Physico-Chemical Sources of Nonlinearity

Isolated Systems Isolated systems exchange neither energy nor matter with the environment. The simplest example from chemical or biological engineering is the adiabatic batch reactor. Isolated systems naturally tend towards their thermodynamic equilibrium with time. This state is characterized by maximal entropy, or the highest possible degree of disorder. 

Efficient solution techniques (whether analytical or numerical) for solving chemical and biological engineering models will be presented throughout this book. 

The main reason that chemical/biological engineers need extensive use of numerical methods is twofold  

Most chemical and biological engineering problems involve highly nonlinear processes, specially in reacting systems. 

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