CFD Models for Analysis and Design of Chemical Reactors

Abstract

The field of chemical reaction engineering (CRE) is intimately and uniquely connected with the design and scale-up of chemical reacting systems. To achieve the latter, two essential elements must be combined. First, a detailed knowledge of the possible chemical transformations that can occur in the system is required. This information is represented in the form of chemical kinetic schemes, kinetic rate parameters, and thermodynamic databases. In recent years, considerable progress has been made in this area using computational chemistry and carefully controlled experiments for isolating the chemical kinetics in the absence of transport effects. The second essential element is a detailed knowledge of the transport phenomena in chemical reacting systems. Indeed, because commercial chemical reactors are almost always operated in a regime where mass and energy transport affect or even control the product distribution from the system, understanding the coupling between transport processes and chemical reactions is an essential step in the design and scale-up of chemical reacting systems.