Temperature inferential control of a reactive distillation column with double reactive sections

Temperature inferential control (TIC) is studied for a reactive distillation column with double reactive sections (RDC-DRSs) processing a hypothetical two-stage consecutive reversible reaction (A + B■C + D, C + B■E + D with αD > αB > αC > αA > αE). Because of the complicated dynamic behaviors, the controlled stages by sensitivity analysis lead to great steady-state deviations (SSDs) in top and bottom product purities. Since TIC involves considerably reduced settling times in comparison with direct composition control, small SSDs in product qualities correspond generally to small transient deviations (TDs) in product qualities. An objective function that measures SSDs in product qualities is formulated to represent the performance of a TIC system and an iterative procedure is devised to search for the best control configuration. The application of the procedure to the RDC-DRS gives considerably suppressed TDs and SSDs in top and bottom product qualities as compared with the one by sensitivity analysis. The method is simpler in principle and less computationally intensive than the current practice. These striking outcomes show the effectiveness of the proposed principle for the development of TIC systems for complicated reactive distillation columns.

Shortcut Procedure for Inverted Batch Distillation Column (I) Multicomponent Ideal System

Inverted batch distillation column(stripper) is opposed to a conventional batch distillation col-umn(rectifier). It has a storage vessel at the top and products leave the column at the bottom. The batch stripper is favourable to separate mixtures with a small amount of light components by removing the heavy components as bottom products. In this paper, we are presenting a shortcut procedure based on our earlier work for design and simulation of the inverted batch distillation column, which is equivalent to the Fenske-Underwood-Gilliland procedure for continuous distillation. Given a separation task, we propose to compute the minimum number of stages(Nbmin) and the minimum reboil ratio(Rbmin) required in a batch stripper,which are the stages and reboil ratio required in a hypothetical inverted batch distillation column operating in total reboil ratio or having an infinite number of stages, respectively. Then, it is shown that the performance of inverted batch columns with a finite number of stages and reboil ratios could be correlated in Gilliland coordinates with the minimum stages Nbmin and the minimum reboil ratio Rbmin.

Experimental Investigation on Heat Exchange and Separation Performance of an Annular Structured Internal Heat-integrated Distillation Column

In this paper heat exchange coefficient and separation efficiency of an annular structured internal heat-integrated distillation column(HIDi C) were experimentally measured. About 50% heat of the inner column could be transferred to the outer column. The overall heat exchange coefficient decreased with an increase in pressure ratio of the inner column and the outer column, but was little affected by the F-factor. The increase of the pressure ratio decreased obviously the separation efficiency of the outer column but had little effect on that of the inner column.

A New Model for the Simulation of Distillation Column

A new computational mass transfer model is proposed for simulating the distillation process by solving the fluctuating mass flux u^＇ic^＇ for the closure of turbulent mass transfer equation in order to obtain the concentration profile and the separation efficiency of distillation column. The feather of the proposed model is to abandon the conventional way of introducing the turbulent mass transfer diffusivity （dispersion coefficient） to the turbulent mass transfer equation. To verify the validity of the proposed model, a commercial scale packed column and a sieve tray column were simulated and compared with published experimental data. The simulated results were satisfactorily confirmed in both concentration distribution and senaration efficiency.

The Operation of Draining Column Holdup for Slop Cut Withdrawal in Batch Distillation

The new mode of operation for slop cut withdrawal in batch distillation, i.e., draining Column liquid holdup at the end of slop cut period, was proposed. And the stopping criterion for the operation was investigated, Experiments were carded out with isopropanol-n-propanol binary system and isopropanol-n-propanol-n-butanol ternary system in a distillation column with a liquid collector installed between the reboiler and the column section, Experimental results in a Ф 45mm batch column show that the proposed policy can overcome the flywheel effect caused by column liquid holdup and thus cut down operation time and energy consumption 31%-61%.

The Design and Control of Distillation Column with Side Reactors for Chlorobenzene Production

The distillation column with side reactors (SRC) can overcome the temperature/pressure mismatch in the traditional reactive distillation, the column operates at temperature/pressure favorable for vapor-liquid separation, while the reactors operate at temperatures/pressures favorable for reaction kinetics. According to the smooth operation and automatic control problem of the distillation column with side reactors (SRC), the design, simulation calculation and dynamic control of the SCR process for chlorobenzene production are discussed in the paper. Firstly, the mechanism models, the integrated structure optimal design and process simulation systems are established, respectively. And then multivariable control schemes are designed, the controllability of SRC process based on the optimal steady-state integrated structure is explored. The dynamic response performances of closed-loop system against several disturbances are discussed to verify the effectiveness of control schemes for the SRC process. The simulating results show that the control structure using conventional control strategies can effectively overcome feeding disturbances in a specific range.

