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

• The infinite dimensional state-space (IDEAS) approach is shown to be applicable to the synthesis of reactor networks featuring RTD models.
• The minimum total network volume problem is solved.
• A number of novel properties are established for the resulting infinite linear program.
• A case study is carried out featuring segregated laminar flow reactors in which the Trambouze reaction scheme takes place.

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.