Increasing the yield from a chemical reactor with spontaneously oscillatory chemical reactions by a nonlinear feedback mechanism

Oscillations in chemical reactions are often deemed inexpedient because of their propensity to cause operational complexities. Nevertheless, it has be en demonstrated in our previous work that such oscillations need not always be avoided: In fact, it has been shown that the yield of the desired produ ct from an autocatalytic reaction in a continuous stirred-tank reactor can be quadrupled with a linear feedback mechanism. It is highly likely that we can take advantage of such a feedback mechanism for practical application. Thus, an attempt has been made in the current work to enhance the efficacy of this feedback mechanism by imparting nonlinearity to it. This has given rise to roughly as much as a sevenfold increase in the yield of the desire d product instead of a fourfold increase without nonlinearity. (C) 2001 Els evier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.