Design procedure for stable operations of first‐order reaction systems in a CSTR

An application-oriented design procedure is presented for unique and point-stable operations of first-order reaction systems in a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR). For a given set of values of kinetic constants, reaction enthalpy, feed conditions, residence time, and relevant physical properties, two boundary values of the heat-transfer capacity (St{sub 1}, St{sub 3}) and two of the modified coolant temperature ({theta}{sub mc, 2}, {theta}{sub mc, 3}) are analytically derived after a linearization of the unsteady mass and energy balances. With these boundary values, two separate design conditions are formulated; one for the heat-transfer capacity (HTC, characterized by St) and one for the modified coolant temperature (MCT, characterized by {theta}{sub mc}). Each of these conditions is sufficient to guarantee unique and point-stable steady-state operations for a range of St or {theta}{sub mc} values. Predicted behaviors of reacting systems are compared with experimental results obtained from five different systems reacting in four bench-scale and two commercial reactors.