Kinetic mechanism reduction based on an integer programming approach

An approach toward kinetic mechanism reduction both in terms of reactions a nd species, is discussed. The driving force of the approach is to derive re duced kinetic models while maintaining the structural integrity of the deta iled mechanisms. The mechanism reduction problem is defined as an integer o ptimization problem with binary variables denoting the existence/nonexisten ce of reactions or species. A Branch & Bound framework is implemented for t he solution of the resulting mathematical programming problem. Several exam ples, utilizing a variety of kinetic networks, are presented and the result s are analyzed.