Chemical reactor

In chemical engineering, chemical reactors are vessels designed to contain chemical reactions. Also referred to as a reaction vessel, the reactants contained are substances that change form after a chemical reaction. One example is a pressure reactor. The design of a chemical reactor deals with multiple aspects of chemical engineering. Chemical engineers design reactors to maximize net present value for the given reaction. Designers ensure that the reaction proceeds with the highest efficiency towards the desired output product, producing the highest yield of product while requiring the least amount of money to purchase and operate. Normal operating expenses include energy input, energy removal, raw material costs, labor, etc. Energy changes can come in the form of heating or cooling, pumping to increase pressure, frictional pressure loss (such as pressure drop across a 90° elbow or an orifice plate) or agitation.

Chemical reaction engineering is the branch of chemical engineering which deals with chemical reactors and their design, especially by application of chemical kinetics to industrial systems.

There are a couple of main basic vessel types:

Both types can be used as continuous reactors or batch reactors, and either may accommodate one or more solids (reagents, catalyst, or inert materials), but the reagents and products are typically fluids. Most commonly, reactors are run at steady-state, but can also be operated in a transient state. When a reactor is first brought into operation (after maintenance or inoperation) it would be considered to be in a transient state, where key process variables change with time.

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