Ch En 386

Winter 2018 Homework

due at 9 a.m. on date in syllabus

Note: Anytime you solve a problem using Python, you must either print a copy of the
code and output and include with your homework OR upload a copy of the code and
output in Learning Suite.

HW #31: Overall Effectiveness Factor

1. (5 points) A 70 kg PBR is used for an irreversible gas phase reaction A → 2B that is

isothermal and isobaric. The catalyst pellets are spherical. The inlet is pure A.

a. Show a plot of XA vs. kc (ranging from 0.001 cm/s to whatever value you need
for part b). If desired, you may show the plot using Excel. You may assume
the velocity change does not affect the mass transfer coefficient.
b. Approximately, above what mass transfer coefficient is there a negligible
change in the conversion?
c. At this mass transfer coefficient, what are the values for  and ?
d. Why is there no effect on conversion even though  and  are not the same
and they are not unity?

Other parameters:

De = 2 x 10-4 cm2/s
k’ = 1.5 x 10-3 liter g-1 s-1
p = 1400 g/liter
R = 0.10 cm
v0= 1 liter/s
T = 300 K
kc = 0.001 cm/s

2. (5 points) The same reaction in problem 1 occurs in an adiabatic, isobaric PBR. The
inlet temperature is 300 K at a pressure of 5 atm. The rate constant given in problem
1 is at 300 K with an activation energy of 60,000 J/mol. Only pure A enters the PBR.
You may assume that the temperature in the catalyst particle is the same as the
surrounding fluid and that the effective diffusivity does not change with temperature.
The heat capacities for A and B are 40 J/molK. The standard heat of reaction at 298K
is -6000 J/mol.

a. Find  at the entrance. Explain why  will be >1 throughout the entire
reactor. Since this will be true, you can use the approximation for  for a first
1 1
order reaction as 𝜂 = 𝜙 [1 − 3𝜙]
b. SOLVE USING PYTHON. Find the weight to obtain 50% conversion for
the following scenarios (the scenarios are in order of least accurate to most
accurate). For all scenarios, show a plot of Xa as a function of the weight.
i. Assume (no external mass transfer or diffusional resistances)
ii. Assume Ω is constant based on inlet conditions
iii. Assume Ω changes since T changes. For this scenario, also show plots
of , , and  as a function of the weight. State why the conversion
still increases reasonably with increasing weight when  decreases
drastically with increasing weight.