Reaction
Use the Reaction node () to implement a chemical reaction involving a number of chemical species. The participating species may represent any kind of molecular entities like atoms, molecules, ions, or radicals.
To add a Reaction node either right-click the Reaction Engineering node or on the Reaction Engineering toolbar click Reaction.
Reaction Formula
Formula
Enter a chemical reaction Formula. Click Apply to let the interface parse the reaction. This process identifies the participating species as well its stoichiometric coefficients and any charges of ionic species. A Species feature is automatically added for all participating species.
Balance ()
Use the Balance button to automatically calculate the stoichiometric coefficients such that the number of atoms of each kind are the same on both sides of the reaction. This turns, for example, the formula “H2+O2=>H2O” into “2H2+O2=>2H2O”. The balancing involves parsing all participating species for elements in the periodic table. It therefore requires that all species in the formula are written using their chemical formula, say “H2O” rather than “water”.
For automatic reaction balancing to be successful, requires that the problem is well posed. One example of a problem that is not well posed is for example “C+H2=>CH4+C2H6”, in which case any ratio of CH4/C2H6 could be obtained. Another example is “H2=>O2” where not all elements are present on both sides.
Reaction Type
Select the Reaction typeReversible, Irreversible, or Equilibrium — or edit the expression directly in the Formula field. In the latter case, specify the reaction type with a delimiter separating the two sides of the equation:
<=> denotes a Reversible reaction
=> denotes an Irreversible reaction
= denotes a reaction at chemical Equilibrium
Each Reaction type has its own set of reaction kinetics:
When the reaction is Reversible or Irreversible, the rate of reaction rj, for reaction j, contributes to the change in species i in the manner of:
(2-83)
where νij is the stoichiometric coefficient.
In the case of an Equilibrium reaction, the equilibrium expression is equal to the equilibrium constant:
(2-84)
Reaction Rate
This section is available when the Reaction type is either Reversible or Irreversible.
When Mass action law is selected (default), the rate expression is automatically derived from the stoichiometric coefficients in the reaction formula:
For an Irreversible reaction type, the reaction rate becomes:
(2-85)
For a Reversible reaction type, the expression instead becomes:
(2-86)
The deduced overall reaction order is shown in text below the respective equation in the Reaction Rate section.
Arbitrary rate expression
If the reaction order differs from the stoichiometric coefficients, or if an arbitrary rate expressions is applicable, change Reaction Rate to User defined. An expression field r appears with the default expression being that from the mass action law. Below this there are fields to set the reaction order. For a reversible reaction the reverse reaction order may be specified in addition to the forward one. The unit of the rate constant k (or frequency factor A in the case of Arrhenius behavior), is derived from the reaction order, in SI units: (m3/mol)α − 1/s, where α equals the order with respect to volumetric species. When surface species are present — identified by their “(ads)” suffix — the unit is instead given by m3α+2β − 2/molα+β−1/s, where β is the order with respect to surface species.
Consider for example the reaction:
The automatically deduced reaction order is three, however, in the case that water is the solvent, the order should probably be two. This is specified as follows:
Figure 2-5: The reaction order can be manually specified for a user defined reaction rate.
Rate CONSTANTS
This section applies for Reversible or Irreversible reactions and defines the reaction rate constants used in the reaction rates.
Forward Rate Constant and Reverse Rate Constant
The Forward rate constant kf is used for both Reversible and Irreversible reactions. The Reverse rate constant kr is only used for Reversible reactions (Equation 2-86).
The SI units of the rate constants are automatically based on the order of the reaction with respect to the concentrations, as defined in the Reaction formula.
Specify Equilibrium Constant
The Specify equilibrium constant check box is available for Reversible reactions. If the check box is selected the rate constants are defined in a different manner with the reverse rate constant being computed from the following expression:
(2-87)
Thus, in this case, the forward rate constant and equilibrium constant for the reaction are needed. The Equilibrium constant is edited in the Equilibrium Settings section.
Use Arrhenius Expressions
When the Use Arrhenius expressions check box is selected the Arrhenius parameters are automatically used in predefined expressions for the forward and reverse rate constants kfand kr, respectively.
(2-88)
(2-89)
Specify the activation energy and the frequency factor in the Arrhenius expressions to account for temperature variations. The reference temperature, Tref equals 1 K. The available fields are based on the Reaction type chosen in the Reaction node. Enter values or expressions for each of the following (reverse expressions are only available for reversible reactions):
Forward frequency factor Af and Reverse frequency factor Ar (unit depends on reaction order)
Forward temperature exponent nfand Reverse temperature exponent nr
Forward activation energy Efand Reverse activation energy Er (SI unit: J/mol)
Equilibrium Settings
This section is available for equilibrium reactions, and for reversible reactions when the Specify equilibrium constant check box has been selected.
Equilibrium Expression
For an equilibrium reaction, specify the Equilibrium expression. When the Equilibrium expression is set to Automatic the following expression is used:
(2-90)
Select User defined from the Equilibrium expression list to instead enter a manually defined equilibrium expression.
Equilibrium Constant
Specify the Equilibrium constant Keq0 for an equilibrium reaction, or for a reversible reaction when the Specify equilibrium constant check box has been selected (in the Rate Constants section).
The Equilibrium constant can either be User defined, or automatically defined when set to Automatic or Thermodynamics.
Use the Automatic option to compute the equilibrium constant for an ideal system. This setting requires that the temperature is also solved for by setting Energy Balance to Included.
The Thermodynamics option is available when all reactions in the interface are equilibrium reactions, and the interface is fully coupled to a Thermodynamic System (see Species Matching). Use this setting to automatically compute the equilibrium constant for an ideal or nonideal system, dependent on the thermodynamic model applied for the coupled system.
Using Automatic or Thermodynamics, Keq0 is calculated from the Gibbs free energy of the reaction. For more details see The Equilibrium Constant and the Automatically Defined Equilibrium Constants section therein.
Reaction Thermodynamic Properties
This section contains information about thermodynamic properties that relate to a selected reaction and is available when the Energy Balance is set to Include. Several Automatic definitions are available here.
Enthalpy of Reaction
The Enthalpy of reaction H (SI unit: J/mol) is calculated by the interface from species properties and the related stoichiometric coefficients:
(2-91)
Entropy of Reaction
The Entropy of reaction S (SI unit: J/(mol·K)) comes from a similar expression:
(2-92)
In Equation 2-91 and Equation 2-92, hi and si are the species’ molar enthalpy and molar entropy, respectively.
Enter these quantities in the Species Thermodynamic Expressions section for the Species node either by using the predefined polynomial or by providing a custom expression or constants.
The stoichiometric coefficients νij, are defined as being negative for reactants and positive for products. Using Equation 2-91 and Equation 2-92 to equate the Gibbs free energy of reaction enables the equilibrium constant to be expressed according to Handling of Equilibrium Reactions.
Heat Source of Reaction
The Heat source of reaction (SI unit: W/m3) is automatically computed from the heat of each reaction j, given by: