Chemical Reactors

This chapter demonstrates the differences between ideal and real reactors. It outlines the behavior of a well-known kind of ideal reactor: a perfectly stirred homogenous reactor in a steady or unsteady regime. Paradoxically, there are certain similarities between the properties of stability of this type of chemical reactor and those of the reaction zone in a premixed flame. The chapter presents tubular reactor and residence time distribution. The basic equations for residence time distribution are established and then applied to ideal reactors: to a perfectly stirred homogeneous reactor in the permanent regime, to a plug flow reactor, to a Poiseuille flow and finally to real reactors.