Modelling of Turbulent Reactors

Once a basic understanding of turbulent mixing has been obtained, application of that knowledge to effects on chemical reactions may be attempted. How turbulent mixing affects chemical reactions is dependent on the types of reactions and how the reactants are fed to the mixing zone. It is generally recognized that first-order, irreversible reactions are not affected by local turbulent mixing, but are affected by convection patterns. The convection patterns in the mixing vessel determine the residence-time distribution of the fluid, from which the first-order reaction conversion may be calculated without concern for the local turbulent mixing. For a complete treatment of the first-order reaction problem with arbitrary convection patterns, see Levenspiel’. There the use of the residencetime distribution (RTD) is developed. Nauman’ has reviewed the use of RTD methods in detail.