Optimal Design for Continuous Stirred Tank Reactors in Series

Using Michaelk-Men ten Kinetics

INTRODUCTION
Much attention has been given in the past to reactor systems consisting of a series of well stir-
red tanks, because of the relative simplicity and the great importance of these systems.
In standard textbooks on chemical reaction engineering. like Aris' and Levenspiel.' general
concepts of reactor design are treated and mostly illustrated with rzth-order reaction kinetics.
Bischoff3 worked out the optimal design for fermentation using the Monod equation (in ref. 3
called the Michaelis-Menten rate equation). with a linear relation between the microorganism
and substrate concentration. He derived analytical expressions for the intermediate microorga-
nism concentration in three cases: 1) two backmix reactors (CSTRs); 2) N backmix reactors; and
3) a backmix followed by a plug flow reactor.
Here an analytical expression will be derived for the optimal design of CSTRs in series. assum-
ing a constant activity of biocatalyst in the reactors. As a definition of the optimum we use the
smallest total reactor size (holding time) to perform a specific conversion. realizing that other
criteria could be used.

OPTIMIZATION

Consider N CSTRs in series with an inlet substrate concentration of Sofor the first reactor. If
we define the mean residence time (assuming constant density) as the ratio of the reactor volume
(V) and the volumetric flow rate (d,,),then a mass balance over the first reactor in the steady
state gives

with S, being the substrate concentration in the first reactor (equal to the inlet substrate concen-
tration of the second reactor) and r ( S , ) the reaction rate (rate of formation) at S , . For the ith
reactor this becomes

Introducing Michaelis-Menten kinetics for the rate equation,

and writing eq. (2) in dimensionless form by introducing the following variables:

leads to:

Biotechnology and Bioengineering, Vol. XXIV. Pp. 1217-1220 (1982)

0 1982 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. CCC 0006-3592/82/051217-041601.40
1218 BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING VOL. XXIV (1982)

Equation (5) is a general relation that gives the dimensionless holding time required in the ith
reactor to obtain a dimensionless concentration a; starting from a,-l, assuming Michaelis-
Menten kinetics. From, 7; immediately follows the volume of the ith reactor for a given maxi-
mum reaction rate (v,,,), volumetric flow rate, and initial substrate concentration.
Finding the optimal design according to our definition amounts to finding the minimum of
the total holding time, which is a function of all ais. Mathematically formulated this involves
finding the intermediate a;values subject to the following equation:

Only two terms of this summation contain a;,leading to

Differentiating and rearranging, we obtain

CZ;=C+,(Y;+,. i = 1 . 2 , .... N-i (8)

This unexpected simple result relates the conversion ( 1 - a;)in the ith reactor to the conversions
in the (i- 1)th and the (i+ 1)th reactor for a series of CSTRs, in which a reaction takes place
following Michaelis-Menten kinetics.
Important to note is the fact that K dropped out of the relation. This means that the in-
termediate substrate concentrations for a series of perfectly mixed tank reactors are independent
of the Michaelis-Menten constant (K,,,).

NUMERICAL EXAMPLE

Equation ( 8 ) consists of a set of N- 1 relations which can be solved straightforwardly for a

given total conversion ( 1 - a N )as follows: Writing the set of equations from eq. (8).

ff: = ffOQ2 (91

and substituting from the bottom up gives
f f , = ffo(;)!/(;+l)! ;/(;+I) ,
ai+, i = 1.2, .... N-1
I (10)
Since we related the conversion (1 - a)to the inlet concentration of the first tank. a,, is equal to
unity and eq. (10) simplifies to

a;= a
?
::
. i = 1.2, . . ., N-1 (11)
Some results of eq. (11) and subsequent use of eq. (5)are presented in Table I. The table gives
the dimensionless concentrations and holding times in the mixed reactors for an initial concen-
tration of ten times the Michaelis-Menten constant and a conversion of 99%. The data show
that the difference in holding time between two subsequent reactors is largest for low values of
N,especially between the first two reactors, and becomes smaller as N increases.
Table I1 gives the total holding times for two values of K . both for a series of CSTRs with
minimal total volume, and for a series of equal-sized mixed reactors. Total holding times for
equal-sized mixed reactors have been calculated using a zero finding routine. The last value in
 COMMUNICATIONS TO T H E EDITOR 1219

