4.

0 STUDENT 4: BACKGROUND STUDY OF CONTINUOS STIRRED TANK REACTOR

Continuous Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR) is one of the perfect reactors widely used in the
chemical production industry. CSTR is one of the type of reactor used to mix two or more chemical
types operating at a steady state movement. Mixing is very important where the tank flow or
stirred continuously inside the reactor and this reactor was sometimes referred to as a' back-mix'
reactor. The reactor is operated in continuous flow motion using a stirred vessel and can manage
any turbulent conditions at a small feed. As the response occurred throughout the reactor but over
time, the mixing took place so quickly, there were no changes over time or position. It can also be
concluded that the reaction rate within the reactor was fully uniform, and the extent of the
conversion within or through the reactor including the discharge port was the same (Theodore
2012).

The reactor was also fitted with stirred (or known as agitator) to ensure that the chemical
(reactant) is used to mix the reactor more effectively. CSTR was also considered an idealized reactor
tank agitator. The agitation also plays a key part in mixing the reactant because reactor
effectiveness depends on the stirred speed and the rotation of the stirrer to ensure the product is
fully misled. The continuous stirred tank reactor is known as an open system in which reactants are
openly feed and supplied or even recycled inside the reactor either the liquid, gas-liquid or solid-
liquid phase (Albright, 2009). By continuous operation, the chemicals inside the rector were mixed
and there is no change in the response circumstances inside the reactor with time. The CSTR was
well-known as a well-mixed reactor and can be set up in a series to achieve maximum
transformation for the required purity. The response within the reactor was considered to be the
same as at the reactor outlet.
The input reactant was deemed to be well mixed inside the tank reactor where spatial changes in co
mposition or the physical properties were not found in and out of the reactor.

The CSTR design included various vessels in the CSTR series, which were stirred and seal in
the plant. Usually, the distinct structure or viscosity that was introduced into the reactor caused this
reactor to drop a certain low pressure and residence time also changed without affecting the
flow or conditions of the stirred reactor. It was found that the CSTR was more efficient at any speed
when the reactant was mixed as it can handle any type of mixture.

Figure 1 The continuous stirred tank reactor.

The continuous stirred tank reactor was same as the batch reactor and the only differences is
continuous stirred tank reactor was having reactant that feed in and the feed out. The CSTR was
having a constant in and out flow of material where the concentration of all the component are
constant as long as the equilibrium was achieved. The advantage of using CSTR in any chemical
industry or chemical manufacturing was the reactor was operating continuously, the labor cost for
operation and the maintenance was also low. This reactor also was easily to control and the reactor
design or the construction was simple (Jakobsen, 2008). The temperature to operates this reactor
also was easily to control and it is easy to clean the reactor. The disadvantages of using this reactor
was the reactor will lead to poor agitation if the reactor was conducted or operated in by-pass or
connected in channeling (Lancaster, 2010). The CSTR can be used in series where the conditions
inside the reactor will be different as the greater the number of CSTR connected in series (Albright,
2009).
APPLICATION OF CONTINOUS STIRRED TANK REACTOR

In any chemical or manufacturing industry this reactor can be applied. The CSTR can be
classified into 4 in the industrial market which is the production of biofuel, the chemical
manufacture, food industry and the pharmaceutical industry.

This reactor is also used as a loop control in the pharmaceutical industry. The CSTR design is
one of the reasons in which the production rate controls the fluid dynamics in the reaction stream
(feed input), which almost instantly and completely mixes the reactant. This design of the CSTR
makes the mixing process easier as it can help the reactant to incorporate into an integrated system
(Matthew J.Mollan Jr, 2019). The CSTR was used in the pharmaceutical industry to produce the
medicine where all the feed had to be fully blended to achieve the medicine's required
composition. This continuous reactor requires to be used by the pharmaceutical industry as the
chemical composition needs to be fully mixed as the end-product composition will be the same as
the bulk composition. The CSTR reactor works very efficiently as it helps to achieve the medicine's
purity, particularly nay reaction involving the intrinsically fast kinetic reaction. Also, the CSTR
reactor was able to prevent any scale up or reactant accumulation that might affect the medicine's
purity. The mixing of the reactant was very crucial in the pharmaceutical industry because the
reaction required strict control over the optimum temperature, pH or any process requirements
depending on the medicine produced (Matthew J.Mollan Jr, 2019). The process control of the
reaction can be done by using the continuous stirred tank reactor, the margins and quality of the
medicine improved to higher quality, can increase productivity and yield.

CSTR is one of the most used reactor in industry especially for fermentation process. The
method of fermentation involving the CSTR has been commonly used in the food industry. The
fermentation process used this type of reactor to ensure that the reactant was fully blended and
that the complete conversion of the reactant (end-product) was accomplished as the desired
conversion. It was indicated that CSTR was widely used to convert the reactant into a valuable
product in chemical industries by using fermentation processes. The CSTR reactor in the
fermentation process is generally used in the liquid phase or in the slurry type mixture (suspension
reaction) which is normally used in the gas phase reaction. CSTR helps in the fermentation of
organic waste which can be transformed into renewable biohydrogens, which is categorized into
three different phases. These three phases are liquid, for the diluted water, solid as in the type of
reactant used and as phase (the reactant reaction after undergoes several process) (K Cahyari,
2013). One of the benefits of CSTR in fermentation process is, it is easier to maintain and to operate
on a large scale production. In any plant process, the reactor was also highly flexible and modular in
design that makes it more resistant to any leakages and low corrosion risk.

Another type of industry using the CSTR was the wastewater treatment industry that uses
the bioreactor to increase the speed of the water treating process to clean water. In wastewater
treatment, the CSTR is commonly used in anaerobic and aerobic reactor. The benefits of using CSTR
in wastewater treatment is it can assist in combining the oxygen demand more uniformly,
where the oxygen concentration could be controlled by this reactor, allowing aeration process
(aerators or diffuser) distributed throughout the entire reactor evenly. The toxic discharge or
sudden overload will assist in maximum resistance as the influent has been distributed evenly
within the reactor that could lead to immediate dilution of the concentration of toxic material
(Adrianus van Haandel, 2007). This reactor was very flexible in anaerobic digestion for the water
treatment plant. Also the maintenance method was very simple to manage and for the water
treatment plant it is very solid and reliable type of reactor. This reactor has been able to redesign
into an automatic reactor where system feeding and discharging help minimize labor demand
requiring experimental monitoring. The chances of obtaining the reactor blockage were decreased
by using this type of reactor in the water treatment plant. Any reactant type designed to feed into
the reactor either gas, liquid and solid, the reactor can still function into a completely mixing
reactor and the desired conversion can still be achieved.
 REFERENCESS

 Albright, L. (2009). Albright's Chemical Engineering Handbook. United States: CRC Press.

 Jakobsen, H. A. (2008). Chemical Reactor Modelling: Multiphase Reactive Flows. Berlin:

 K Cahyari, S. S. (2013). Performance of continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) on

 Lancaster, M. (2010). Green Chemistry: An Introductory Text. Cambridge: The Royal Society
of Chemistry.

 Matthew J.Mollan Jr, M. L. (2019). Continuous Processing in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing.

 Theodore, L. (2012). Chemical Reactor Analysis and Application for the Practicing
Engineer. Canada: John Wiley & Sons, Inc