Recipient of the 2019 Most Promising New Textbook Award from the Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA).

"The authors of Attainable Region Theory: An Introduction to an Choosing Optimal Reactor make what is a complex subject and decades of research accessible to the target audience in a compelling narrative with numerous examples of real-world applications." TAA Award Judges, February 2019

Learn how to effectively interpret, select and optimize reactors for complex reactive systems, using Attainable Region theory

* Teaches how to effectively interpret, select and optimize reactors for complex reactive systems, using Attainable Region (AR) theory

* Written by co-founders and experienced practitioners of the theory

* Covers both the fundamentals of AR theory for readers new to the field, as we all as advanced AR topics for more advanced practitioners for understanding and improving realistic reactor systems

* Includes over 200 illustrations and 70 worked examples explaining how AR theory can be applied to complex reactor networks, making it ideal for instructors and self-study

* Interactive software tools and examples written for the book help to demonstrate the concepts and encourage exploration of the ideas

David Ming holds a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. His research interests involve using AR theory to optimize chemical reactors, including batch reactors, and AR numerical methods.

David Glasser is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and co-director of the Material and Process Synthesis (MaPS) research unit at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He was Head of Department of Chemical Engineering, and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering at University of the Witwatersrand, and is one of the co-founders of AR theory. He holds a B.Sc. in chemical engineering from University of Cape Town, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Imperial College.

Diane Hildebrandt is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and co-Director of the MaPS research unit at UNISA. She was the first woman in South Africa to be appointed a full professor of Chemical Engineering when she was the Unilever Professor of Reaction Engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand, and is also a co-developer of AR theory. She holds a B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from University of the Witwatersrand. Her research area is the reduction of CO2 emissions through the design of energy efficient processes.

Benjamin Glasser is a Professor of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering at Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. He holds a B.Sc. and M.Sc. in chemical engineering from University of the Witwatersrand, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Princeton University. His research interests include heat and mass transfer, multiphase reactors and particle technology applied to chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Matthew Metzger is a Senior Scientist at Merck & Co., Inc. He has co-authored over 14 publications, holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Lafayette University, and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Rutgers University.

Learn how to effectively interpret, select and optimize reactors for complex reactive systems, using Attainable Region theory

With so many different reactor types available, and infinitely ways to combine these types together, how should we go about decoding and designing these systems, and how do we know that there are not other designs that could do better?

Attainable Region (AR) theory provides a means of understanding chemical reactor networks from a geometric perspective of reactors. This approach allows us to find all possible outcomes for all possible designs even the designs we cannot imagine giving us confidence that what we design is always optimal for a given duty.

Attainable Region Theory: An Introduction to Choosing an Optimal Reactor discusses how to effectively interpret, select and optimize reactors for complex reactive systems, using AR theory. Covering both fundamentals and advanced concepts, this book demonstrates how this approach can lead to powerful insights and discoveries that improve the performance of complex reactor designs.

Written by respected figures on AR research, including co-developers of the founding theory, this textbook features:

• Over 70 worked examples and 200 illustrations, including interactive software tools written in Python, which demonstrate AR theory
• Fundamentals of AR theory to readers without any prior knowledge of chemical reactors or optimization
• Advanced AR topics including construction algorithms, higher dimensional and variable density systems

This book serves as a companion textbook for self-study or a reference for instructors, and may also be used as a module of a larger course on reactor network design and optimization.

• Teaches how to effectively interpret, select and optimize reactors for complex reactive systems, using Attainable Region (AR) theory
• Written by co-founders and experienced practitioners of the theory
• Covers both the fundamentals of AR theory for readers new to the field, as we all as advanced AR topics for more advanced practitioners for understanding and improving realistic reactor systems
• Includes over 200 illustrations and 70 worked examples explaining how AR theory can be applied to complex reactor networks, making it ideal for instructors and self-study
• Interactive software tools and examples written for the book help to demonstrate the concepts and encourage exploration of the ideas

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Prior Knowledge xiv

How this book is Structured xv

Software and Companion Website xvii

Nomenclature xix

SECTION I BASIC THEORY 1

1 Introduction 3

1.1 Introduction 3

1.2 Motivation 3

1.3 Reactor Network Synthesis 8

1.4 Solving the Reactor Network Synthesis Problem 12

1.5 Chapter Review 16

References 17

2 Concentration and Mixing 19

2.1 Introduction 19

2.2 Concentration Vectors and Dimension 23

2.3 Mixing 28

2.4 Chapter Review 47

References 47

3 The Attainable Region 49

3.1 Introduction 49

3.2 A Mixing and Reaction Game 49

3.3 The AR 57

3.4 Elementary Properties of the AR 58

3.5 Chapter Review 61

References 61

4 Reaction 63

4.1 Introduction 63

4.2 Reaction Rates and Stoichiometry 63

4.3 Reaction from a Geometric Viewpoint 66

4.4 Three Fundamental Continuous Reactor Types 73

4.5 Summary 102

4.6 Mixing Temperatures 102

4.7 Additional Properties of the AR 105

4.8 Chapter Review 106

References 107

5 Two-Dimensional Constructions 109

5.1 Introduction 109

5.2 A Framework for Tackling AR Problems 109

5.3 Two-Dimensional Van De Vusse Kinetics 110

5.4 Multiple CSTR Steady States and ISOLAS 125

5.…