Runaway behaviour and parametric sensitivity of a batch reactor — an experimental study

• Published in: Chemical engineering science 1996, Vol.51 (11), p.3095-3100
• Main Authors: Heiszwolf, Johan J., Fortuin, Jan M.H.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Chemical engineering; Exact sciences and technology; Reactors
• ISSN: 0009-2509; 1873-4405
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(96)00203-5

The present paper reports on the behaviour of a pseudo first-order reaction system in a batchwise operated stirred tank reactor. The experimental results refer to runaways, sensitive and stable operations and are compared with two different runaway criteria, i.e. the Semenov criterion and the Adler and Enig criterion. These criteria present the minimum heat-transfer capacity β c required for a safe design of a reacting system for a given adiabatic temperature rise α and a given ratio ϵ of the Arrhenius temperature and the modified coolant temperature. It is shown that: — the Semenov criterion is conservative but safe, — the Adler and Enig criterion holds at low values of α, while at high α values runaways already occur before β c is reached. For constant values of α and ϵ, the measured sensitivities of operating curves at β values in the vicinity of β c are compared with normalized objective sensitivities S β of Morbidelli and Varma.