ABSTRACT
Ideal continuous-flow reactors are constructed as chemical processing and water treatment units. With known reaction kinetics, these reactors convert influent water quality to desirable effluent quality by adjusting hydraulic conditions. The most common continuous-flow ideal reactors are CSTR and PFR. Water environment models developed on the basis of ideal reactor concepts have been widely used because they are simple analytical tools for preliminary modeling analysis. The results of the simple ideal reactor model for a water environment system provides guidance for further development and calibration of more comprehensive models. While reactor hydraulics can be represented by the mean hydraulic residence time of the reactor model, reaction kinetics can be represented by a zero-order reaction, a first-order reaction, a second-order reaction, or a saturation-type reaction. This chapter discusses the formulation and solution of reactor models with varying hydraulic and reaction kinetics, and their applications to simulating real water environment systems.
