Details

The rate laws for these reactions are:

,

,

,

,

,

where is the rate of reaction (), is the rate constant (), is reaction temperature (K), and are the concentrations of and (), the subscript refers to the inlet, , and are the molar flow rates of , and (mol/s) and is the total molar flow rate (mol/s).

The rate constants are calculated from the pre-exponential factors which are solved at :

,

,

where is a pre-exponential factor (1/s), is the rate constant at 380 K, is activation energy (kJ/mol) and is the ideal gas constant (kJ/(mol K)),

Mole and energy balances are done around the reactor:

,

,

,

,

where is volume (), is the heat transfer coefficient times heat transfer area per volume (kJ/(m s K)), is the coolant temperature (K), is heat of reaction (kJ/mol), and , and are the heat capacities of , and (kJ/(mol K)).

The screencast video [1] explains how to use this Demonstration.

Reference

[1] Sensitivity of a Plug Flow Reactor to Model Parameters [Video]. (Mar 29, 2017) www.colorado.edu/learncheme/kinetics/SensitivityOfPFRtoModelParameters.html.