MAXIMIZING THE PRODUCT DISTRIBUTION IN BATCH REACTORS - REACTIONS IN PARALLEL

The problem of achieving optimal product distribution from batch reactors when operated with the choice of a single initial charge (simple batch), several discrete charges (discrete semibatch) or a continuous feed rate (continuous semibatch) is solved for a general set of parallel reactions where only a single reactant concentration influences the reaction rate expressions. Because the ideal plug flow reactor with side entry streams is analogous to the semibatch reactor, the solution methods presented here are also directly applicable to the design of such plug flow reactors.