A Monte Carlo treatment for reacting and coalescing dispersed phase systems

Abstract The Monte Carlo method of digital computer simulation is used to study the influence of coalescence on the progress of reactions occurring in the dispersed phase of two-phase systems in backmix reactors. Three different types of chemical reaction of both one and two reactants are studied and performance charts are prepared and discussed. It is shown that depending on the system, coalescence can either increase or decrease the extent of conversion of reactants. The Monte Carlo method, because of its simplicity, is found to be especially suited to studying discrete systems of this type since analytical solution is not yet possible and other numerical methods are very cumbersome. Possible extensions are discussed and the possibility of using the dispersed phase model for studying mixing and reaction in homogeneous systems is pointed out.