Autothermal operation of a chemical reactor involves coupling exothermic and endothermic chemical reactions for the purpose of thermal management without resorting to external energy sinks or sources. Often this is accomplished through regenerative or recuperative heat exchange between spatially or temporally separated exothermic and endothermic reactions. However, it is also possible to directly couple these reactions simultaneously within the same reactor volume, eliminating the heat-transfer bottleneck that characterizes much of chemical manufacture. It is not widely recognized that directly coupled autothermal operation allows dramatic process intensification. This perspective defines autothermal operation and contrasts it with conventional heat transfer for thermal management of chemical processes. The intensification and cost savings that can be achieved are quantified, and the implications to modular chemical process intensification are presented. Guidelines are proposed for designing directly coupled autothermal processes. Diverse examples are presented. Several challenges to expanding the field are critically discussed.

化学反应器的自热运行涉及放热和吸热化学反应的耦合，以进行热管理，而无需借助外部能源或能源。通常，这是通过在空间或时间上分开的放热和吸热反应之间进行再生或回热交换来实现的。但是，也有可能在相同的反应器容积内直接同时直接耦合这些反应，从而消除了许多化学制造过程中的传热瓶颈。尚未广泛认识到，直接耦合的自动热操作可以显着增强工艺强度。该观点定义了自动热操作，并将其与用于化学过程热管理的常规传热进行了对比。量化了可以实现的集约化和节省成本，并提出了对模块化化学过程集约化的含义。提出了设计直接耦合自热过程的指南。给出了各种各样的例子。严格讨论了扩展该领域的几个挑战。