ReactorApp: A MATLAB-based educational tool for reactor design

Despite the central role of reactor design in chemical engineering education, students often struggle to grasp the complex interplay between kinetics, thermodynamics, and transport phenomena. To address this issue, this paper introduces ReactorApp , a MATLAB-based educational toolbox capable of simulating and optimizing ideal chemical reactors and their associations. To achieve this, the application exploits Object-Oriented Programming principles and creates a user-friendly environment where students can explore reactor dynamics, energy balances, the effects of process parameters, and retrieve thermophysical properties from Aspen HYSYS. This paper covers the theoretical background, implementation structure, and pedagogical benefits of ReactorApp , together with a series of benchmark problems to demonstrate the app’s effectiveness. In practice, ReactorApp is offered as an optional self-study aid for students of Reactor Design I module of the University of Alicante. While no formal evaluation study is reported, classroom use suggests that it enhances students’ understanding of the subject by enabling easy access to visual representations of reactor performance and a straightforward way to run their own experiments. Consequently, the app supports self-assessment on course assignments, leading to a more efficient engagement during practical sessions, and encourages the development of computational skills. Versatility was a key design criterion, making it a flexible resource for other chemical engineering subjects and project work. Overall, this work presents an interactive and open-source simulation tool to bridge theoretical concepts with practical competences in chemical engineering education.