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Distributed Heat Supply for Distillation Control to Reduce Feed Composition Disturbance Effects
Author(s) -
Marangoni C.,
Machado R. A. F.,
Bolzan A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
chemical engineering and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.403
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-4125
pISSN - 0930-7516
DOI - 10.1002/ceat.201300266
Subject(s) - reboiler , distillation , fractionating column , control theory (sociology) , process engineering , environmental science , temperature control , computer science , engineering , control (management) , chemistry , control engineering , chromatography , artificial intelligence
The introduction of heat in stages combined with a reboiler as a distillation control strategy is proposed aiming to reduce the transition time when a feed composition disturbance occurs. This is the most severe type of perturbation and results in long transition times which are economically undesirable. Experiments were carried out in a pilot distillation column with ethanol and water for testing two different control strategies: conventional, i.e., using both last stage and reboiler temperature controllers, and distributed, i.e., conventional strategy plus stage temperature controllers. The results with this operational approach indicated a significant reduction in the time required for the column to stabilize when compared with the conventional approach. The proposed strategy proved to be a viable alternative, enabling faster dynamics and smaller volumes to be processed outside the predefined quality parameters.