Continuous stirred tank reactor autothermal operation

Autothermal operation is not confined to continuous stirred tank reactors (see Sect. 5.4). 

One of the advantages of the continuous stirred-tank reactor is the fact that it is ideally suited to autothermal operation. Feed-back of the reaction heat from products to reactants is indeed a feature inherent in the operation of a continuous stirred-tank reactor consisting of a single tank only, because fresh reactants are mixed directly into the products. An important, but less obvious, point about autothermal operation is the existence of two possible stable operating conditions. 

Fig. 1.20. Autothermal operation of a continuous stirred-tank reactor...

Obviously, in designing and operating a stirred-tank reactor it is necessary to be aware of these different operating conditions. Further discussion of the dynamic response and control of an autothermal continuous stirred-tank reactor is given by Westerterp et al.m. 

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