Modelling an industrial ethylene oxide reactor

An industrial catalytic tubular reactor used to make ethylene oxide is described by a system of nonlinear partial differential equations. The dimensionless model is integrated by the method of lines. Excellent agreement between the plant and the model predicted data has been obtained. Simulations show that increases in the temperature of the reactor are accompanied by higher rates of reaction, which is desirable, and increased production of CO(2), which is undesirable. This difficult to control industrial reactor case study can be used to test control theories. Copyright (C) 1998 IFAC