DEFINITIVE EXPERIMENTAL AND THEORETICAL STUDY OF LAMINAR-FLOW TUBULAR REACTORS.

A theoretical and experimental study of a homogeneous, irreversible reaction in a laminar-flow tubular reactor is reported. The reactor tube walls were at constant temperature. Numerical solutions of the equations of motion, energy, and species continuity for Newtonian nonisothermal tube-entrance flow, taking into account the effect of the temperature dependency of viscosity, diffusion, and reaction rates and the effect of free convection in a vertical-tube reactor, are reported. The experimental conversions for the hydrolysis of ethyl acetate are within ten percent of those predicted by theoretical computations.