Reactions consecutive, optimal policies

Optimal policies for first-order consecutive reversible reactions (with R. S. H. Mah). Chem. Eng. ScL 19, 541-553 (1964). 

Other recent work in the field of optimization of catalytic reactors experiencing catalyst decay includes the work of Romero e/ n/. (1981 a) who carried out an analysis of the temperature-time sequence for deactivating isothermal catalyst bed. Sandana (1982) investigated the optimum temperature policy for a deactivating catalytic packed bed reactor which is operated isothermally. Promanik and Kunzru (1984) obtained the optimal policy for a consecutive reaction in a CSTR with concentration dependent catalyst deactivation. Ferraris ei al. (1984) suggested an approximate method to obtain the optimal control policy for tubular catalytic reactors with catalyst decay. 

In this chapter we pass from the discrete to the continuous deterministic process, and the difference equations derived for the stages now become differential equations. It is scarcely surprising to find many features of the discrete process are retained by the continuous process in particular we know from the work of Denbigh (1944), and will prove here afresh, that the optimal temperature policy is disjoint in the case of a single reaction. However, this simplicity is lost when more than one reaction is taking place and we shall do well to examine the simple consecutive system A B C with some care, as it opens up the principal features of the general case. 

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