Design And Control Of Reactive Distillation Column For The Production Of Methyl Acetate

In this study, the design and control of reactive distillation column for theproduction of methyl acetate are investigated in a systemayic manner. We proposednet-reactive distillation column design、two-column reactive distillation design andreactive dividing-wall column design three designs. Rigorous steady state anddynamic simulations for the three designs are implemented on commercial simulators(Aspen Plus and Aspen Dynamics). For economic steady state design, a systematicdesign procedure is devised to optimize the design, using total annual cost (TAC) asobjective function, and the optimized confguration for the three designs aredeveloped. As for reactive dividing-wall column design, sensitivity analysis is used tostudy the influence of vapor split ratio αvand dividing wall location NVRon productpurity. As for dynamic control, the corresponding control structures are establishedfor the obtained steady state design process. The feed flow rate and feed compositionare used to evaluate the performance of control structures. And the research is mainlyfocused on the control of reactive dividing-wall column. For net-reactive distillationcolumn design, the control performance of the dual temperature control structure isterrible. For two-column reactive distillation design, the corresponding controlperformance for the established control structure is excellent. The control of reactivedividing-wall column design is studied detailed, and four control structure CS1—CS4are established. Control structure CS1and CS2are temperature–control structure, andCS2is improved temperature–control structure. Control structure CS3and CS4arepressure–swing control structure, and CS4is improved pressure–swing controlnamely pressure swing–difference temperature control. Both of CS2and CS4canmaintain product purity at their quality specification. From the economic viewpoint,net-reactive distillation column is the most attractive design, but its dynamic responseis the worst. Taking simultaneous design into consideration, reactive dividing-wallcolumn design is the most applicable process.