Model reduction of fixed bed catalytic reactors

Abstract

With the increasing demand for optimal control and operation of plant, in particular chemical reactors, the need for detailed models which can be solved by computer in a reasonable time is apparent. Clearly, since the model is used repeatedly in each iteration of the computation, this will nor.mal~ mean that it must be relatively simple. Unfortunately, this results in loss of detail necessar,y to take full advantage of the optimisation. A technique for model reduction, suitable for the two dimensional heterogeneous catalytic reactor has been developed, which results in substantial reduotion in dimensionality of the system, but which retains the essential detail. A general reaction scheme with first order kinetics has been considered. Furthermore, it is possible to relate the well defined physical parameters, e.g. transport coefficients and rate constants, etc. to the parameters in the reduced model. Significant savings in computation time are made which makes it feasible to use the reduced model in optimisation and control schemes.