The elimination of fast variables from the master equation of a complex chemical system is studied. Numerical treatments of full chemical schemes are compared with the results given by the master equation of r e d u d chemical schemes, and to a simple approximation of the full master equation based on a quasistationary assumption.It is found that although both methods give correct values of the deterministic concentrations, they do not permit the precise estimation of the variances. It is also shown that the systematic projection technique developed by other authors, when available, yields accurate values for the variance; in case this procedure cannot be used practically, useful bounds can nevertheless be obtained from the simple methods studied here.
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