ABSTRACT

The aim of the experiment was to determine the dynamic behavior of continuous stirred tank
behaviors. Sodium hydroxide solution of concentration 0.1M was prepared and put into one of
the batch vessels. The other vessel was filled with water and the two solutions were reacted by
pumping both solutions into a reactor vessel.

After the solution have reacted for sometime the solution is collected in a cuvvett and sent to a
spectrophotomet5er to determine the concentration. The collections of the reacted samples were
done at a time interval and then the values recorded against the time.

A graph of concentration against time is then plotted.

INTRODUCTION

Reactors can take wide variety of forms depending on the chemical process involved. A type of
reactor used very commonly in industrial processing is continuous – stirred tank reactor (CSTR).
The CSTR is normally run at steady state and is usually operated so as to be well mixed.

In a CSTR, one or more fluid reagents are introduced into a tank reactor equipped with an
impeller while the reactor effluent is removed. The impeller stirs the reagents to ensure proper
mixing. Simply dividing the volume of the tank by the average volumetric flow rate through the
tank gives the residence time, or the average amount of time a discrete quantity of reagent spends
inside the tank. Using chemical kinetics, the reaction's expected percent completion can be
calculated.

At steady-state, the flow rate must be equal to the mass flow rate out, otherwise the tank will
overflow or go empty (transient state). While the reactor is in a transient state the model equation
must be derived from the differential mass and energy balances.

The reaction proceeds at the reaction rate associated with the final (output) concentration.

Often, it is economically beneficial to operate several CSTRs in series. This allows, for example,
the first CSTR to operate at a higher reagent concentration and therefore a higher reaction rate.
In these cases, the sizes of the reactors may be varied in order to minimize the total capital
investment required to implement the process.

It can be seen that an infinite number of infinitely small CSTRs operating in series would be
equivalent to a PFR. The experiment was done under room condition.

During the experiment 16.16g of dry NaOH was weighed using an electric balance, the sample
was put into a 4l gallon. The sample was diluted with distilled water until the 4l liter mark was
reached. The prepared solution was 0.1M NaOH which was poured into feed vessel one of the
CSTR. The pump one connected to the NaOH was switched on ands after the reactor have
overflow it was reduced to the required flow rate. The water feed pump was also switched on and
then dilution begins.
Samples were then collected to the spectrophotometer with a curvet for conductivity reading to
be recorded.

The conductivity of the reactor tank should reduce with time and at a certain time the
concentration of the reaction tank should be equal to that of the feed solutions
PROCEDURE

5.0liters of a solution of 0.1M sodium hydroxide was prepared and then filled into one of the
feed vessel to approximately 50.0mm fro the tip of the vessel. The other feed vessel was filled
with demineralised water.

At a time interval of 1minute the samples were taken to the spectrophotometer for conductivity
reading to be taken. But before this the spectrophotometer was prepare before using it o take the
readings.
THEORY

The reaction rate or rate of reaction for a reactant or product in a particular reaction is intuitively
defined as how fast a reaction takes place. For example, the oxidation of iron under the
atmosphere is a slow reaction which can take many years, but the combustion of butane in a fire
is a reaction that takes place in fractions of a second.

Chemical kinetics is the part of physical chemistry that studies reaction rates. The concepts of
chemical kinetics are applied in many disciplines, such as chemical engineering, enzymology
and environmental engineering

Formal definition of reaction rate

Considering a typical chemical reaction

aA + bB → pP + qQ

The lowercase letters (a, b, p, and q) represent stoichiometric coefficients while the capital letters
represent the reactants (A and B) and the product (P and Q).

According to Jerrica IUPAC’s Gold Book definition the reaction rate v (also r or R) for a
chemical reaction occurring in a closed system under constant-volume conditions, without a
build-up of reaction intermediates is defined as:

The IUPAC recommends that the unit of time should always be the second. In such a case the
rate of reaction differs from the rate of increase of concentration of a product P by a constant
factor (the reciprocal of its stoichiometric number) and for a reactant A by minus the reciprocal
of the stoichiometric number. Reaction rate usually has the units of mol dm −3 s−1. It is important
to bear in mind that the previous definition is only valid for a single reaction, in a closed system
of constant volume. This most usually implicit assumption must be stated explicitly, otherwise
the definition is incorrect: If water is added to a pot containing salty water, the concentration of
salt decreases, although there is no chemical reaction.

For any system in general the full mass balance must be taken into account:

IN - OUT + GENERATION = ACCUMULATION

When applied to the simple case stated previously this equation reduces to:

For a single reaction in a closed system of varying volume the so called rate of conversion can be
used, in order to avoid handling concentrations. It is defined as the derivative of the extent of
reaction with respect to time.

is the stoichiometric coefficient for substance i , is the volume of reaction and is the
concentration of substance i.