Optimization of the reflux ratio of benzene-toluene stage distillation columns by the Cuckoo algorithm

In this study, an enthalpy-concentration method was applied in order to model a steady state continuous benzene-toluene mixture distillation column. For a distillation tower such as the benzene- toluene splitter, there are relatively few degrees of freedom that can be manipulated in order to minimize the total annualized cost. The reflux ratio can influence the steady-state operating point and therefore influence the total annualized cost. The trade-offs between reflux ratios and total annualized cost were discussed. The Cuckoo optimization algorithm was applied to obtain a correlation for the optimum value of the reflux ratio as a power function of the economic parameters of energy price and capital cost. The results show that, at low energy price or high capital cost, the optimum reflux factor is high.

Troubleshooting Distillation Column by Gamma Ray Scanning Technique

A digitally controlled three-dimensional gamma-scanning apparatuswas developed and used to trou- bleshoot distillation column is thepresent investigation. In a 140 mm (ID) model column, variousmalfunctional phenomena, both rate and process related conditions andstructural problems, which may be frequently encountered in theoperation of tray and packing columns, were experimentally simulatedand tested with the developed scan- ning system. The experimentalresults showed that the scanning spectra can fairly reflect thesimulated phenomena.

The Analysis of Distillation Tray Column Efficiency by Fluid Dynamics and Mass Transfer Computation

It has long been found that the flow pattern of the liquid phase on distillation tray is of great importance on distillation process performance. But until now, there was very few published work on quantitative investigation of this subject. By combining the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) with the mass transfer equation, a theoretical model is proposed for predicting the details of velocity and concentration distributions as well as the tray efficiency of distillation tray column. Using the proposed model, four different cases corresponding to different assumptions of liquid and vapor flowing condition for a distillation tray column were investigated. In Case I, the distributions of velocity and concentration of the incoming liquid from the downcomer and the uprising vapor from the underneath tray spacing are uniform. In Case n, the distribution of the incoming liquid is non-uniform but the uprising vapor is uniform. In Case HI, the distribution of the incoming liquid is uniform but the uprising vapor is non-uniform. In Case IV, the distributions of both the incoming liquid and the uprising vapor are non-uniform. The details of velocity and concentration distributions on a multiple sieve tray distillation column in four different cases were simulated using the proposed model. It is found that the shape of the simulated concentration profiles of vapor and the liquid is quite different from case to case. The computed results also show that the tray efficiency is highly reduced by the maldistribution of velocity and concentration of the incoming liquid and uprising vapor. The tray efficiency for Case I is higher than Case Ⅱ or Case Ⅲ, and that for Case Ⅳ is the lowest. It also reveals that the accumulated effect of maldistribution becomes more pronounced when the number of column trays increased. The present study demonstrates that the use of computational method to predict the mass transfer efficiency for the tray column, especially for the large one, is feasible.

Enhanced temperature difference control of distillation columns based on the averaged absolute variation magnitude

Temperature difference control(TDC)schemes can clearly suppress the adverse influence of pressure variations on product quality control of various distillation columns(DCs)by employing temperature differences(TDs)between the sensitive stage temperature(T_(S))and reference stage temperature(T_(R)),i.e.,T_(S)-T_(R),to infer the controlled product qualities.However,because the TDC scheme has failed to specially take the corresponding relationship between the TD employed in each control loop and the controlled product quality into account,it may suffer from relatively large steady-state errors in the controlled product qualities.To address this problem,an enhanced TDC(ETDC)scheme is proposed in the current article,in which an enhanced TD(ETD),i.e.,T_(S)-α×T_(R),is employed to replace the conventional TD for each control loop.While the locations of the sensitive and reference stages of the ETD are respectively determined according to sensitivity analysis and SVD analysis,the adjusted coefficientαis set to be the ratio between the averaged absolute variation magnitudes(AAVMs)of the T_(S)and T_(R)so that the relationship between the T_(S)and T_(R)can be appropriately coordinated.With reference to the operations of three different distillation systems,i.e.,one conventional DC distilling an ethanol(E)/butanol(B)binary mixture,one conventional DC distilling an E/propanol(P)/B ternary mixture,and one dividing-wall distillation column distilling an E/P/B ternary mixture,the performance of the ETDC scheme is assessed by compared with the conventional TDC scheme and the double TD control(DTDC)scheme.The dynamic simulation results show that the ETDC scheme is better than the conventional TDC scheme with reduced steady-state errors in the controlled product qualities and improved dynamic responses,and is comparable with the DTDC scheme despite the less temperature measurements are employed.

