Experimental studies on semibatch reactor parametric sensitivity

Abstract

AbstractRunaway behaviour of an exothermic reaction in a semibatch reactor was studied experimentally on the example of hydrolysis of acetic anhydride catalyzed by sulphuric acid, in a 700 cm3 thinwalled stainless steel stirred reactor, 10.2 cm in diameter and 13.0 cm high. The reactor was partially immersed, to a depth of 2.1 cm, in a thermostatic bath, in order to obtain sufficiently rapid cooling of its contents. A reaction run was performed by first introducing water, acetic acid and sulphuric acid into the reactor. After the contents attained bath temperature, acetic anhydride at room temperature was fed to the reactor for a fixed time period, at a constant flow rate. When water was present in excess of the stoichiometric requirement and addition of acetic anhydride completed before the reactor attained peak temperature, the system showed sensitivity to coolant temperature and sulphuric acid concentration. When the reactants were present in stoichiometric quantities and addition of acetic anhydride was completed after the reactor attained peak temperature, the system did not exhibit any significant parametric sensitivity.