Review of "Assessing the degree of plug flow in oxidation flow reactors (OFRs): a study on a Potential Aerosol Mass (PAM) reactor" by Mitroo et al.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anonymous
Keyword(s):  
2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1741-1756 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhruv Mitroo ◽  
Yujian Sun ◽  
Daniel P. Combest ◽  
Purushottam Kumar ◽  
Brent J. Williams

Abstract. Oxidation flow reactors (OFRs) have been developed to achieve high degrees of oxidant exposures over relatively short space times (defined as the ratio of reactor volume to the volumetric flow rate). While, due to their increased use, attention has been paid to their ability to replicate realistic tropospheric reactions by modeling the chemistry inside the reactor, there is a desire to customize flow patterns. This work demonstrates the importance of decoupling tracer signal of the reactor from that of the tubing when experimentally obtaining these flow patterns. We modeled the residence time distributions (RTDs) inside the Washington University Potential Aerosol Mass (WU-PAM) reactor, an OFR, for a simple set of configurations by applying the tank-in-series (TIS) model, a one-parameter model, to a deconvolution algorithm. The value of the parameter, N, is close to unity for every case except one having the highest space time. Combined, the results suggest that volumetric flow rate affects mixing patterns more than use of our internals. We selected results from the simplest case, at 78 s space time with one inlet and one outlet, absent of baffles and spargers, and compared the experimental F curve to that of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The F curves, which represent the cumulative time spent in the reactor by flowing material, match reasonably well. We value that the use of a small aspect ratio reactor such as the WU-PAM reduces wall interactions; however sudden apertures introduce disturbances in the flow, and suggest applying the methodology of tracer testing described in this work to investigate RTDs in OFRs to observe the effect of modified inlets, outlets and use of internals prior to application (e.g., field deployment vs. laboratory study).


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dhruv Mitroo ◽  
Yujian Sun ◽  
Daniel P. Combest ◽  
Purushottam Kumar ◽  
Brent J. Williams

Abstract. Oxidation flow reactors (OFRs) have been developed to achieve high degrees of oxidant exposures over relatively short space times (defined as the ratio of reactor volume to the volumetric flowrate). While, due to their increased use, attention has been paid to their ability to replicate realistic tropospheric reactions by modeling the chemistry inside the reactor, there is a desire to customize flow patterns. This work demonstrates the importance of decoupling tracer signal of the reactor from that of the tubing when experimentally obtaining these flow patterns. We modeled the residence time distributions (RTDs) inside the Washington University Potential Aerosol Mass (WU-PAM) reactor, an OFR, for a simple set of configurations by applying the tank-in-series (TIS) model, a one parameter model, to a deconvolution algorithm. The value of the parameter, N, is close to unity for every case except one having the highest space time. Combined, the results suggest that volumetric flowrate affects mixing patterns more than use of our internals. We selected results from the simplest case, at 78 s space time with one inlet and one outlet, absent of baffles and spargers, and compared the experimental F-Curve to that of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The F-Curves, which represents the cumulative time spent in the reactor by flowing material, match reasonably well. We value that the use of a small aspect ratio reactor such as the WU-PAM reduces wall interactions, and suggest applying the methodology of tracer testing described in this work to investigate RTDs in OFRs and modify inlets, outlets, and use of internals prior to applications (e.g., field deployment vs. laboratory study).


2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (31) ◽  
pp. 31062-31070 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katheem Kiyasudeen ◽  
Mahamad Hakimi Ibrahim ◽  
Syahidah Akmal Muhammad ◽  
Sultan Ahmed Ismail ◽  
Fadzil Noor Gonawan ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew T. Lambe ◽  
Ezra C. Wood ◽  
Jordan E. Krechmer ◽  
Francesca Majluf ◽  
Leah R. Williams ◽  
...  

