Optimal yield in certain continuous chemical reactions

Abstract

In this paper a consecutive chemical reaction of type A ▸ B ▸ C is considered where source A is turned to a product B in a catalytic reaction, and B is decomposed to C at the same time. Suppose that A can be supplied in a constant source concentration and B and C can be removed continuously. This continuous extraction process is modelled by means of partial differential equations and optimal yield of B is compared for different modelling assumptions. The complexity of the reaction models considered is increasing along the paper, starting from a simple flow model, to a percolation model and a transversal flow model describing the kinetics of a continuously operated flow reactor. It is shown that the efficiency of the reaction theoretically can be brought up arbitrary close to 1.

Keywords:

• consecutive chemical reaction
• hydrolyses
• optimal efficiency