Stability analysis and passivity properties for a class of chemical reactors: Internal entropy production approach

•Thermodynamics and stability and passivity properties of a class of chemical reactors.•Internal entropy production as a Lyapunov function for a isolated reactor.•Internal entropy production as a storage function for a continuous reactor.

In this contribution, the stability and passivity properties of a class of chemical reactors are addressed from a thermodynamical point of view. For this purpose, a thermodynamical consistent model is derived from a generic gas reactor model whose rate is based on the reaction progress at the mesoscopic scale. It is shown that the internal entropy production may be used as a candidate Lyapunov function to prove the isolated system stability properties and as a storage function to emphasize the passivity properties when the chemical reactor interacts with the surroundings.