COMSOL Inc. recently released the chemical reaction engineering module to provide a single environment where engineers and scientists can obtain highly accurate studies of material transport and chemical reactions of a wide assortment of chemistries under different operating conditions. Users can simulate reaction systems ranging from micro-reactors in biotechnology to unit operations in chemical processes, and gain essential knowledge early in the development phase. Other features of the module include:
- Automatic generation of reaction kinetics, mass and energy balances from chemical reaction formulas.
- Allows combinations of perfectly mixed reactor models to detailed time- and space-dependent descriptions in one model.
- Extensive interfaces for simulating mass transport by diffusion, convection and migration in dilute and concentrated solutions as well as in free and porous media.
- Functionality for investigating different chemistries and operating conditions by adding and removing reactions, chemical species and mass transport effects in different studies in a single model.
- Predefined chemical reactor types such as batch and semi-batch reactors,
- CSTR, and plug flow reactors for continuous volume and variable volume
- simulations
- User-defined functions and expressions that extend usability for
- defining arbitrary reaction kinetics and for describing physical
- properties as a function of composition and temperature
- CAPE-OPEN interface for rapid thermodynamics and physical property
- calculations through connecting to third-party chemical engineering
- simulation software
- CHEMKIN file import for combustion, atmospheric chemistry, and
- other gas-phase reacting systems