Discussion

Plug Flow Reactor (PFR) is a type of reactor and sometimes called continuous tubular
reactor, (CTR) is a model that use to describe chemical reaction in continuous flow system.
Its usually consist of cylindrical pipe and operate at the steady state. [1] The feed in the plug
flow will enter at one end of cylinder and leave at the other end as a product. To prevent the
complete mixing of the liquid, the tube must be long and lack of provision. So, the fluid will
flowing from one point to another. The fluid in PFR is consider to be thin, unmixed layer of
volume segment or plugs hence the name.

There are the different between Plug flow reactor and Continuous stirred tank reactor(CSTR)
and they have its advantage and disadvantage. The different of the fundamentally equation
between CSTR and PFR will cause the kinetic reaction being undertaken will to some extent
determine which system should be used. Plug flow reactor have a high volumetric unit
conversion and can be run for long periods of time without maintenance. The heat transfer
rate of PFR also can be optimized by using more thinner tube . The disadvantage of plug flow
reactor are the temperature hard to control and the result in undesirable temperature gradient.
PFR maintenance is also more expensive than CSTR maintenance. Through a recycle loop a
PFR is able to approximate a CSTR in operation. This occurs due to a decrease in the
concentration change due to the smaller fraction of the flow determined by the feed; in the
limiting case of total recycling, infinite recycle ratio, the PFR perfectly mimics a CSTR.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plug_flow_reactor_model 2

The solution is as a series of layers of volume segment that unmixed with segmet before and
after as seen in figure above. NaOH and Et(Ac) are used in this experiment. In order to
complete the saponification, the solutions are react together in PFR and the main objective of
this experiment is to study the effect of residence time on the performance of PFR and to
achieve that the residence time have to be manipulated through the experiment and the effects
of each one is studied. The formula of the residence time as shown:

Residence time, =

reactor volume ( L ) , v
L
total flow rate
, vo
min

From the equation above, it can be seen that residence time is a function of total flow rates
of the feed. Hence, by varying the flow rate of the feed solutions, several residence times can
be obtained and the effects of each one.
After conduct the experiment, the raw data that consist of the inlet flow rate, the conductivity
value and the volume of NaOH used in the titration process are tabulated in table 2 of the
result section. The series of calculation were made as seen in Sample of calculation section

and the value of residence time, conversion of the reactions, reaction rate constant and rate of
reaction were determined. All these value are tabulated in table 1 in result section.
The data from the table 2 of residence time and the conversion are plotted into a graph and
the graph is shown in graph 1 in result section. By plotting graph between these two
parameter, the effect of the residence time can be known and the conversion show the how
much of reaction has take place. So, by comparing this property with the residence
time parameter, one can analyse the effects of increasing residence time to the reaction itself.
From graph 1 which is calibration curve of conductivity versus conversion, we can conclude
that the conductivity is consistent decline moderately starting at 0% conversion which is 10.7
conductivity until 100% conversion which is 4.0 of conductivity. For the second graph which
is conversion versus residence time, we can see that the residence time is increase at 0.6 min
until 1.33 min and start drop at 2.00 min which is 364.0 conversion. But there are certain
fluctuate peak which due to the error that may be affects the result and graph.

As the result for rates of constant is not correspond to the theory, thus there are some
errors occurred during this experiment such as while taking the reading of the burette the
position of the eyes is not at the same level of the meniscus. So, to improve the reading and
get the better results, the positions of the eyes must be parallel to the meniscus. Besides, we
have to rinse all the apparatus before we use it. This is to ensure that all the beakers, or
burette is clean so that any chemical that we put into these apparatus does not react with any
others chemicals.by doing all these precaution, we can get more accurate reading and thus
improve the results.