Heat Transfer Investigation and Modeling of Heat Integrated Distillation Column

The high degree of reversibility of heat integrated distillation column(HIDiC) has been thermodynamically interpreted by the entropy method. In this paper, a heat transfer model and a more universal method were proposed, through which the overall heat transfer coefficient at different height of column under different operating conditions could be obtained before the experiment. Then the separation of a binary ethanol-water system was carried out experimentally as a case study to verify the heat transfer model and the aforementioned calculation method. The close results between the calculation, the simulation, and the experiments suggested that the proposed model and the calculation method in this paper were accurate and applicable. Meanwhile, it was demonstrated that the HIDiC shows obvious effect of reducing entropy increase and improving thermodynamic efficiency as compared to conventional distillation column.

Systematic exploration of the applicability of the idiomatic vapor balance rule to distillation column consolidation

For N-component distillation(N≥3),consolidation between different column sections is an inevitable manipulation when synthesizing complex distillation configurations.In the consolidation,the idiomatic vapor balance(IVB)rule,in which the larger vapor flowrate in the two columns before consolidation will be chosen as the balanced vapor flowrate at the consolidation point,has been widely used.However,the applicability of the IVB rule has not been verified,which is of essential importance to the accuracy of the distillation configuration synthesis.In the present study,the applicability of the IVB rule to distillation column consolidation was systematically explored by rigorous method for the first time.First,the separation of ideal and non-ideal three-component mixtures with variable compositions was studied,and the optimized configurations before and after consolidation were determined by a rigorous method.The results indicated that for the separation of an ideal mixture,the IVB rule was applicable for the whole composition range,while for the separation of a non-ideal mixture,the IVB rule was only applicable for very limited composition range.Finally,two cases of synthesizing distillation configurations for the separation of non-ideal mixtures were studied to verify the remarkable deviations the IVB rule may cause.The results indicated that the applicability of the shortcut method using the IVB rule to the distillation configuration synthesis depended on the composition of the non-ideal mixture,and a remarkable error might result and the truly optimal configuration might be missed if the IVB rule is applied to a non-ideal mixture.

Optimizing the Synthesis of Ethyl tert-Butyl Ether in Continuous Catalytic Distillation Column Using New Ion Exchange Resin Catalyst

Liquid phase synthesis of one of the important fuel oxygenate, ethyl tert-butyl ether （ETBE）, from etha-nol and tert-butyl alcohol （TBA） has been studied in catalytic distillation column （CDC） using ion exchange resin catalyst CT-145H. A packed CDC of 1.2 m height and 50 mm diameter with indigenously developed reactive sec-tion packing was used to generate experimental data. Effect of different key variables on product purity in distillate, was investigated to find the optimum operating conditions for ETBE synthesis. The optimum conditions for 0.2 kg·s-1 of ethanol feed were found：reboiler duty of 375 W, molar feed ratio of 1︰1.3 of reactants, and reflux ratio of 7. Concentration profiles for each component along each column section at optimum conditions were also drawn. Neither output nor input multiplicity was observed at experimental conditions.

Vapor recompressed dividing-wall distillation columns:Structure and performance

Due to the topological structure of double columns and multiple separating sections in dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs),the development of vapor recompressed dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDC-VRHPs)represents a challenging issue with great complexities and tediousness.For the separations of light-component dominated and wide boiling-point ternary mixtures,because the purification of the light-component from the intermediate-and heavy-components incurs the primary energy dissipation,the application of vapor recompressed heat pumps(VRHP)should be aimed to reduce the irreversibility and this leads to the generation of the optimum topological structures of the DWDC-VRHPs,i.e.,a DWDC plus a two-stage VRHP.The first-stage VRHP is to preheat feed,not only taking the advantages of the small temperature elevation available but also favoring the mass transfer between the vapor and liquid phases through feed splitting.The second-stage VRHP is to reduce further separation irreversibility.The philosophy can be applied to any DWDCs no matter where the dividing wall locates.Two case studies on the separations of ternary mixtures of benzene,toluene,and o-xylene and n-pentane,n-hexane,and n-heptane demonstrate the economic optimality of the proposed DWDC-VRHPs and reveal the inherent interplay between internal and external process integration.

