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Chemical Engineering vocabulary · Reactions and Reactors

Plug flow reactor

Meaning in chemical engineering, with examples

nounCommon term

In chemical engineering, plug flow reactor means: An ideal tube reactor in which the fluid moves forward like a series of thin slices with no mixing along the length, so the composition changes from inlet to outlet.

In Turkish: piston akışlı reaktör, tıkaç akışlı reaktör, boru tipi reaktör

How it is used

Used as a design model for tubular reactors, packed catalyst beds and long pipes. Abbreviated PFR. Engineers compare PFR and CSTR volumes and say a reactor 'behaves close to plug flow'.

Example sentences

  1. For the same conversion, a plug flow reactor usually needs less volume than a CSTR.

  2. We modeled the cracking furnace coil as a plug flow reactor.

Common collocations

  • ideal plug flow reactor
  • PFR model
  • plug flow behavior
  • tubular reactor
  • CSTRShort for continuous stirred-tank reactor: a tank with a mixer where feed flows in and product flows out all the time, and the contents are assumed to be perfectly mixed.
  • reactorA vessel or piece of equipment where a chemical reaction is carried out under controlled temperature, pressure and mixing.
  • residence timeThe average time that material spends inside a vessel or reactor, found for a simple case by dividing the volume by the volumetric flow rate.
  • conversionThe fraction of a reactant that has reacted, usually given as a percentage of the amount fed to the reactor.

More terms: Reactions and Reactors

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