Example 8.6 of the book Elements of CRE, 3rd edition, by Scott Fogler.

Consider the liquid phase reaction n-butane
 iso-butane. The feed comes at a rate of 163
kmol/h and 90 mol% is n-butane, and 10 mol% is i-pentane. The latter is an inert. The feed
comes at 330 K. The following data are available.
A B and inert is P.
Cp-A = Cp-B =141 J/mol/K, Cp-P = 161 J/mol/K.
H = -6900 J/mol A reacted.

Rate constant is k = 31.1 h-1 at 360 K, and activation energy is 65.7 kJ/mol, The equilibrium
constant is KC= 3.03 at 60 C and the concentration of A in the feed is CA-in = 9.3 kmol/m3. You
are also given that K C = K C 0 e

H
RT

Solution:
k1
First we will write the parameters in standard form. For the reaction A
B , the rate
k1

constant is given by k1 = k10 e

E
RT

At 360 K, k = 31.1 h-1 and E = 65.7 kJ/mol implies that k = 1.0615 1011 e

= 1.0615 1011 e

7902.3
T

65700
8.314T

h 1

At 60 C, Kc = 3.03. H = 6500 J/mol. This means that KC0 = 0.2506.

k1 =

k
k1
= 10 e
KC KC 0

E H )
RT

= 4.2351 1011 e

8732.3
T

dFA
= rA = k1C A + k1CB . Since
dV
this is a liquid phase reaction with negligible density change, and since the feed does not contain
any B, we can write that C A = C Ain (1 x ) and C B = C Ain x

Design equation: For a CSTR, FAin +V ( rA ) = FAout . For a PFR

dx
= k1C A k1CB = k1C Ain (1 x ) k1C Ain x
dV
Note that the rate constants are functions of temperature.

Hence the design equation is FAin

Energy balance equation:

Choose any point V in the reactor. The conversion at that point is x and the temperature is T.
The heat released until that point is the same as the heat needed to bring the feed to that
temperature.
FAin x H T =

Tin

i in

C p i dT

Since Cp-A = Cp-B , H is not a function of temperature. FA-in = 90% of Feed = 146.7 kmol/h. FP-in
= 16.3 kmol/h. Therefore,
Fi inC pi dT = ( FAinC p A + FP inC p P ) dT = 23309dT kJ/h
i
T

F
Tin

i in

C p i dT = 23309dT = 23309dT = 23309 (T 330 )

330

Tin

FAin x H T = 1.0122 10 x
Therefore, T=330+43.4253 x. The book gives a value of 330+43.3 x.
In order to find the relationship between the reactor volume and conversion, we have to integrate
dx
V = dV = FAin
rA
We need to create a table of x vs (1/-rA) and then integrate. We also want to keep track of
equilibrium conversion, so that we dont try to go above it.
k1
k1 + k1
1/(-rA)
0.0253
0.0188
0.0169
0.0261
0.0403
0.1546

At equilibrium rA = 0. Therefore, k1C Ain (1 xe ) k1C Ain xe = 0 , which means that xe =

x
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.65
0.7

T
330
338.7
347.4
356
358
360.4

K1
4.2421
7.839
14.05
23.5
28
32

k-1
1.3639
2.688
5.122
9.5
10.97
12.7

Xe
0.7567
0.7446
0.733
0.722
0.7184
0.7156

-rA
39.45
53.32
59.33
38.3
24.8
6.5

If we integrate this, we find that the volume to get 0.7 conversion is about 3.4 m3. The last bit of
conversion takes a lot of volume. In the beginning the increase in temperature helps. Near the
end, the reverse reaction is slowing down the conversion of A, since we are close to equilibrium.
If we want 40% conversion in the PFR, we need 1.15 m3 volume.

If we conduct this in a CSTR and want the same 40% conversion, we will have T = 347.4 K
(same as in PFR). k1 and km1 are known and hence the rate is known. From the design equation
we can write
F x
FAin x
V = Ain =
rA
k1 C Ain (1 x ) k1 C Ain x
=

146.7 0.4
14.05 9.3 (1 0.4 ) 5.122 9.3 0.4

= 0.988 m3