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RTD in CSTR
RTD in CSTR
APPARATUS:
Tracer (NaOH)
Stop Watch
EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE:
1. Fill the overhead tank with water and adjust the input and output flow rate in the tank so that its level remains
constant.
2. From the overhead tank start the supply of water into the CSTR.
3. Adjust the flow rate of water into the CSTR until it comes equal to 1mL/sec.
4. Now inject the tracer (NaOH) into the reactor and as soon as the tracer is injected start the stop watch.
5. Now keep on measuring the conductivity of the solution present in CSTR.
6. Stop your readings when the effluent streams contain negligible amount of the tracer.
THEORY:
Residence Time is the time spent by an atom in a reactor. In an ideal CSTR the concentration of any substance in the
effluent stream is identical to the concentration throughout the reactor. Consequently, it is possible to obtain the
RTD from conceptual considerations in a fairly straight forward manner. But as we know that no reactor in the
world is ideal and hence all the atoms/molecules entering the reactor dont spend the same amount of time. To
measure the non-ideality in a reactor we plot a residence time distribution of atoms in the reactor.
To define it, Residence Time Distribution (RTD) of a reactor is a characteristic of the mixing that occurs in the
chemical reactor. Non ideality comes into the picture and due to some disturbances in mixing the concentration of the
exit effluents is not the same as that is there in the reactor.
Experimentally, RTD is determined by injecting a tracer (which is normally an inert substance) in the reactor at some
time t = 0 and then by measuring the tracer concentration in the effluent stream as a function of time.
Some typical characteristics of a tracer are:
Here in this experiment we would use a pulse input of the tracer where an amount of tracer is suddenly injected in
one shoot into the feed stream entering the reactor in as short a time as possible. The outlet concentration is then
measured as a function of time.
A material balance on an inert tracer that has been injected as a pulse at time t = 0 into a CSTR for t > 0
We would further take C (t) as the measure of concentration of tracer as a function of time. Moving on we define a
quantity E (t) as the residence-time distribution function. It is the function that describes in a quantitative manner how
much time different fluid elements have spent in the reactor. The quantity E(t)dt is the fraction of fluid exiting the
reactor that has spent between time t and t + dt inside the reactor.
Mathematically it can be defined as:
An alternative way of defining the residence time distribution function can be:
As we know that the fraction of all the material that has resided for a time t in the reactor between t = 0 and t = is
1 therefore,
Coming to the concept of space time or mean residence time (), we know = V/vo. Now no matter what RTD exists
for a particular reactor, ideal or non-ideal, the nominal space time , is equal to the mean residence time tm. As is the
case with other variables described by distribution functions, the mean value of the variable is equal to the first
moment of the RTD function, E (t). Thus the mean residence time is
OBSERVATIONS:
Flow Rate (Q)
= 1 mL/s
= 870 mL
Time Constant ()
= V/ Q
= 870/1
= 870 sec
Observation Tablet
0
20
24
32.6
43.7
55.1
66.8
77.2
89.6
101.8
114.7
125.8
137.6
149.1
163.5
178
188.8
201.5
216.1
229.1
244
257.2
273.5
287.2
300.7
314.2