When side products or reaction intermediates are formed, the IUPAC recommends the use of the
terms rate of appearance and rate of disappearance for products and reactants, respectively.

Reaction rates may also be defined on a basis that is not the volume of the reactor. When a
catalyst is used the reaction rate may be stated on a catalyst weight (mol g−1 s−1) or surface area
(mol m−2 s−1) basis. If the basis is a specific catalyst site that may be rigorously counted by a
specified method, the rate is given in units of s−1 and is called a turnover frequency.

Concentration: Reaction rate increases with concentration, as described by the rate law and
explained by collision theory. As reactant concentration increases, the frequency of collision
increases.
The nature of the reaction: Some reactions are naturally faster than others. The number of
reacting species, their physical state (the particles that form solids move much more slowly than
those of gases or those in solution), the complexity of the reaction and other factors can influence
greatly the rate of a reaction.

Temperature: Usually conducting a reaction at a higher temperature delivers more energy into
the system and increases the reaction rate by causing more collisions between particles, as
explained by collision theory. However, the main reason why it increases the rate of reaction is
that more of the colliding particles will have the necessary activation energy resulting in more
successful collisions (when bonds are formed between reactants). The influence of temperature is
described by the Arrhenius equation. As a rule of thumb, reaction rates for many reactions
double or triple for every 10 degrees Celsius increase in temperature,[2] though the effect of
temperature may be very much larger or smaller than this (to the extent that reaction rates can be
independent of temperature or decrease with increasing temperature.)

For example, coal burns in a fireplace in the presence of oxygen but it doesn't when it is stored at
room temperature. The reaction is spontaneous at low and high temperatures but at room
temperature its rate is so slow that it is negligible. The increase in temperature, as created by a
match, allows the reaction to start and then it heats itself, because it is exothermic. That is valid
for many other fuels, such as methane, butane, hydrogen...

Solvent: Many reactions take place in solution and the properties of the solvent affect the
reaction rate. The ionic strength as well has an effect on reaction rate.

Pressure: The rate of gaseous reactions increases with pressure, which is, in fact, equivalent to an
increase in concentration of the gas. For condensed-phase reactions, the pressure dependence is
weak.

Electromagnetic Radiation: Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy so it may speed up the

rate or even make a reaction spontaneous, as it provides the particles of the reactants with more
energy. This energy is in one way or another stored in the reacting particles (it may break bonds,
promote molecules to electronically or vibrantly excited states...) creating intermediate species
that react easily.
For example when methane reacts with chlorine in the dark, the reaction rate is very slow. It can
be sped up when the mixture is put under diffused light. In bright sunlight, the reaction is
explosive.

A catalyst: The presence of a catalyst increases the reaction rate (in both the forward and reverse
reactions) by providing an alternative pathway with lower activation energy.

For example, platinum catalyzes the combustion of hydrogen with oxygen at room temperature..

Surface Area: In reactions on surfaces, which take place for example during heterogeneous
catalysis, the rate of reaction increases as the surface area does. That is due to the fact that more
particles of the solid are exposed and can be hit by reactant molecules.

Order: The order of the reaction controls how the reactant concentration affects reaction rate.

Stirring: Stirring can have a strong effect on the rate of reaction for heterogeneous reactions.

Intensity of light: The reactants involved in a photochemical reaction absorb energy from light
and other EM radiation. As the intensity of light increases, the particles absorb more energy.
Thus their kinetic energy increases, and there are more productive collisions. Hence the rate of
reaction increases. The converse is also true as light intensity decreases.

All the factors that affect a reaction rate are taken into account in the rate equation of the
reaction.

Rate equation

For a chemical reaction n A + m B → C + D, the rate equation or rate law is a mathematical

expression used in chemical kinetics to link the rate of a reaction to the concentration of each
reactant. It is of the kind:

In this equation k(T) is the reaction rate coefficient or rate constant, although it is not really a
constant, because it includes all the parameters that affect reaction rate, except for concentration,
which is explicitly taken into account. Of all the parameters described before, temperature is
normally the most important one.

The exponents n' and m' are called reaction orders and depend on the reaction mechanism.

Stoichiometric, molecularity (the actual number of molecules colliding) and reaction order only
coincide necessarily in elementary reactions, that is, those reactions that take place in just one
step. The reaction equation for elementary reactions coincides with the process taking place at
the atomic level, i.e. n molecules of type A are colliding with m molecules of type B

For gases the rate law can also be expressed in pressure units using e.g. the ideal gas law.

By combining the rate law with a mass balance for the system in which the reaction occurs, an
expression for the rate of change in concentration can be derived. For a closed system with
constant volume such an expression can look like

Each reaction rate coefficient k has a temperature dependency, which is usually given by the
Arrhenius equation:

Ea is the activation energy and R is the gas constant. Since at temperature T the molecules have
energies given by a Boltzmann distribution, one can expect the number of collisions with energy

greater than Ea to be proportional to . A is the pre-exponential factor or frequency factor.

