Temperature distributions in a laminar-flow tubular photoreactor

✍ Scribed by Falin Chen; Arne J. Pearlstein

• Publisher: American Institute of Chemical Engineers
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 298 KB
• Volume: 34
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0001-1541
• DOI: 10.1002/aic.690340818

✦ Synopsis

The determination of temperature distributions, maximum temperatures, and hot spot locations is of considerable importance in the design, optimization, and operation of photochemical reactors. Frequently, unwanted thermal reactions compete with the desired photochemical reaction(s), resulting in reduced yield and selectivity and increased by-product formation (Calvert and Pitts, 1966, p. 582). The rates of the thermal reactions typically display an Arrhenius temperature dependence, so that good temperature control is essential if side reactions having significant activation energies are to be minimized.

Laminar-flow tubular photoreactors have been the most popular choice for laboratory investigations of kinetics and scale-up and have also been proposed for large-scale use in the production of fuels and other useful products in solar photochemical sys-