Desktop Lab - Reactor Lab

For 29 years, from 1993 to 2022, the desktop version of Reactor Lab provided interactive simulations of systems important in Chemical Reaction Engineering. Reactor Lab has been a pioneer in developing and deploying interactive simulations for active learning.

We are no longer supporting the desktop version, and our current work is at the Web Labs menu tab. Our site on github has source code of the desktop version (opens in new browser tab).

See the material below for descriptions of the desktop version. Reports at the bottom of this page explain the reasoning behind the design of the Lab and contain screenshots of the Lab in action.

Please email us at support@reactorlab.net.

Above is a video of Reactor Lab’s Web Lab 2 – “Dynamic diffusion and reaction in a porous solid catalyst.” Click on the image to play the video. Click on the “full screen” icon in the lower-right of the player to expand the video. This lab shows a self-inhibiting reaction which can be considered a prototype of carbon monoxide oxidation over precious metals and other self-inhibiting reactions. Multiple steady states and enhanced conversion during periodic operation can be obtained. Our research paper on this topic (link).

Above is a video of Reactor Lab’s dynamic Catalyst Pellet desktop application. Click on the image to play the video. Click on the “full screen” icon in the lower-right of the player to expand the video. This lab shows a model of dynamic reaction and diffusion during CO oxidation in a porous catalyst pellet. Get the Catalyst Pellet at the Download page. Our research paper on this topic (link).

Animation of adsorbed CO diffusing over a Pt surface and reacting with an adsorbed O atom to form CO₂. Diameter of C, O and Pt atoms are to scale. Animation made by Ivan Gagné.

Parallel reaction system in a batch reactor in Reactor Lab. The contents of the reactor are plotted continuously on the right side of the window (1 min of simulation time in 10 s real time). The user can change kinetic parameters, open and close valves, pause and resume the reaction and the simulation, and save data to disk files for analysis. — Parallel reaction system in a batch reactor. Click on image for larger version. The contents of the reactor are plotted continuously on the right side of the window (1 min of simulation time in 10 s real time). The user can change kinetic parameters, open and close valves, pause and resume the reaction and the simulation, and save data to disk files for analysis.

Adiabatic reaction calorimeter. Animation made by Ivan Gagné.

REPORTS

For links to PDF files, hit the browser “back” button to return here.

Web Courses – prototype of Internet connectivity in Reactor Lab (2003)
Design Choices in Deployment of Interactive Simulations via the Internet (2003)
ReactorLab.net Laboratory Simulations, ASEE proceedings (2004)
The ReactorLab in LiveCode Journal – a history, 1993-2006 (2006)

The reports below to the National Science Foundation explain the philosophy, design, and features of our projects at Reactor Lab. The PureWaterLab project mentioned in the reports is available as part of the SimzLab project at our GitHub site (opens in new browser tab)