330.12
346.8
361
376
393.5
409.8
427.6
442.6
458
478.2
493.17
513.6
532.7
552
569.6
588.3
606.7
629.2
650.3
671.7
693.4
713.7
740.5
760.6
786.3
809.4
834.5
862.3
887.4
915.3
942.4
972.4
1001.1
1031.6
1064.6
1096.1
1129.9
1164.2
1200.7
1238.4
1278.2
1318.6
1361
1403
1452.8
1501.9
1553.1
1606.5
1664.1
1772.8
1784.2
1849
1921
2070
2170
2273
2391
2531
2704
2984
3763
5400
23.5
23
22.5
22
21.5
21
20.5
20
19.5
19
18.5
18
17.5
17
16.5
16
15.5
15
14.5
14
13.5
13
12.5
12
11.5
11
10.5
10
9.5
9
8.5
8
7.5
7
6.5
5.5
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.8
22.51151113
22.00729833
21.50852569
21.05306117
20.46780673
20.04054648
19.50843301
19.04338277
18.55187153
18.02378585
17.56127028
17.06257888
16.5932598
16.09048641
15.62545755
15.14779148
14.649489
14.19114823
13.71745223
13.25519836
12.78290512
12.3154473
11.84344461
11.38590739
10.92803079
10.49594965
10.00993463
9.557229631
9.111599587
8.673932717
8.231006842
7.470971702
7.396626434
6.992048991
6.576484751
5.818364213
5.377696367
4.973776277
4.566152904
4.149047932
3.718236566
3.17935888
2.339727553
1.848318453
495.85
492.2
488.25
446.6
576.2
422.1
526.85
462
489.45
528.2
464.35
502.2
474.25
510
473.55
488
511.5
472.5
490.1
480.2
492.75
490.1
497.5
484.8
487.6
462
522.9
491
486.4
480.6
489.6
869.6
85.5
453.6
468
819.5
500
463.5
472
490
519
700
1558
2946.6
0.00050525
0.0004945
0.00048375
0.000473
0.00046225
0.0004515
0.00044075
0.00043
0.00041925
0.0004085
0.00039775
0.000387
0.00037625
0.0003655
0.00035475
0.000344
0.00033325
0.0003225
0.00031175
0.000301
0.00029025
0.0002795
0.00026875
0.000258
0.00024725
0.0002365
0.00022575
0.000215
0.00020425
0.0001935
0.00018275
0.000172
0.00016125
0.0001505
0.00013975
0.00011825
0.0001075
9.6749E-05
8.6E-05
7.525E-05
6.45E-05
5.375E-05
4.3E-05
3.87E-05
0.010660715
0.010582241
0.010497316
0.009601846
0.01238823
0.009075099
0.011327211
0.009932944
0.010523116
0.011356236
0.009983469
0.010797239
0.010196318
0.010964938
0.010181268
0.010491941
0.010997188
0.010158693
0.010537091
0.010324242
0.010594066
0.010537091
0.01069619
0.010423141
0.010483341
0.009932944
0.011242287
0.010556441
0.010457541
0.010332842
0.010526341
0.018696295
0.00183824
0.009752345
0.010061944
0.017619151
0.01074994
0.009965194
0.010147943
0.010534941
0.011158437
0.015049916
0.033496812
0.063351544
6.932663
7.108091
7.278839
6.852838
9.173485
6.90252
8.906586
8.039725
8.78154
9.792483
8.85933
9.882713
9.60901
10.66231
10.19247
10.82349
11.70761
11.13494
11.90586
12.01948
12.72029
13.04913
13.67187
13.74395
14.26783
13.93592
16.33279
15.85472
16.24161
16.59971
17.51688
33.14479
3.279787
18.03209
19.32899
36.47164
23.32737
22.65089
24.26373
26.66394
30.17241
44.90895
126.0485
342.0983
Integral[ C(t)dt ]
Integral[ E(t)dt ]
Residence Time
46511.889
1
1231.0796
50
45
40
Conductivity
35
30
25
Observed
Theoritical
20
15
10
5
0
0
1000
2000
3000
Time
4000
5000
6000
RESULT:
The residence time for the flow reactor is observed to be 1231.08 seconds.
CONCLUSION:
For a CSTR initially the concentration shoots up very fast and reaches a maximum and then starts decaying
exponentially. The reason for the instant shoot up is that both the inlet and outlet pipes are at the same level
and hence some of tracer injected gets immediately removed from the reactor and the rest is caught up in the
mixture and exists slowly. In a CSTR it is very much possible that a volume such as dead volume develops where
some of the material is trapped and is never able to exit from the reactor. This volume might be found at one of
the corners of the reactor.