Abstract - Feinberg - 9523511 This work is a continuation of the development of chemical reaction network theory, which aims to provide engineers and chemists with easily applied tools for the analysis of complex reactors. Unlike the previous work which emphasized reactor stability, the new work's main thrust is design of reactor systems. The PI's past work emphasized the drawing of precise connections between reaction network structure and reactor stability. When the underlying chemistry is known, the theory helps indicate a reactor's capacity for unstable behavior of various kinds. When the chemistry is poorly understood, the theory helps distinguish between those candidate mechanisms that could account for observed reactor behavior and those that could not. This work will address questions of optimal reactor design in the presence of complex chemistry. Of Particular interest is the development of theory that would network, the feed and the design objectives are specified. That is, one would like to know which qualitative configuration, taken from virtually limitless palette of reactor configurations available to the designer, is best suited to the designer's objectives. The Chemical Reaction Network Toolbox, a program for IBM-compatible computers, was written by the PI so that early results of reaction network theory might be disseminated to a wide audience. It is anticipated that work completed under this new grant will be incorporated into a more comprehensive version of the program.
