Optimum temperature profiles in tubular reactors: an exploration of some difficulties in the use of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle

Abstract

By considering the well known problem of determining optimum temperature profiles for the successive first order reactions ▪ carried out in a tubular reactor it is shown that the application of Pontryagin's Maximum Principle is not straightforward, even in a case as simple as this. In particular, it is stressed that the Maximum Principle provides necessary but not sufficient conditions for optimum operation, and that the distinction is of more than academic importance.