Runaway Reactions

Derivation

The governing equations for a PFR/PBR:

Mole Balance:

Energy Balance:

Solutions to these equations give the following typical profiles (in the absence of runaway):

 

 

Figure 5. Temperature and concentration profiles.

 

At the maximum temperature in the reactor, T_m

then

 

For a first order reaction: , then and we can solve for C_Am to obtain

where T_m is the maximum temperature in the reactor and C_Am is the corresponding concentration of A at that maximum temperature. For this reactor .

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