OPTIMAL DESIGN OF NONISOTHERMAL REACTORS: DERIVATION OF EQUATIONS FOR THE RATE-TEMPERATURE-CONVERSION PROFILE AND THE OPTIMUM TEMPERATURE PROGRESSION FOR A GENERAL CLASS OF REVERSIBLE REACTIONS

For the first time, a simple but general mathematical treatment for the production of rate-temperature-conversion charts for a class of reversible chemical reactions is presented. The agreement between the results and the chart in Levenspiel (1972) for the reaction the only one available in the open literature)provides justification for the formal analysis. The approach was then extended to other types of reactions Additionally, analytical expressions for the optimum temperature progression for all the types of reactions considered were also obtained (in the case of exothermic reactions). The predicted optimum temperatures were in agreement with those obtained from graphical procedure in Levenspiel (1972). The paper also illustrates how these formularies may be used to generate the charts and to procure the ideal optimum reactor size. Even so, the analysis is restricted to only constant density systems.