PEN-202 Polymer Reaction Engineering

Lecture 1

Dr. Hari Prakash Veluswamy

Assistant Professor
Department of Chemical Engineering
IIT Roorkee

06 JAN 2022
 Why Polymer reaction engineering?
• Reaction engineering is distinct branch of Chemical Engineering

• Reactor is the heart of all chemical processes

Raw Initial Final Products

Reactor
materials Pre-treatment Purification

Recycle

• Application of reaction engineering for polymer production

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 Why Polymer reaction engineering?

Polymer Reaction Engineering – David C. Chappelear and Robert H. M. Simon 3

 Expanding sphere of Polymer Reaction Engineering

Polymer Reaction Engineering, An Integrated Approach – Th. Meyer and J.T.F. Keurentjes 4
 Reaction types
• Homogeneous
• Heterogeneous

• Catalytic
• Non-catalytic

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 Reaction types
• Single reaction
• Multiple reaction
• Series
• Parallel

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 Reaction types
• Reversible reaction
NH4Cl(s) ⇌ NH3(g) + HCl(g)
• Irreversible reaction
CxHy+O2→CO2+
H2O

• Exothermic reaction
• Endothermic reaction

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 Reaction order
The order of reaction can be defined as the power dependence of rate on the concentration
of all reactants.
 Rate of a first-order reaction is dependent solely on the concentration of one species in
the reaction
 The reaction order of a chemical reaction is always defined with the help of reactant
concentrations and not with product concentrations.
The value of the order of reaction can be in the form of an integer or a fraction. It can
even have a value of zero.

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 Molecularity of a reaction
 The molecularity of a reaction refers to the number of reactant particles involved in the
reaction. Because there can only be discrete numbers of particles, the molecularity must take an
integer value. Molecularity can be described as unimolecular, bimolecular, or termolecular. 

Molecularity Order of Reaction

It is always a whole number It can be a whole number or a fraction.
It can be determined from balanced chemical equation It must be determined experimentally
Is only applicable in simple reactions The reaction order is applicable in all chemical reactions

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 Reaction types
Elementary reaction
• An elementary reaction is a chemical reaction in which one or more chemical
species react directly to form products in a single reaction step and with a
single transition state
• Reaction orders and stoichiometric coefficients are identical
Non-elementary reaction
• A non-elementary reaction is the one whose stoichiometry does not match with
its kinetics (i.e., for such a reaction there is no direct correspondence between
reaction order and stoichiometry)
Overall Reaction: 2NO  O2  2NO2
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Nonelementary kinetics are the result of
kiCNO CO2 multiple elementary reaction steps and reactive
rNO 
1  kiiCNO intermediates

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 Reaction rate
• Rate of formation of product species (or) rate of disappearance of reactant species
• Rate expressions for homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions

Levenspiel O., “Chemical Reaction Engineering”, 3rd Ed., John Wiley. 11

Reaction rate

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 Reactor types
• Reactor is the heart of all chemical processes

Input Output Performance equation:

Reactor Output = f (Input, Kinetics, Contacting)

• Batch
• Continuous
• Mixed flow (Stirred tank reactor)
• Plug flow (Tubular flow reactor)

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 Batch Reactor
• Well mixed contents
• Concentration and Temperature uniform spatially
• Unsteady state (Change in concentration with time)
• Small capacities
• Predominantly used in pharmaceutical industries, fermentation processes etc.
• Long residence time
• High operating cost
• Effective time for batch reaction = Time for reaction + Time for processing
• Processing time
• Time for removing products
• Time for cleaning
• Time for filling new batch

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 Continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR)
• Well mixed contents
• Concentration and Temperature uniform spatially
• Steady state (No change in concentration with time)
• One step change in concentration
• Low conversion
• Convenient for liquid phase reactions
• No Processing time

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 Plug flow reactor (PFR)
• Steady state
• Concentration does not vary with time
• Concentration varies with position
• High conversion hence small size
• No processing time

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