Modelling and Simulation of Thermal Decomposition of Acetylated Castor Oil in a Non-Isothermal Reactor

Abstract

Modelling and simulation are increasingly becoming very important and popular tools in modern day process engineering. This work deals with the modelling and simulation of non-isothermal production of drying oil in a batch reactor which was approximated as a well mixed continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR). The CSTR model was developed from material and energy balances applied to the reactor. The model is a system of differential and algebraic equations (DAEs) which was simulated at the initial state in order to obtain time invariant values of all variables of interest. Steady state and dynamic analyses were carried out to study the characteristics of the process. Results of dynamic simulation of the CSTR model show that more of the products will be formed if sufficient acetylated castor oil is charged to the reactor and vice versa. The amount of acetylated castor oil initially charged to the reactor had no bearing on the time trajectories of the CSTR’s operating variables. Starting from the base case of adiabatic operation, increasing the supply of external heat input to the reactor leads to a higher conversion and lesser reaction time. The simulation of formulated models as carried out in this work is cheap, safe and less time demanding when compared with real time experiments and provides insight as to how the process under consideration responds to changes in the operating procedure.