Levenspiel plot - Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia

A Levenspiel plot is a plot used in chemical reaction engineering to determine the required volume of a chemical reactor given experimental data on the chemical reaction taking place in it. It is named for chemical engineering professor Octave Levenspiel.

Derivation

For a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR), the following relationship applies:

V = ( 1 − r A ) F A 0 X

where:

V is the reactor volume

F A 0 is the molar flow rate per unit time of the entering reactant A

X is the conversion of reactant A

− r A is the rate of disappearance of reactant A per unit volume per unit time

For a plug flow reactor (PFR), the following relationship applies:

V = F A 0 ∫ ( 1 − r A ) d X

If F A 0 − r A is plotted as a function of X , the required volume to achieve a specific conversion can be determined given an entering molar flow rate.

The volume of a CSTR necessary to achieve a certain conversion at a given flow rate is equal to the area of the rectangle with height equal to F A 0 − r A and width equal to X .

The volume of a PFR necessary to achieve a certain conversion at a given flow rate is equal to the area under the curve of F A 0 − r A plotted against X .

References

Levenspiel plot Wikipedia

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