Video Lecture
The whole series is available as a single video with chapter markers. Each chapter page starts this video at that chapter.
Chemical Engineering Reaction Engineering
Rate Laws, Ideal Reactors, Selectivity, and the Heat That Tests Them
The reactor is the one unit that creates value — everything else on the flowsheet moves, heats, or separates what the reactor made. This course is the reaction-engineering deep-dive of our chemical engineering curriculum: it turns the overview of the Introduction series into a working toolkit, from rate laws to the energy balance that decides whether a reactor behaves.
Series Overview
- Rate — rate laws, reaction order, and the Arrhenius equation
- Size — batch, CSTR, and PFR: design equations and which volume wins
- Select — multiple reactions: making the right product, not just more
- Verify — residence-time distribution: what the tracer tells you
- Hold — heat effects, stability, and scale-up
Arrhenius"] --> B["Ideal
Reactors"] B --> C["Selectivity &
Multiple Reactions"] C --> D["RTD &
Non-Ideal Flow"] D --> E["Heat, Stability
& Scale-Up"]
Chapters
| Chapter | Title | What You Will Learn |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rate Laws and the Arrhenius Equation | Rate laws and order, integrated forms and half-lives, activation energy, the temperature rule of thumb |
| 2 | Batch, CSTR, and PFR - The Ideal Reactors | Design equations, conversion and space time, the CSTR-vs-PFR volume ladder, CSTRs in series |
| 3 | Multiple Reactions and Selectivity | Selectivity vs yield, concentration and temperature policies, series reactions and the optimum stopping time |
| 4 | Residence-Time Distribution and Non-Ideal Flow | Tracer experiments, E(t) signatures, diagnosing bypassing and dead zones, tanks-in-series |
| 5 | Heat Effects, Stability, and Scale-Up | Adiabatic temperature rise, CSTR multiplicity and the stability criterion, runaway defenses, scale-up |
Who This Series is For
- Students moving from the Introduction series' overview to the quantitative core of reactor design
- Engineers and researchers who size reactors, chase selectivity, or troubleshoot temperature excursions
- Data scientists working with reactor temperature and flow data who want the physics behind runaway warnings
Recommended preparation: Chemical Engineering Introduction; the Thermodynamics series supplies the equilibrium limits, and the Fluid Mechanics, Heat Transfer, and Mass Transfer series the transport picture around the reactor. Mathematics stays at algebra, with a few integrals and derivatives quoted rather than derived.
Related Series
Completes the classical-fundamentals track with Chemical Engineering Introduction, Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics, Chemical Engineering Fluid Mechanics, Chemical Engineering Heat Transfer, and Chemical Engineering Mass Transfer and Separation. Data-driven companions: Process Informatics Introduction and Introduction to Process Monitoring and Control.