Projeto e otimização de reatores tubulares via análise da produção de entropia.

Abstract

This work focuses on thermodynamic optimization with the objective of evaluating and improving the performance of piston flow reactors (PFRs) for endothermic / exothermic reactions and considers the nature of the constraints to which the processes are subjected. The concept of entropy has been used to deal adequately with these constraints and, due to the impossibility of removing all irreversibilities present, the production of entropy must be minimized in order to bring the system closer to the reversibility. The approach puts the classical mass and energy balances along with the entropic balance to obtain the minimum entropy production rate. Results show the entropy behavior production rates and their minimum values, as well as the conversion and temperature associated with these processes. In addition, for several wall temperatures, the entropy behavior does not show significant differences between the entropy production rate profiles and their minimum values. The conclusion that can be reached is that such reactive systems already operate under the production of minimal entropy, which means that they operate with the highest expected performance. Moreover, highlighting the area under the curve that represents the concentration and the entropy production in the same plot, the intersection of those areas can also reveal the best operating condition as well as the optimal size of the process reactor.