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Calculation of multiplicity of steady states in a catalyst pellet by homotopic continuation method
Author(s) -
Giunta Pablo,
Amadeo Norma,
Laborde Miguel,
Bergamini María
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.12267
Subject(s) - exothermic reaction , continuation , multiplicity (mathematics) , catalysis , work (physics) , pellet , thermodynamics , chemistry , kinetics , mathematics , materials science , mathematical analysis , physics , computer science , classical mechanics , organic chemistry , composite material , programming language
Many exothermic reactions, such as the oxidation of CO in a catalyst pellet may present multiplicity of steady states. Experimental results suggest this behavior in a copper ceria catalyst, and this in turn would indicate that the kinetics should be nonmonotonic with respect to reactants' compositions. The model for the reaction is described by a two‐point boundary value problem that is hard to solve with direct methods, even when seeking a single solution. The aim of this work is to implement a homotopic method to find all the steady states of this kind of problems. The search for solutions is driven by a pseudo arclength continuation. Homotopic curves that passes through all possible solutions are obtained. Also, a study of the dependence of the initial point upon the curve is performed. © 2010 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J,2011