an example problem on the production of ethyl acetate. Open your Aspen simulation and begin

a new flow sheet using metric units. To start, enter your process components, ethanol, acetic

acid, ethyl acetate, and water. Choose NRTL HOC as your method. Watch the related method

video to learn more about choosing a property method. When all information is entered, run

the property analysis and then go to the simulation environment. To run all four reactors in one

simulation, create a duplicator block, which duplicates an inlet stream and can send it

to multiple locations. Create a RStoic, RGibbs, RPlug, and RCSTR reactor, renaming each as

such. Add a feed stream into your duplicator, and connect the duplicator outlets to each

reactor, naming the streams F-Reactor Type. Create product streams from each reactor,

naming them P-Reactor Type. When you're done, your flow sheet should look like this. Click

the green next arrow to specify the feed conditions. The stream enters at 70 degrees Celsius and

1 atmosphere. Input the following parameters in kilomoles per hour. 8.892 water, 186.59

ethanol, and 192.6 acetic acid. Click the green next arrow to go to the duplicator block.

There is no information to enter here, so click the green arrow again. For the sake

of comparison, all reactors will be specified at 1 atmosphere and 70 degrees Celsius. Make

sure all reactors have vapor-liquid selected as the valid phases. For the CSTR, specify

a volume of 0.14 cubic meters. You can see that the RCSTR model requires a reaction to

be entered before you can proceed in the simulation. At this point, scroll down on the menu tree

and click on the reactions folder. Click new, leave the label as R1, and select a POWERLAW

reaction type. Click new again, and enter the forward reaction: ethanol and acetic acid

goes to ethyl acetate and water. Assume the reaction is first order with respect to each

of the reactants, and zeroth order with respect to each of the products. Enter -1 and 1 for

the coefficients, and 1 and 0 for the exponents of your reactants and products, respectively.

Now we'll enter the reverse reaction: ethyl acetate plus water goes to ethanol and acetic

acid. Enter -1 and 1 for the coefficients, and 1 and 0 for the exponents of your reactants

and products, respectively. Press the green arrow to input the reaction's kinetic information.

For both reactions, the reacting phase will be liquid, and the concentration basis will

be molarity. For the forward reaction, specify a k value as 1.9 * 10^8, and an E value as

5.95*10^7 J/kmol. Make sure the units are correct before proceeding. Repeat the procedure

for the reverse reaction by selecting it from the dropdown menu. The k value for the reverse

reaction is 5.0*10^7, and the E value is 5.95*10^7 J/kmol. Press the green arrow to go back to

the CSTR reaction tab. You can now move the R1 reaction to your selected reaction set.

Pressing the green arrow brings you to RGibbs. Remember the reactor is operating at 1 atmosphere

and 70 degrees Celsius. Press the green next arrow to move on to RPlug. Choose reactor

with specified temperature as the operating type, and choose the operating condition "Constant

at specified reactor temperature." Enter 70 degrees Celsius. Pressing the green arrow

brings you to the configuration tab. Input a length of 2 meters and a diameter of 0.3

meters. Insure the process stream valid phases are vapor-liquid. Go the reactions tab and

select R1 and your reaction set. Pressing the green arrow again brings you to RStoic.

Input your reactor temperature and pressure. On the reactions tab, click new and input

the forward reaction with the appropriate coefficients. Enter 0.7 as the fractional

conversion of ethanol. Press the green arrow and run the simulation. Open the stream summary

to view the results. You can compare the production rate of ethyl acetate of the four reactors.

You can see that RGibbs actually produces the most ethyl acetate, while RCSTR produces

the least. Additionally, if you click on the CSTR Results block on the menu tree, you can

see the heat duty required for this equipment. Watch the following video in the YouTube playlist

to see an application of the reactors chapter on a chlorobenzene production plant.