P. Nadeau et al., MEASUREMENT OF RESIDENCE TIME DISTRIBUTION BY LASER-ABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY, Chemical Engineering Science, 51(11), 1996, pp. 2607-2612
The residence time distribution (RTD) was obtained in a tubular reacto
r with mean residence times of the order of milliseconds by using an i
nfrared laser absorption technique. The reactor was operated at room c
onditions with a nitrogen or helium gas flow, the tracer used was meth
ane. The fast response of the measuring device allowed a qualitative a
nalysis of the micromixing in the flow. An axial dispersion model was
used to describe the RTD of the reactor. It was found that the values
for the dispersion coefficient were strongly influenced by the radial
velocity profile in the reactor.