What Factors Aid in Optimizing the Reaction?

To develop and configure our microchemical reactor we started with a simple model and gradually made it more complex. We were given an initial physical configuration of the reactor.

In addition, the well known reaction and side reactions involved in ammonia oxidation are:

We then evaluated our system step-by-step, adding a parameter at a time and investigating the yield of NO for each model before we progressed to the next, more complex configuration. Our sequence of progression was:

Model 1: Isobaric, isothermal, no transport effects.

Model 2: Isothermal, constant pressure drop, no transport effects.

Model 3: Adiabatic with heat generation, constant pressure drop, no transport effects.

Model 4: Heat Treansfer

Model 4a: Heat transfer in the fluid in one dimension.

Model 4b: Heat transfer in the solid in two dimensions.

Model 5: Heat generation, heat transfer, and momentum transport in two dimensions using the equations of change.

Obtaining solutions for each subsequent model required different, progressively more sophisticated, numerical techniques. How we developed solutions and the results we achieved are detailed in the upcoming pages.

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