Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor (CSTR)

Chemical Engineering

How It Works

A Continuous Stirred-Tank Reactor (CSTR) operates under the fundamental assumption of ideal mixing, meaning the composition and temperature within the entire tank are perfectly uniform and identical to the effluent stream. Reactants continuously enter through the inlet nozzle, undergo chemical transformation mediated by an impeller-driven fluid vortex, and exit at steady state. Mass balances equate reactant accumulation to the net flow rate plus the volumetric reaction rate, enabling continuous high-volume chemical synthesis.

Governing Equation
V · (dC_A / dt) = F · (C_{A0} - C_A) - V · k · C_A