Composition profiles in the synthesis of MTBE obtained by a multilevel modeling approach

This section addresses the application of a dynamic optimization-based design approach to RD. The liquid-phase esterification reaction of C4 and methanol in the presence of inert nC4 in a staged RD column is used as tutorial example. Similar to the study on binary distillation (Bansal et al., 2000 Bansal, 2000) and on the synthesis of ethyl acetate by RD (Georgiadis et al, 2002), both spatial-related e.g. column diameter and heat exchanger areas) and control-related e.g. gain, set-point and reset time) design variables are optimized with respect to economic and dynamic performance in the presence of time-varying disturbances. 

1 Description of the Design and Control Problem in Reactive Distillation 

Generally speaking, a chemical process that shows poor ability of meeting control objectives gives rise to missing opportunities with respect to economic performance and satisfaction of product specifications. This fact may imply the existence of a trade-off between those processes designed with respect to control performance considerations 

2 Description of the Dynamic Optimization Problem in Reactive Distillation 

All involved expressions are combined in the formulation of an optimization problem. 

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Figure 6.4. Composition profiles in the synthesis of MTBE obtained by a multilevel modeling approach. Remarks the molar fraction of nC4 is not plotted a target value of 150 molxs is imposed to the overall extent of reaction the spatial configuration of the unit is given in table 6.2 time horizon is 14400 s.

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