ABSTRACT
Levenspiel introduces the subject as follows: "Thus far, the people have restricted the people to two idealized flow patterns, plug flow and mixed flow. In this chapter the people hope to deal with it in a rational manner consistent with present-day knowledge". The basis for description is comparison of the real reactor to either or both of the ideal flow patterns: plug flow reactors (PFR) and continuous stirred tank reactors. The conversion in the steady-flow PFR for a first-order, irreversible reaction is given by: where Retention time is the volume of liquid in the reactor divided by the volumetric flow rate. The principal experimental tool is the tracer study, in which an impulse of an inert substance is introduced into the reactor inflow and subsequently measured in the outflow. The average travel time to a specific point in the wetland is given by the mean of the tracer response curve; not by the peak in the response.
