ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses several examples for problems that the chemical engineer needs to solve using numerical methods. A chemical reaction takes place in a series of four continuous stirred tank reactors. The chemical reaction is a first-order irreversible reaction. The chapter discusses the ways to formulate the material balances and solve the resulting system using Gaussian elimination and the Jacobi method. Pressure-volume-temperature behavior of a pure substance is complex and many difficulties arise to describe such behavior by an equation. However, for the gas region, often simple expressions suffice. In liquid–liquid extraction contactors, mathematical models must be developed that simulate the dynamic behavior of the equipment. One can solve the tubular reactor partial differential equations (PDEs) with MATLAB’s PDE solver, which is called pdepe. It enables the user to solve parabolic-elliptic partial derivatives. MATLAB needs to receive the model, the boundary conditions, and the initial conditions in a predefined format.
