Reduction of kinetic mechanisms in reactive flow models for dynamic optimization

In this contribution kinetic mechanism reduction techniques are developed and applied to a 1-D plug-flow reactor (PFR) model. The proposed method yields different reduced mechanisms at each spatial position in the reactor. Local sensitivity analysis and flux analysis are combined with species lumping to obtain an automated reduction method. The criteria for the reduction method were modified to account for the spatial distribution of the reactor concentrations. The method generates reduced models with the same spatial structure as the original model that approximate reactor outflow concentrations. These models are used for dynamic optimization with an integral cost criterion applied to the reactor outflows.