TABLE 1
Dimensionless Concentrations and Holding Times in the Mixed Reactors for aN = 0.01
and K = 0.1

cti (independent of K) ri (independent of K)

N 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

1 0.010 10.890
2 0.100 0.010 1.800 0.990
3 0.215 0.0464 0.010 1.149 0.533 0.401
4 0.316 0.100 0.0316 0.010 0.900 0.432 0.285 0.238
5 0.398 0.158 0.0631 0.0251 0.010 0.753 0.391 0.247 0.189 0.166

Table I1 is the dimensionless holding time for a plug flow reactor with Michaelis-Menten
kinetics, calculated by means of eq. (12).

= (a0- a,) - ~ l n
rplugflou (12)
This equation results when the differential mass balance is integrated over the length of a plug
flow reactor.
An important observation from Table 11 is the considerable difference going from one to two
or more CSTRs. For the conditions studied, there is only a minor difference (less than 10%) be-
tween the total holding time for optimal or equal-sized mixed reactors. Even in extreme cases.
i.e., for very low values of K and a. this difference remains relatively small (37% for a =
K = LOW3, and N = 3).

Furthermore. it can easily be shown that in the limiting cases of first-order kinetics [(eq. (8)
also holds for this case)] and zeroth-order kinetics the equal and optimal sizes are exactly the
same. As shown, the optimal holding times can be calculated very simply by means of eq. ( 1 1 ),
and the sum of these can thus be used as an approximation for the total holding time of equal-
sized CSTRs. This makes eq. (11) an even more valuable tool for design calculations.

TABLE 11
Dimensionless Total Holding Times for Optimal and
Equal-Sized Mixed Reactors. for aN = 0.01 and
Two Values of K

1 10.890 10.890 99.990 99.990

2 2.790 2.917 18.990 19.006
3 2.082 2.234 11.915 11.947
4 1.855 1.983 9.639 9.677
5 1.746 1.854 8.549 8.588
6 1.683 1.776 7.917 7.954
7 1.641 1.723 7.505 7.540
8 1.613 1.684 7.216 7.249
9 1.591 1.656 7.003 7.033
10 1.575 1.633 6.839 6.867
rp 1.451 1.451 5.595 5.595
1220 BIOTECHNOLOGY AND BIOENGINEERING VOL. XXIV (1982)

Nomenclature
Michaelis-Menten constant (kmol/m3)
total number of CSTRs in series
reaction rate (kmol/m3/s)
substrate concentration (kmol/m3)
reactor volume (m)
maximum reaction rate (kmol/m3/s)
dimensionless concentration (S/So)
holding time (mean residence time) (s)
volumetric flow rate (m3/s)
dimensionless Michaelis-Menten constant (K,,,/So)
7 dimensionless holding time (Ov,,,/So)

Subscripts
equal-sized
refers to ith reactor
refers to,ith reactor
refers to Nth reactor
optimal-sized
plug flow
total
initial (inlet first reactor)
first
second

References
1. R. Aris, The Optimal Desigii of Chentical Reactors (Academic. New York. 1961).
2. 0. Levenspiel. Chemical Reaction Eizgbieeritig (Wiley. New York. 1962).
3. K.B. Bischoff. Can. J. Chenz. Eng.. 44. 281 (1966).

K. CH. A.M. LUYBEN

J . TRAMPER

Department of Process Engineering

Agricultural University Wageningen
De Dreyen 12, 6703 BC Wageningen
The Netherlands

Accepted for Publication October 20. 1981