Design procedure for safe operations in agitated batch reactors

An application-oriented design procedure is presented for completely by neglecting the heat capacity of the vessel and attributing suitable values to three scale-independent control parameters: the initial concentration (c(0)); the inlet coolant temperature (T-c,T-i); and the Newtonian cooling time (t(N)). For given dimensionless values of the reaction order n, heat-transfer capacity beta (n), and inlet coolant temperature epsilon, the design value alpha* of the dimensionless adiabatic temperature rise must satisfy alpha (c) > alpha* < <alpha>(m,a). This can help avoid both runaways (alpha* < <alpha>(c)) and overstep of the maximum allowable temperature rise (alpha* < <alpha>(m,a)). A model is derived to calculate alpha (c) and alpha (m,a) for three different reaction orders. Simulated relationships are verified with experimental results concerning the hydration of 2,3-epoxypropanol in a 0.27-L agitated batch reactor.