Independent reactions in the presence of isomers

In reacting systems, the number of independent chemical reactions, the number of components, and the number of chemical chemical species are generally assumed to be so related that the sum of the first two equals the third. Standard methods of obtaining the number of independent reactions (that is, formation equations or rank of the element‐by‐species matrix) may fail when chemical isomers appear in reactant streams, product streams, or both. The errors encountered with various types of isomers are delineated in this paper along with corrective measures. The element‐by‐species matrix is judged to be more suitable as a starting point than formation equations when matrix size and number of manipulations are considered.