WORKED EXAMPLES IN CHEMICAL REACTION ENGINEERING

Chemical reactions may be studied under four main areas of (1) chemical kinetics (2) reaction stoichiometry (3) reactor design and optimisation and (4) reactor operation and control. These classifications are very useful in the study of chemical reaction dominated systems in which transport processes such as heat transfer momentum transfer and mass transfer are secondary or parallel processes. Modern technological and commercial operations and processes tend to treat chemical reaction systems dominated by transport processes such as heat transfer mass transfer momentum transfer or by a mix of all three in a more holistic manner using modelling and simulation. This book is concerned mainly with chemical reaction dominated systems because in many chemical plants in the real world the operation of chemical reactors requires fundamental understanding of the underlying principles of chemical reactions and chemical reaction systems. In dealing with problems in chemical kinetics and stoichiometry this book surveys and classifies broadly the main types and varieties of chemical reactions before explaining the generalised kinetics and stoichiometry which may be applied to them. Graphical procedures used to be dominant in the analysis of elementary kinetics. They have not been ignored entirely here but have been de-emphasised because computer calculations and graphics have more or less replaced manual graph plotting. Only the chemical engineering aspects of the material and energy balances not the mechanical process control or economic aspects are dealt with here because these are better treated elsewhere in the specialised literature on the subjects. The contents of the book are presented wholly in a question and answer format which it is hoped will hasten the understanding of the subject and its applications to real problems in the trade.