Thermodynamics, Kinetics, and Mass Transfer: Thermodynamics

The essential basis for a rational design of chemical reactors is the availability of a suitable model-based description of the reaction kinetics. Depending on the phases involved, homogeneous and heterogeneous reactions [12, 20, 148] can be distinguished. In the latter type, the reactor performance is often strongly influenced by interphase mass transport limitations [104, 148]. Due to the complexity of parallel and series reactions that proceed simultaneously in complex reaction networks, the kinetics are often described by simple empirical rate expressions like power laws. However, there are clear limitations of such nonmechanistic rate equations. Consequently, extrapolations beyond the experimental range covered during parametrization are highly uncertain, and global process optimization is not possible.