Acknowledgements

This thesis is the result of an employment at both the Institute for System Dynamics and Control (University Stuttgart), where I initially started the studies towards the PhD degree in 1997, and the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Techni-cal Systems (Magdeburg), where these studies were continued from 1998 onwards. I am gratefully thankful to my scientific supervisor Prof. Dr. Achim Kienle for his kindness and readiness to help me during the whole period of preparation of this work, for his suggestions, useful discussions and always very constructive criticism. Moreover I want to thank him for being not only a supervisor but also a friend who was almost impossible to beat in tennis. For his interest in this work I am thankful to Prof. Subramaniam Pushpavanam, who not only helped me with fruitful discussions on non-linear model analysis but who also made me finalize this work by suggesting an one-month scientific stay in Magdeburg in 2006. Next, I want to thank the cooperation partners, Dr. Frank-Olaf Mähling and Dr. Christian-Ulrich Schmidt (Basell Polyolefine GmbH, Wesseling, Germany) and Dr. Jens Bausa, Dr. Marco Boll and Martin Schwibach (BASF AG, Ludwigshafen, Ger-many) for providing me with all the data that was required to include the detailed reaction scheme into the dynamic model and for each quick but not too restrictive review of any kind of publication. Furthermore, my thank goes to the foundation director of the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems, Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h.c. mult. Ernst Dieter Gilles for giving me the opportunity to work on this interesting topic at the Institute of System Dynamics and Control initially and at the Max Planck Institute thereafter. Additionally, I want to thank all former colleagues in Stuttgart and Magdeburg for the inspiring and cordial atmosphere. We had a very good relationship amongst each ii