Abstract. Oxidation flow reactors (OFRs) are an emerging tool for studying the formation and oxidative aging of organic aerosols and other applications. The majority of OFR studies to date involved generation of the hydroxyl radical (OH) to mimic daytime oxidative aging processes. On the other hand, use of the nitrate radical (NO3) in modern OFRs to mimic nighttime oxidative aging processes has been limited due to the complexity of conventional techniques that are used to generate NO3. Here, we present a new method that uses a laminar flow reactor (LFR) to continuously generate dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5) in the gas phase at room temperature from the NO2 + O3 and NO2 + NO3 reactions. The N2O5 is then injected into a dark Potential Aerosol Mass OFR and decomposes to generate NO3; hereafter, this method is referred to as OFR-iN2O5 (i = injected). To assess the applicability of the OFR-iN2O5 method towards different chemical systems, we present experimental and model characterization of the integrated NO3 exposure, NO3:O3, NO2:NO3, and NO2:O2 as a function of LFR and OFR conditions. These parameters were used to investigate the fate of representative organic peroxy radicals (RO2) and aromatic alkyl radicals generated from volatile organic compound (VOC) + NO3 reactions, and VOCs that are reactive towards both O3 and NO3. Finally, we demonstrate the OFR-iN2O5 method by generating and characterizing secondary organic aerosol from the β-pinene + NO3 reaction.


Author(s):  
L. K. Doraiswamy

Like zeolites that combine shape selectivity with catalysis, membranes combine separation with catalysis to enhance reaction rates. The dual functionality of zeolites derives from the nature of the catalytic material, whereas that of membranes derives from the nature of the reactor material. The catalyst in the membrane reactor can be a part of the membrane itself or be external to it (i.e., placed inside the membrane tube). The chief property of a membrane is its ability for selective permeation or permselectivity with respect to certain compounds. Organic membrane reactions are best carried out in reactors made of inorganic membranes, such as from palladium, alumina, or ceramics. Good descriptions of these reactions and the membranes used are available in many reviews, for example, Gryaznov (1986, 1992), Stoukides (1988), Armor (1989), Govind and Ilias (1989), Bhave (1991), Zaspalis and Burggraaf (1991), Hsieh (1989, 1991), Shu et al. (1991), Shieh (1991), Gellings and Bouwmeister (1992), Tsotsis et al. (1993b), Harold et al. (1994), Saracco and Specchia (1994), Sanchez and Tsotsis (1996). A recent trend has been to develop polymeric-inorganic composite type membranes formed by the deposition of a thin dense polymeric film on an inorganic support (Kita et al., 1987; Rezac and Koros, 1994, 1995; Zhu et al., 1996). Another class of membranes under development for organic synthesis is the liquid membrane (Marr and Kopp, 1982; Eyal and Bressler, 1993). The permselective barrier in this type of membrane is a liquid phase, often containing a dissolved “carrier” or “transporter” that selectively reacts with a specific permeate to enhance its transport rate through the membrane. Our main concern in this chapter will be with inorganic membrane reactors. We commence our treatment with an introduction to the exploitable features of membrane reactors (with no attempt to describe membrane synthesis). Then we describe the main variations in design and operating mode of these reactors, develop performance equations for the more important designs, and compare the performances of some important designs with those of the traditional mixed- and plug-flow reactors. Finally, we present a summary of the applications of membrane reactors in enhancing the rates of organic reactions.


Author(s):  
L. K. Doraiswamy

Procedures were formulated in Chapter 5 for treating complex reactions. We now turn to the design of reactors for such reactions. Continuing with the ethylation reaction, we consider the following reactor types for which design procedures were formulated earlier in Chapter 4 for simple reactions: batch reactors, continuous stirred reactors (or mixed-flow reactors), and plug-flow reactors. However, we use the following less formal nomenclature: A = aniline, B = ethanol, C = monoethyaniline, D = water, E = diethylaniline, F = diethyl ether, and G = ethylene. The four independent reactions then become Using this set of equations as the basis, we now formulate design equations for various reactor types. Detailed expositions of the theory are presented in a number of books, in particular Aris (1965, 1969) and Nauman (1987). Consider a reaction network consisting of N components and M reactions. A set of N ordinary differential equations, one for each component, would be necessary to mathematically describe this system. They may be concisely expressed in the form of Equation 5.5 (Chapter 5), or . . . d(cV)/dt = vrV (11.1) . . . The use of this equation in developing batch reactor equations for a typical complex reaction is illustrated in Example 11.1.


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