(476e) Controllability of Reactive Distillation Columns with Single and Double Reactive Sections for Separation of Two-Stage Consecutive Reactions

Process intensification appears as one of the most promising tools in chemical industry, because increasing economic and safety considerations force the industry to focus on smaller scale and more energy-efficient technologies. One of the most glaring examples of this tool is reactive distillation columns which combine both the reaction and separation units into a single vessel. An overview on chemical reaction types shows that single-stage reversible reactions including quaternary systems (two reactants and two products) and ternary systems (two reactants and one product) lead the studies on reactive distillation columns. On the other hand, the third type of reactions widely found in the industry is the two-stage consecutive reversible reactions. However, there are only a few studies reported in the literature for the separation of this type of reactions, and reactive distillation columns with a single reactive section (RDC-SRS) have been used in all of these studies. Recently, a novel reactive distillation column with double reactive sections (RDC-DRS) has been proposed for the separations of the two-stage consecutive reversible reactions [1]. Results of this study indicate better steady-state performance than the RDC-SRC, but the dynamic performance and controllability of the RDC-DRS has not been studied. The aim of this study is designing effective and robust control structures for both RDC-SRS and RDC-DRS. The same hypothetical ideal two-stage consecutive reversible reactions, A+B â?? C+D and C+B â?? E+D, and two-stage consecutive trans-esterification of dimethyl carbonate with ethanol are chosen as illustrative examples to evaluate dynamic performance of the proposed control structures.

[1] Yu, C., Yao, X., Huang, K., Zhang, L., Wang, S., Chen,H., 2014, A reactive distillation column with double reactive sections for the separations of two-stage consecutive reveresible reactions, Chemical Engineering and Processing: Process Intensification, 79, 56-68.