Chemical Reaction Engineering
Kinetics, reactor design and reactor safety — the interactive lecture series
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The lectures
Each lecture opens in the browser and works on a phone as well as a projector. Navigate with the arrow keys or by swiping.
Introduction
What chemical reaction engineering is for, the five model reactors, and the one balance equation that generates all of their design equations.
Open lecture → LECTURE 02Balance Equations
The chemical system, stoichiometric coefficients, the extent of reaction Ξ, and the general mole balance — in, out, generation, accumulation.
Open lecture → LECTURE 03Tank Reactors
The hardware behind the perfectly-mixed assumption: impellers, baffles, the Newton–Reynolds power characteristic and P/V scale-up.
Open lecture → LECTURE 04Tube Reactors
Plug flow and the differential mole balance, multitubular industrial forms, and why a PFR always beats a CSTR for a positive-order rate.
Open lecture → LECTURE 05Conversion
Conversion X, the four design equations rewritten in X, and the Levenspiel plot — the rectangle and the area under the curve.
Open lecture → LECTURE 06Reactors in Series
Cascades, the staircase construction, N tanks approaching a PFR, and why the order of a mixed train matters.
Open lecture → LECTURE 07Rate Laws
Order, elementary reactions, the units of k, half-lives, non-elementary and Langmuir–Hinshelwood forms, and reversible rate laws.
Open lecture → LECTURE 08The Arrhenius Equation
k = A exp(−EA/RT): the energy barrier, the Arrhenius plot, the 10 K rule of thumb, and why extrapolation is dangerous.
Open lecture → LECTURE 09Isothermal Reactors
Stoichiometric tables, the feed ratio Θ, the expansion factor ε, and every concentration written in terms of one variable.
Open lecture → LECTURE 10Isothermal Reactors — Examples
The design algorithm end to end: SO2 oxidation, an LHHW packed bed, N2O4 dissociation and a laboratory-to-plant scale-up.
Open lecture → LECTURE 11Batch Reaction Times
How long the vessel must be held, and the cycle time that decides how many batches a year the plant actually makes.
Open lecture → LECTURE 12Damköhler Numbers
One dimensionless group that compares a laboratory reactor with a plant reactor: Da = τk, and conversion as a function of it.
Open lecture → LECTURE 13Pressure Drop
The Ergun equation, the coupled p–X system, and why a gas-phase packed bed punishes you twice.
Open lecture → LECTURE 14Active Intermediates
Radicals, the pseudo-steady-state hypothesis, Lindemann fall-off, and chain reactions from initiation to termination.
Open lecture → LECTURE 15Enzymatic Reactions
Michaelis–Menten from PSSH, KM and vmax, the three inhibition types, and the chemostat with its washout limit.
Open lecture → LECTURE 16Residence Time Distribution
What a real reactor actually does: tracer experiments, E(t) and F(t), tanks in series, dispersion, and conversion from an RTD.
Open lecture → LECTURE 17Multiple Reactions
Selectivity and yield: the concentration lever, the temperature lever, series reactions and the optimum quench time.
Open lecture → LECTURE 18Catalysis
The seven steps at a catalyst pellet, Langmuir isotherms, LHHW rate laws, and deactivation by sintering, coking and poisoning.
Open lecture → LECTURE 19Nonisothermal Design
The energy balance joins the mole balance: adiabatic temperature rise, the X–T diagram and multi-bed converters with interstage cooling.
Open lecture → LECTURE 20Unsteady-State Nonisothermal Design
Start-up transients, multiple steady states, and the ignition–extinction hysteresis that a heat balance predicts and a controller cannot fix.
Open lecture → LECTURE 21Reactor Safety
Runaway and the Semenov diagram, ΔTad and time to maximum rate, the layers of protection, and the accidents that taught the discipline.
Open lecture →Course information
At a glance
- Prerequisite: none. You will need a spreadsheet and a solver for ODEs and nonlinear equations.
- The design project is the voluntary component that can lift your final grade.
Course literature
- Fogler: Elements of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 6th ed. (2020) or 5th ed. (2016) — the required text
- Fogler: Essentials of Chemical Reaction Engineering, 3rd ed. (2017)
- Levenspiel: Chemical Reaction Engineering, 3rd ed., Wiley (1999)
- Green & Southard: Perry’s Chemical Engineers’ Handbook, 9th ed.
- Cutlip & Shacham: Problem Solving in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, 2nd ed.
How to study with these lectures
- Click every underlined term — the definition opens in place
- Tap every part of every machine diagram; those descriptions are exam material
- Move the sliders on every calculator until the trend stops surprising you
- Take each quiz until you score full marks, then re-derive the key equation on paper
The spine of the course
1 · The balance
- L01–L06 — the general mole balance, the five model reactors, conversion and cascades. One equation, five special cases.
2 · The kinetics
- L07–L12 — rate laws, Arrhenius, stoichiometry, batch times and the Damköhler number that ties the laboratory to the plant.
3 · The complications
- L13–L18 — pressure drop, reaction mechanisms, enzymes, real flow patterns, selectivity and catalysis.
4 · The energy balance
- L19–L21 — nonisothermal design, transients and multiple steady states, and reactor safety.
◆ About this edition
Interactive edition of the Chemical Reaction Engineering (RMPE410) lecture series, rebuilt for WS 2026/27 by Prof. Dr. Purev-Ochir Togtokhbaatar — restructured, checked equation by equation and extended with worked calculations and live plots.