ADDIS ABABA UNIVERSITY

ADDIS ABABA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

School of Chemical and Bio Engineering

Course Code and Name: ChEg 6112Advanced Reaction Engineering

Prerequisites: none Academic Year:2017/2018 (1st Semester)
Target students: M.Sc. in Process Engineering Work Sheet-1
Instructor: Dr. Eng. Hundessa Dessalegn Contact hundessad@gmail.com
Email:
General Instructions

i. List assumptions you have made,

ii. Use schematics and show calculation steps wherever necessary.
iii. Please do number your answer script properly

1. Show that the following scheme proposed by R. Ogg, J. Chem. Phys.,

15,337 (1947) is consistent with, and can explain, the observed first-
order decomposition of N205.

2. Consider a long PFR of length L in which a fluid with reactants is

flowing with linear velocity u. Thus the space time is vessel is = L/u.
Consider a first order reaction (with rate constant k) taking place in the PFR.

a. Write the governing design equation (differential equation) for

steady state operation.

b. Now lets say you wish to discretize this equation into N segments,
so that you have a equivalent finite difference equation. The segments
are all equal and of length z, and the end nodes are labelled j =0, 1,
2, N. Thus, N.z = L. Let the space time in each segment, be a =
z/u.

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 c. Write an explicit finite difference scheme for the concentration of the
reactant species at the end of the (j+1)st node in terms of
concentration at the jth node (i.e, over the jth segment).

d. Let the conversion in the jth segment be xj. Simplify the expression
in c. to get xj, a, k and cj.

e. From d., what do you conclude about the behavior of sub-segments

that make up a PFR.

3. Now consider a CSTR with space time is vessel is a. Consider a first order
reaction (with rate constant k) taking place in the CSTR.

a. Write the governing design equation (now a difference equation) for

steady state operation. Let the incoming concentration be c0 and
the outgoing concentration be c1.

b. Now lets say you add a second identical CSTR in series to the first
one. Now the incoming concentration in this is c1 and the outgoing
concentration is c2. Write now first the design equation for the second
CSTR, and then express the concentration at the end of the second
CSTR in terms of the incoming concentration c0.

c. Repeat this exercise for N such identical CSTRs all connected in

series, i.e., express the concentration at the end of the Nth CSTR in
terms of the incoming concentration c0.

d. Simplify the expression obtained in part c. when N . Use

mathematical limits as appropriate.

e. The expression obtained in part d. is a solution to which first order

ODE with what initial/boundary conditions? What physical system
does such a ODE represent? What do you conclude (mathematically,
and physically)?

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