IDEAS based synthesis of minimum volume reactor networks featuring residence time density/distribution models

This work addresses for the first time, the synthesis of globally minimum volume reactor networks, featuring segregated flow reactors (SFR) and/or maximum mixedness reactors (MMR), with the same normalized residence time density (NRTd) function. Global optimality is ascertained by demonstrating that the input-output information maps of SFR and MMR with general RTd/RTD models satisfy all properties required for the application of the infinite dimensional state-space (IDEAS) approach to the RTd/RTD reactor network synthesis problem. The resulting IDEAS formulation is shown to possess a number of novel properties, which can be used to facilitate its solution. The power of the proposed methodology is demonstrated on three case studies featuring segregated laminar flow reactors (SLFR) in which the Trambouze reaction scheme is carried out. In one of the case studies, the identified reactor network is shown to have volume that is as low as half the volume of a single reactor. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.