Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Hydraulic Age Distribution in Perfectly Mixed Non‐Steady‐State Reactors

1994; American Society of Civil Engineers; Volume: 120; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1061/(asce)0733-9372(1994)120

1943-7870

Marcelo Juanicó, Eran Friedler,

Water-Energy-Food Nexus Studies

The Leslie matrix model is applied to the analysis of the hydraulic age distribution of perfectly mixed, non‐steady‐state flow reactors. The relationship between the hydraulic age distribution and performance of these reactors is discussed, and concepts and algorithms developed in the paper are applied to a case study. Steady‐state flow and batch reactors are particular cases of the non‐steady‐state flow reactor. The percentage of fresh effluents (PFE) within the reactor is a better descriptor of the reactor performance than the mean residence time. When a reactor is strictly under steady‐state flow conditions, the ratio PFE/mean residence time is constant, and only then can the PFE be substituted by the mean residence time. High rate reactions (such as fecal coliforms removal in sewage treatment systems) correlate better with PFE of a few days (1–5 days in the discussed example), and low rate reactions [such as biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) removal] correlate better with the PFE of more days (30 days in the example). Computer algorithms for the calculation of the PFE and mean residence time are provided.