Design, Fabrication and Preliminary Testing of a Laboratory-scale Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR)

Author : Tapang, Edwin Samar
Major Adviser : Demafelis, Rex B.; Valencia, Sixto A.
Committee Members :
Year : 1992
Month : March
Type : Thesis
Degree: BS
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Abstract

A CSTR with an operating volume of 3 ℓ was designed, fabricated, and tested. The CSTR was used to evaluate the order of chemical reaction and specific reaction rate constant of the alkaline hydrolysis of ethyl acetate.

The mean residence time was varied under constant temperature of 25.0°C and atmospheric pressure for about three hours of continuous operation. Analysis of the reaction kinetic data gave an order of 1.24 and reaction rate constant of 1.33 ℓ·mol^-1·min^-1 with errors of 38.0% and 79.3%, respectively when compared to the literature values of 2 and 6.41 ℓ·mol^-1·min^-1, respectively.

Heat transfer analysis indicated that there is a lower limit of the mean residence time which is between 5.00 and 5.56 min wherein the reactor can be operated efficiently. This lower bound corresponds to the intersection of the required heat transfer area and the available area. Below this value the available area of 936.8 cm would be less than the required area. Consequently, a large amount of cooling medium is needed to maintain the operating temperature at 25.0°C.

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