Uniqueness and stability of steady states of continuous chemical reactors

We examine the uniqueness and stability of the solutions to the problem of steady-state operation of a continuous chemical reactor in which longitudinal diffusion and heat conduction are taken into account. We investigate an adiabatic reactor in which the concentration and temperature distributions are similar (the thermal diffusivity and diffusion coeffecient are equal) and an isothermic reactor. These two cases are considered together because the mathematical formulations of the problem are equivalent.The question of the existence and number of steady states was analyzed in [1, 2], where references were made to earlier investigations. The results obtained in [1, 2] are now extended. The stability of the steady states is investigated by the small-perturbation method.