Periodic control of continuous stirred tank reactors—III: Case of multistage reactors

Abstract The optimal periodic control of a multistage CSTR in which a nonisothermal parallel reaction is taking place is investigated. By applying the infinite-frequency pi criterion it is examined in what condition the optimal periodic control is proper. Then, the optimal steady control and the suboptimal periodic control are determined by numerical calculation. The results indicate that the improvement in the reactor performance for the periodic control relative to that for the steady control is very much increased with increase in the number of stages.