ON LINE PROCEDURES FOR SUPERVISING THE OPERATION OF BATCH REACTORS

Two methods of monitoring the progress of a chemical reaction in a batch reactor are developed. The first uses temperature measurements and reaction kinetics to estimate the reaction time corresponding to a well-documented run done in the laboratory. The second procedure relies on calorimetry, using a model of the reactor, to calculae the heat which evolves in the system. By combining the estimations generated by the two methods, many disturbances that may occur in the reactor/reaction system can be identified, and systems of competing reactions can be investigated. The supervision of the performance of a consecutive reaction system is illustrated through simulation.