INTRODUCTION

In preponderance of manufacturing chemical processes, the reactor is the key

component in which raw supplies go through preferred alteration to form desired results.
The design and procedure of chemical reactors is indispensable to the whole
accomplishment of an industrial process. Reactors can take various shapes depending
on the nature of the feed materials and the products. Understanding the behavior of
reactors is essential to appropriately manage a reaction system (Williams, 2002).
A frequent kind of reactor is the mixing, or stirred reactor .The fundamental factor
of this machine will comprise a mixer or agitator attached to a tank. One of the stirred
reactors is Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTR). The flow stirred tank reactor in
sequence is a familiar reactor type in environmental methods. The standard quality is
that the reactor is understood to be instantly and flawlessly mixed. Greater part of
engineering chemical system, a CSTR reactor is the equipment in which raw materials
undertake a chemical alteration to achieve the aimed product. The types of procedure
this equipment is the continuous stirred tank reactor which is this reactor is
approximately for all time operated at steady state. The CSTR reactor used are the
majority utilized in industrial dispensation, mainly in homogeneous liquid-phase flow
reactions, where steady shakeup is necessary. This can be used in manners of series,
or in a battery. It is referred to as the continuously stirred tank reactor (CSTR). It is
normally functioned at without disturbance and is understood to be perfectly mixed. The
feature of this equipment is operated at steady state with continuous flow of reactants
and products, the feed assumes a uniform composition throughout the reactor, and exit
stream has the same composition as in the tank (Choi, et.al, 2003).
 Figure 1. Cross-sectional diagram of Continuous stirred-tank reactor

The CSTR can operate as on its own reactor and also in sequence. The CSTR
reactor is linked in multi-staged so that the outlet stream of one reactor is the feed
stream for one more reactor. There are three reactor vessels associated in series via
piping, every containing a propeller agitator driven by a variable speed electric motor
and the unit based on the uncomplicated typical case of well mixed, series process
system. The mixture in each reactor is well stimulated or stirred and the concentration
can be measured. These three reactors are to evaluate the calculated responses of the
container concentrations to premeditated change at the inlet with a theoretical
calculation (Rajavathsavai, 2012).

Figure 2 Single Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors (CSTRs)

 The piping design has been arrange to comprise a not functioning time coil in the
method. Feed liquid to the primary vessel is accumulated from of the two sump tanks by
a pump, by via a flow meter and control valve. The known material concentration in
each sump tank is prepared to be dissimilar. At a chosen moment, an abrupt change
from one feed to the other is made: whichever for continuous period is known as the
step function, or for a short interval is known as impulse function, and the concentration
or conductivity changer with time in each vessel is measured (Foust et.al,1980).

Figure 3 Continuously Stirrer Tank Reactor (CSTR) in series.

The compensations of using CSTR are easily maintained, good temperature

control, cheap to construct, reactor has large heat capacity and interior of reactor is
easily accessed. Meanwhile, the down sides of using CSTR are lowest conversion per
unit quantity and as well by-passing and channeling probable with poor shaking
(Rajavathsavai, 2012).

Saponification is a process which esters in fat are hydrolyzed by sodium (NaOH) or

potassium hydroxide (KOH) to produce a carboxylate anion which can act as
surfactant,i.e. soap. The equation below shows the saponification process between
sodium hydroxide and ethyl acetate, which is irreversible reaction, to produce sodium
acetate and by-product ethanol (Farn, 2006).

C2H5O2CCH3 + NaOH CH3CO2Na + H3CCH2OH

Ethyl Acetate Sodium Hydroxide Sodium Acetate Ethanol
 The reaction to be studied is the saponification reaction of ethyl acetate Et(Ac)
and sodium hydroxide (NaOH). Since this is a second order reaction, the rate of
reaction depends on both concentrations of Et (Ac) and NaOH. However, for analysis
purposes, the reaction will be carried out using equimolar feeds of Et (Ac) and NaOH
solutions with the same initial concentrations. This ensures that both concentrations are
similar throughout the reaction (KuheliI et. Al, 2011).

NaOH + Et (Ac) Na(Ac) + EtOH

It is required to calibrate the conductivity measurements of conversion values for

the reaction between 0.1 M ethyl acetate and 0.1 M sodium hydroxide from this
experiment, (Farn, 2006).

It is advisable to carry out manual conversion determination on experiment

samples to verify the conductivity measurement values. It is based on the principle of
quenching the sample with excess acid to stop any further reactions, then back titrating
with a base to determine the amount of unreacted acid (Rajavathsavai, 2012).

NaOH + HCl NaCl + H2O

The back titration calculations as follow;

Conc. of NaOH entering the reactor, (CNaOH,o)

CNaOH, f
2
Volume of unreacted quenching HCl, (V2)
CNaOH, s
V1
CHCl, s
Vol. of HCl reacted with NaOH in sample, (V3)
VHCl, s V2
Moles of HCl reacted with NaOH in sample, (n1)
 CNaOH, s V31000
Moles of unreacted NaOH in sample, (n2)
2 = 1
Conc. of unreacted NaOH in the reactor, (CNaOH)
2

1000
Conversion of NaOH in the reactor, X
CNaOH
(1 ) 100
CNaOH, o
A. Reaction rate constant

K = (CAO- CA)
CA2
REFERENCES

Choi, B., Wan B., Philyaw, S., Dhanasekharan, K & Ring T. (2003). Residence Time
Distributions in a Stirred Tank Comparison of CFD predictions with Experiment.
University of Utah, USA
Farn, R. (2006). Chemistry and Technology of Surfactants. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. UK

Foust, A., Wenzel, L., Clump, C., Maus, L., and Anderson, B., (1980). Principles of Unit
Operations 2ed. John Wiley & Sons. Canada.

KuheliI D, Sahoo P., Sai Baba M., Murali, N., & Swaninathan P., (2011). Kinetic Studies
on Saponification of Ethyl Acetate Using an Innovative Conductivity-Monitoring
Instrument with a Pulsating Sensor. Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research,
India.

Rajavathsavai, D. (2012). Study of Hydrodynamic and Mixing Behaviour of Continuous

Stirred Tank Reactor Using CFD Tools. Rourkela, Odisha

Williams, J., (2002). Keys to Bioreactor Selection. Cep Magazine. USA