The values for A and Ea are dependent on the reaction. There are also more complex equations
possible, which describe temperature dependence of other rate constants which do not follow this
pattern.

The rate of reaction is measured by the amount of reactants converted to products in a unit of
time. In order for a reaction to occur, particles must come into contact and this contact must
result in interaction. The rate of reaction depends on the collision frequency and collision
efficiency of particles of the reacting substances. These factors are optimized by thorough
mixing of the reactants using stirrers and baffles within the reactor. In efficient mixing will result
in reduced reaction rate
RESULT

Table 1.0 experimental data

Time (mins) Concentration (g/l)

1 -0.008
2 0.001
3 -0.001
4 -0.007
5 -0.008
6 0.0082
7 0.005
8 0.007
9 -0. 017
10 0.021
11 -0.016
12 0.023
13 -0.01
14 0.021
15 -0.09
16 0.018
17 -0.008
18 0.021
19 -0.016
20 0.018
21 -0.016
22 0.022
23 -0.013
24 0.022
25 -0.012
26 0.014
27 -0.009
28 0.015
29 -0.014
30 0.018
31 -0.007
32 0.022
33 -0.009
34 0.017
35 -0.008
36 0.022
37 -0.011
38 0.017
39 -0.004
40 0.008
41 -0.007
42 0.018
43 -0.009
44 0.011
45 -0.009
46 0.032
47 -0.005
48 0.027
49 -0.003
50 0.041
51 -0.001
52 0.019
53 0.002
54 0.028
55 0.003
56 -0.004
57 0.029
58 0.029
59 0.031
60 0.031

Results calculation

 C ∞ − C1 
Calculating In   where C0 is the concentration of NaOH at the start, C1 is the
 C ∞ − Cο 
concentration at time t. Where Co=0.1, C∞=0.078

Table 1.1 calculated and plotted values

Time (mins)  C ∞ − C1 
Concentration =In  
 C ∞ − Cο 
1 -0.693
2 -0.981
3 -0.693
4 -0.721
5 -0.693
6 -1.291
7 -1.141
8 -1.232
9 -0.470
10 -2.330
11 -0.492
12 -0.693
13 -2.485
14 -2.330
15 0.494
16 -1.974
17 -0.693
18 -2.33
19 -0.492
20 -1.974
21 -0.492
22 -2.485
23 -0.563
24 -2.485
25 -0.588
26 -1.638
27 -0.667
28 -1.712
29 -0.538
30 -1.974
31 -0.721
32 -2.485
33 -0.667
34 -1.878
35 -0.693
36 -2.485
37 -0.613
38 -1.878
39 -0.811
40 -1.218
41 -0.721
42 -1.974
43 -0.667
44 -0.443
45 -0.667
46 -2.890
47 -0.780
48 -4.277
49 -0.843
50 -1.712
51 -0.909
52 -2.079
53 -1.059
54 0
55 -1.058
56 0
57 -0.811
58 -4.277
59 -3.178
60 -3.178
Slope= [-8.43 –(-1.141 )]/ (49-7)

= -7.289/42

= -0.17354762

DISCUSSION
 This was as a result of the of the spectrophotometer not properly prepared for the reading to
readings to be taken for example the cuvettes that was used to collect the samples at the time
intervals was not properly cleaned before used to take the readings. Dirt can affect the
concentration value when using the spectrophotometer because they tend to block the part
needed by the ultraviolet rays for the correct readings to be taken.

Many reactions take place in solution and the properties of the solvent affect the reaction rate.
The ionic strength as well has an effect on reaction rate. Since the water used to produce the
0.1M NaOH was not clean as a result reaction will take place in the in the solution before the
dilution was done hence affecting the concentration of the final product.

CONCLUSION

The aim of the experiment was not achieved because the correct concentration was not achieved.
The rate of reaction is measured by the amount of reactants converted to products in a unit of
time. In order for a reaction to occur, particles must come into contact and this contact must
result in interaction. The rate of reaction depends on the collision frequency and collision
efficiency of particles of the reacting substances. These factors are optimized by thorough
mixing of the reactants using stirrers and baffles within the reactor. In efficient mixing will result
in reduced reaction rate. Usually conducting a reaction at a higher temperature delivers more
energy into the system and increases the reaction rate by causing more collisions between
particles.
REFERENCES

1. Mark E. Davis and Robert J. Davis, Fundamentals of chemical reaction

engineering, 1st edition, McGraw Hill Company,2003, page 70-71

2. J. F. Richardson and D.G. Peacock, chemical engineering,3rd editon,1994,

Elsevier Science Inc. New York, page 43

3. Missen and Co., Introduction to Chemical engineering and Kinetics, 1st edition,
1999, John Wiley and Sons, New York City, pp 336-337.

4. (http://:en.wilkepidia.org/wilk 2/12/08)