Chemical Reaction Engineering and Applied Chemical Kinetics

Synthetic program:

Reaction rate and kinetic constant. Thermodynamic consistence. Material balances in reacting systems. Structure of a reacting system: consecutive reactions, simultaneous reactions, complex reactions. Radical reactions. Pseudo steady state and rate determining step approximations. Physical and chemical adsorption. Mechanism of catalytic reactions. Kinetic theory of gases. Statistical thermodynamics and quantum mechanics. Definition of microstate, microcanonical ensemble. Canonical ensemble (system in contact with a thermal bath). Partition function and its evaluation for a perfect gas. Transition state theory. Heterogeneous reactions. Chemistry of reaction in solution. Bronsted-Bjerrum theory. Interpretation of laboratory kinetic data. Elementary reactions and complex reaction mechanisms. Pyrolysis, partial oxidation and combustion. Ideal reactors: batch reactors, plug flow and perfectly mixed reactors. Steam cracking furnaces and pyrolysis coils. Fixed bed catalytic reactors. Heterogeneous models and effectiveness factor. Importance of diffusion limitations. Fluidized bed reactors. Multiphase flow reactors. Non ideal reactors and age distribution functions. Transient behaviour and stability of operation. Mathematical modelling of ideal chemical reactors and simple solution are presented in order to better understand the relative role and importance of chemical kinetics and transport phenomena in different reactors of industrial relevance.