There are 7 built-in reactor models, RSTOIC, RYIELD, REQUIL, RGIBBS, RPLUG, RCSTR and RBATCH, in Aspen Plus™. RPLUG, RCSTR and RBATCH are rigorous models for plug flow, CSTR and batch reactors, respectively.
RSTOICH should be used in cases where the stoichiometry is known but the reaction kinetics is either unknown or negligible. If both, the reaction kinetics and stoichiometry is unknown RYIELD should be incorporated into the simulations. For single phase chemical equilibrium or simultaneous phase and chemical equilibrium calculations the reactor model of choice should be either REQUIL or RGIBBS. REQUIL bases its calculations on simultaneous solution of stoichiometric chemical and phase equilibrium calculations whereas RGIBBS solves its model by minimizing Gibbs free energy.
All reactor models except RPLUG and RBATCH can have any number of material feed streams. These streams are mixed internally. The rigorous models can incorporate built-in power law or Langmuir-Hinschelwood-Hougen-Watson kinetics or custom kinetics specified by user. Custom kinetics can be defined either in Fortran subroutines or in excel worksheets.
Table 1 Summary of reactor models in Aspen Plus™
|
Model |
Stoichiometry |
Kinetics |
Rigorous |
Feed |
|
RSTOIC |
Yes |
No |
No |
Any |
|
RYIELD |
No |
No |
No |
Any |
|
REQUIL |
No |
No |
No |
Any |
|
RGIBBS |
No |
No |
No |
Any |
|
RBATCH |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
1 |
|
RCSTR |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
Any |
|
RPLUG |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
1 |