Effectiveness factors in gas-liquid reactions

Abstract

The concept of the effectiveness, factor, commonly used as a means of accounting for diffusional effects in gas-solid catalytic and noncatalytic reactions, is extended to gas-liquid reactions. The relevant differential equations for an isothermal system with appropriate boundary conditions are solved for the case of (1) a simple first-order irreversible reaction, (2) a consecutive reaction, and (3) a parallel reaction. The results are presented in terms of effectiveness factor plots, and methods of delineating the controlling regimes are discussed. It is shown that gas-liquid reactions represent perhaps the most general case which reduces to gas-solid reactions under appropriate limiting conditions.