Distillation design/implementation

While process design and equipment specification are usually performed prior to the implementation of the process, optimization of operating conditions is carried out monthly, weekly, daily, hourly, or even eveiy minute. Optimization of plant operations determines the set points for each unit at the temperatures, pressures, and flow rates that are the best in some sense. For example, the selection of the percentage of excess air in a process heater is quite critical and involves a balance on the fuel-air ratio to assure complete combustion and at the same time make the maximum use of the Heating potential of the fuel. Typical day-to-day optimization in a plant minimizes steam consumption or cooling water consumption, optimizes the reflux ratio in a distillation column, or allocates raw materials on an economic basis [Latour, Hydro Proc., 58(6), 73, 1979, and Hydro. Proc., 58(7), 219, 1979]. 

The digital simulation of an extractive distillation column was performed in order to understand the dynamic behaviour of the system. Based on this results a considerably simplified dynamic model of sufficient accuracy could be developed. This model was employed in the design of a state observer and of an optimal control. After implementation in the large scale plant this new control system has proved to be highly efficient and reliable. 

The optimal robust controller designed with one of the new synthesis techniques is generally not of a form that can be readily implemented. The main benefit of the new synthesis procedure is that it allows the designer to establish performance bounds that can be reached under ideal conditions. In practice, a decentralized (multiloop) control structure is preferred for ease of start-up, bumpless automatic to manual transfer, and fault tolerance in the event of actuator or sensor failures. Indeed, a practical design does not start with controller synthesis but with the selection of the variables that are to be manipulated and measured. It is well known that this choice can have more profound effects on the achievable control performance than the design of the controller itself. This was demonstrated in a distillation example [17, 18] in which a switch from reflux to distillate flow as the manipulated variable removes all robustness problems and makes the controller design trivial. 

The traditional textbook flowsheet for the dehydration of ethanol involves three distillation columns. However, some industrial implementations for exactly the same separation use only two columns with a corresponding savings in capital cost (Doherty and Knapp, 1993). How can these two alternative designs be systematically understood ... 

While process synthesis gives qualitative reference points, for industrial implementation we need quantitative results. Therefore, tools for rigorous process simulation including all effects are needed. In practice, the application of staged models with increasing complexity can be reconunended but tools with this complexity are not yet on the market, so that in many cases reactive distillation cannot be simulated so far that a process design is possible without experiments. 

In previous work (Filipe et al. 2007) the multi-objective optimization of a distillation column was performed and the Pareto front relating the total number of stages, reactive holdup and cost, identified. In this work a study on how the Pareto optimal designs could be adapted for real implementation is presented. Different design details, such as reactive holdup and feed quality, are investigated and the sensitivity of the solutions assessed to quantify the effect on the column expected performance. 

We have designed and implemented a reactive divided wall distillation column for the production of ethyl acetate from acetic acid and ethanol. Important aspects derived from steady state simulation were considered for instance, a side tank was implemented in order to split the liquid to both sides of the wall and a moving wall inside the column that allows to fix the split of the vapor stream. The dynamic simulations indicate that it is possible to control the composition of the top and bottoms products or two temperatures by manipulating the reflux rate and the heat duty supplied to the reboiler, respectively. The implementation of the reactive divided wall distillation columns takes into account important aspects like process intensification, minimum energy consumption and reduction in Carbon Dioxide emission to the atmosphere. 

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