CSTR Experiment
CSTR Experiment
THEORY
For stirred tank reactor (STR), it may be operated either in batch or at a steady-state flow,
which it is better known as Continuous Stirred tank Reactor (CSTR). CSTR is a common
ideal reactor type in chemical engineering. It is also known as vat- or backmix reactor, often
refers to a model that is used to estimate the key unit operation variables. The key or main
feature of this reactor is that mixing is complete so that properties such as temperature and
concentration of the reaction mixture are uniform in all parts of the vessels. Material balance
of a general chemical reaction is described below:
The conversion principle in an element of reactor of a volume V requires that the mass of
species A obeys the following statement:
[ Rate of A into ] [ Rate of A out of ] + [ Rate of A produced ] = [
volume element
volume element
Rate of A
accumulated within
volume element
-rA = 1
V
dNA
dt
CAO
-rA
-rA
= 1 = V = VCAO = CAO XA
S
Vo
FAO
-rA
APPARATUS
Chemicals
HCL, NaOH, Ethyl Acetate and phenolphthalein.
Equipment Description:
(a) Reactor
The reactor consists of a glass vessel with top and bottom plate made of stainless steel.
The reactor comes with a coiling coil, a 1.0kW heater, a temperature sensor, stirrer
system, an overflow tube and a gas sparging unit.
(b) Feed Inlet System (Liquid Reactions)
For each liquid reactant, a 20 L feed tank, a pump, a needle valve and a flow meter
are provided. Each reactant is pumped from the feed tank to the appropriate inlet port
at the top plate
(c) Gas Inlet System (Gas-Liquid Reactions:Optional)
Gas from gas cylinder flows through a needle valve, a flow meter and a gas sparger
before reacting with the liquid inside the reactor.
(d) Product/Waste Tank
A 50L rectangular tank made of stainless steel is provided for collecting the product or
waste before being discharged.
(e) Control Panel
The control panel consists of all the necessary electrical components for controlling
the operations of the unit. Components mounted on the panel door are all labeled for
convenience. The control panel also houses the necessary modules for data acquisition
system
(f) Data Acquisition System (Optional)
The Data Acquisition System consists of a personal computer, ADC modules and
instrumentations for measuring the process parameters. A flow meter with 0 to 5 VDC
output signal is supplied for each feed stream. A temperature sensor and temperature
transmitter with 4 to 20 mA output signal is provided to measure the reaction
temperature. A pH sensor with controller are provided for monitoring the changes in
pH while the reaction is taking place. All analog signals from the sensors are converted
by the ADC modules into digital signal before being sent to the personal computer for
display and manipulation.
PROCEDURE
Experiment: Batch Reactor Experiment
Reactant Preparation Procedure
1. 0.05 M NaOH and 0.05 M Ethyl Acetate solutions is prepared in two separate 20
liter feed tanks.