Toward New Reactor and Reaction Engineering

FIGURE 9.1 Scales in the modeling of chemical processes involving solid catalysts. 

Conventional industrial processes operate continuously and at steady state. Steady-state operation, however, is sometimes less economical, particularly in cases where considerable energy effects are encountered. For example, classical sulfur dioxide oxidation processes involve a large reactor-heat exchanger system to force conversion of the reactant to an acceptable level. By non-steady-state operation, the reactor volume can be considerably diminished. Unconventional operation modes are much more sensitive than conventional steady-state modeling. Very advanced dynamic modeling concepts are thus needed. 

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