A NEW STOCHASTIC-MODEL AND MEASUREMENT ERRORS IN RESIDENCE TIME DISTRIBUTIONS OF MULTIPHASE REACTORS

Residence time distributions are required for modeling, design and optimization of chemical and biochemical multiphase reactors. Most models either cannot discriminate between true backmixing and a spread in fluid velocity or they require a large number of empirical parameters. A new stochastic model can make this discrimination with only three parameters. Extensive calculations demonstrated that most tracer experiments performed with ''open'' boundary conditions yield residence time distributions which are even more erroneous than previously thought.