Experimental study of the behaviour of an isothermal continuous stirred tank reactor in the course of an autocatalytic reaction

Abstract

The dynamic behaviour of an isothermal continuous stirred tank reactor and of a two-element series of continuous stirred tank reactors in the course of an autocatalytic reaction of bistrichlormethyl-trisulphide with aniline, in methanol at 20°C, was studied. It was shown that the regime of the continuous stirred tank reactor and of the series is unstable ia a certain region of the conversion of the initial reaction component (bis-trichlormethyl-trisulphide) and that in a certain interval of the reaction mixture feed rate the reactor can operate at a single value of the feed rate in two (the series in three) stable states. The values of the bis-trichlormethyl-trisulphide conversion in steady states, as well as the dependence of the conversion on the period of stabilization of the reactor regime, determined experimentally in a continuous stirred tank reactor and in the series are in good agreement with the values computed from the kinetic data, determined in a discontinuous stirred tank reactor.