
 Schematic of arrangements
 Levenspiel Plot
 Conduct saponification reaction in the
reactor at different RPM’s
 Use Equimolar flow rates and
concentrations of reactants
 Quench reaction with a HCl and titrate
with NaOH
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Series Reactor with CSTR Before
PFR.

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Series Reactor with PFR Before
CSTR.

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Et − Ac + NaOH ↔ NaAc + Et − OH
Levenspiel Plot for NaOh+EtOAc

Levenspiel Plot for

6 NaOh+EtOAc
-1/ra

0
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Conversion

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 CSTR-PFR Configurations ?
 Schematic of arrangements
 Levenspiel Plot
 Conduct saponification reaction in the
reactor at different RPM’s
 Use Equimolar flow rates and
concentrations of reactants
 Quench reaction with a HCl and titrate
with NaOH
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Measured Conversion for PFR-CSTR
Configuration
Speed Conversion Conversion
(RPM) (%) Error (%)
30 19.7 +/- 4.30
60 21.7 +/- 3.91
200 21.2 +/- 4.00
400 24.3 +/- 3.48
875 24.7 +/- 3.41

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Measured Conversion for CSTR-PFR
Configuration
Speed Conversion Conversion
(RPM) (%) Error (%)
30 21.5 +/- 3.94
60 21.2 +/- 4.00
200 21.4 +/- 3.97
400 20.9 +/- 4.06
875 21.5 +/- 3.94

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 3 Questions ?
 Where is the best mixing in the CSTR?

 What is τmean and how does it compare to

τideal?

 What configuration of PFR-CSTR will

produce the greatest conversion?

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 Conclusions
 Better mixing for a Rushton impeller is
below the impeller
 The reactor is far from ideal at low
impeller speeds
 The PFR-CSTR arrangement provided
better conversions
 Run the PFR-CSTR reactor at RPM’s of
higher than 300

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 Opportunities
 Run the experiment again to obtain the
lost residence time values
 Run the saponification reaction at higher
temperatures
 Exit sampling stream should be at the
bottom of the reactor

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 Acknowledgements
 Taryn Herrera
 Robert Bohman
 Michael Vanderhooft
 Dr. Francis V. Hanson
 Dr. Misha Skliar

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 REFEREN CES
 De Nevers, Noel, Fluid Mechanics, McGraw Hill, New
York N.Y. (2005)
 Fogler, H. Scott, Elements of Chemical Reaction
Engineering, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N.J.
(1999)
 Havorka, R.B., and Kendall H.B. “Tubular Reactor at Low
Flow Rates.” Chemical Engineering Progress, Vol. 56. No.
8 (1960).
 Ring, Terry A, Choi, Byung S., Wan, Bin., Phyliw, Susan.,
and Dhanasekharan, Kumar. “Residence Time
Distributions in a Stirred Tank-Comparison of CFD
Predictions with Experiments.” Industrial and
Engineering Chemistry. (2003).
 Ring, Terry A, Choi, Byung S., Wan, Bin., Phyliw, Susan.,
and Dhanasekharan, Kumar. “Predicting Residence Time
Distribution using Fluent” Fluent Magazine. (2003).

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What to expect from your CSTR.

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Question?

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 Design Equations
b
− ra = k * Cao * (1 − X ) * Cbo(Θ b − X )
a
− ra = k * Cao (1 − X ) 2 2

FA 0 X
VCSTR = 2
kC Ao (1 − X ) 2

X dX
V PFR = ∫ 2
0
kC A0 (1 − X ) 2

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 Design Equations
∞ −t
(t − τ )2
σ =∫
2 τ
* e dt
0
τ

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