Dynamic Neural Network Based Nonlinear Control of a Distillation Column

Taking advantage of the knowledge of top and bottom compositions of a distillation column, a dynamic neural network (DNN) is designed to identify the input-output relationship of the column. The weight-training algorithm is derived from a Lyapunov function. Based on this empirical model, a nonlinear H∞ controller is synthesized. The effectiveness of the control strategy is demonstrated using simulation results.

Active set truncated-Newton algorithm for simultaneous optimization of distillation column

An active set truncated-Newton algorithm (ASTNA) is proposed to solve the large-scale bound constrained sub-problems. The global convergence of the algorithm is obtained and two groups of numerical experiments are made for the various large-scale problems of varying size. The comparison results between ASTNA and the subspace limited memory quasi-Newton algorithm and between the modified augmented Lagrange multiplier methods combined with ASTNA and the modified barrier function method show the stability and effectiveness of ASTNA for simultaneous optimization of distillation column.

A Review of an Expert System Design for Crude Oil Distillation Column Using the Neural Networks Model and Process Optimization and Control Using Genetic Algorithm Framework

This paper presents a comprehensive review of various traditional systems of crude oil distillation column design, modeling, simulation, optimization and control methods. Artificial neural network (ANN), fuzzy logic (FL) and genetic algorithm (GA) framework were chosen as the best methodologies for design, optimization and control of crude oil distillation column. It was discovered that many past researchers used rigorous simulations which led to convergence problems that were time consuming. The use of dynamic mathematical models was also challenging as these models were also time dependent. The proposed methodologies use back-propagation algorithm to replace the convergence problem using error minimal method.

Simulation of MEG Packed Distillation Column Using an Equilibrium Stage Model-Case Study on Operating Parameters of Farsa Petrochemical Company： Assaluyeh-lran

Two types of equilibrium and non-equilibrium stage models are generally used to simulate the mass transfer of packed distillation column. Using non-equilibrium model requires the calculation of mass transfer coefficients, thus, usually equilibrium-based methods are preferred to be used for simulations of distillation columns. In this paper, packed column distillation of production of Mono Ethylene Glycol in FARSA SHIMI Company （Assaluyeh-Iran）＇s Ethylene Glycol portion has been simulated through using the equilibrium model and solving the related equations. The simulation has been carried out in the MATLAB environment. The column also has been simulated in the Aspen Hysys and Aspen Plus ver. 2006.5 environments. Then, the output has been compared with software results, designing and operating data of the underlying columns which demonstrate good consistency with the model. Having the model validated, the effect of some operating parameters has been analyzed through the model.

MPC of distillation column with side reactors for methyl acetate

This paper focuses on the dynamic control of distillation column with side reactors(SRC) for methyl acetate production. To obtain the optimum integrated structure and steady state simulation, the systematic design approach based on the concept of independent reaction amount is applied to the process of SRC for methyl acetate production. In addition to the basic control loops, multi-variable model predictive control modular with methyl acetate concentration and temperature of sensitive plate is designed. Then, based on process simulation software Aspen Plus, dynamic simulation of SRC for methyl acetate production is used to verify the effectiveness of the control scheme.

Methodology for Design of Reactive Distillation Column and Kinetics for Isoamylene Etherification Catalysed by Amberlyst 35

Isoamylene from the Fischer-Tropsch syncrude can be transformed to valuable fuel oxygenate additives through an equilibrium limited etherification reaction with methanol. A reactive distillation process is established to increase isoamylene conversion. Facing the challenge of improving product purity at the same time, an equilibrium stage model based design methodology is proposed and illustrated step-by-step for converting the Fischer-Tropsch C_5 olefins to tert-amyl methyl ether(TAME) process by using Aspen Plus. Under the guide of the proposed methodology, the design leads to a TAME product purity of higher than 95% and an isoamylene conversion of higher than 90%. The etherification kinetics over Amberlyst 35 is also studied within a temperature range of 60 ℃ to 75 ℃ to shed more light on the feasibility of process development. The methodology provides an effective reactive distillation column design to achieve the target reactant conversion and product purity simultaneously.