The role of digital computers in the dynamic optimization of chemical reactions

Abstract

Along with the increasing availability of high-speed, large-storage digital computers, there has been growing interest in their utilization for real-time control purposes. A typical problem in this connection and one of long-standing interest is the optimal static and dynamic operation of chemical reactors. To our knowledge, no digital computer is being used for this purpose, chiefly because of the many difficulties encountered in utilizing real-time machine computation in reactor control. These difficulties range from the unavailability or inadequacy of hardware (i.e., transducers, measuring instruments, low-level analog-to-digital converters, etc.) to the lack of a well-established body of fundamental theoretical principles. Although a great deal is known about the basic concepts governing control systems, present methods cannot be readily applied to designing a program for a real-time digital control computer. This is because the existing design methods are applicable primarily to fairly small-scale systems, whereas the use of a digital computer (in fact the very attractiveness of computer control) arises primarily in connection with large-scale problems.