Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 2nd Edition

7. Collection and Analysis of Rate Data

You can observe a lot just by watching.

—Yogi Berra, New York Yankees

Overview. In Chapters 5 and 6 we have shown that once the rate law is known, it can be substituted into the appropriate mole balance, and then through the use of the appropriate stoichiometric relationships, we can apply the CRE algorithm to analyze any isothermal reaction system. In this chapter we focus on ways of obtaining and analyzing reaction-rate data to obtain the rate law for a specific reaction.

We discuss two common types of reactors used for obtaining rate data: the batch reactor, which is used primarily for homogeneous reactions, and the differential reactor, which is used for solid-fluid heterogeneous reactions. In batch-reactor ...