CALCULATION OF MULTIPLICITY OF STEADY STATES IN A CATALYST PELLET BY HOMOTOPIC CONTINUATION METHOD

P. GIUNTA, N. AMADEO, M. LABORDE, M. L. BERGAMINI

AICHE JOURNAL

JOHN WILEY & SONS INC

Año: 2011 vol. 57 p. 473 - 481

0001-1541

Many exothermic reactions, such that the oxidation of CO in a catalyst pellet may present multiplicity of steady states. Experimental results suggest this behavior in a copper ceria catalyst, and this in turn would indicate that the kinetics should be nonmonotonic with respect to reactants’ compositions. The model for the reaction is described by a two-point boundary value problem that is hard to solve with direct methods, even when seeking a single solution. The aim of this work is to implement a homotopic method in order to find all the steady states of this kind of problems. The search for solutions is driven by a pseudo-arc length continuation. Homotopic curves that passes through all possible solutions are obtained. Also, a study of the dependence of the initial point upon the curve is performed.