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Modeling, analysis and control of ethylene glycol reactive distillation column
Author(s) -
Kumar Aditya,
Daoutidis Prodromos
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
aiche journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 167
eISSN - 1547-5905
pISSN - 0001-1541
DOI - 10.1002/aic.690450106
Subject(s) - reboiler , reactive distillation , tray , ethylene glycol , distillation , chemistry , selectivity , control theory (sociology) , chromatography , thermodynamics , engineering , computer science , catalysis , organic chemistry , mechanical engineering , physics , control (management) , artificial intelligence
The dynamic behavior and control of an ethylene glycol reactive distillation column were studied. A detailed tray‐by‐tray model that explicitly includes the vapor‐phase balances is derived and compared with a conventional model that ignores the vapor holdup. The steady‐state variation of the product purity (the key output to be controlled) with respect to reboiler heat duty was studied, identifying a region of output multiplicity with three branches corresponding to different conversion and product selectivity. Further analysis of the process on the steady‐state branch with high conversion and selectivity reveals a transition from minimum phase behavior at moderate purity to nonminimum phase behavior at high purity. The nonminimum phase behavior was analyzed and addressed in the design of a nonlinear inversion‐based controller that performs well with stability in the high purity region.