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1
National Institute of
Control System Design for a Single Feed ETBE
Technology, Tiruchirappalli, Reactive Distillation Column
India.
Reactive distillation (RD) is advantageous for the Ethyl Tert-Butyl Ether (ETBE)
synthesis. The steady state model of an ETBE reactive distillation column created
using the simulator HYSYS is analyzed to synthesize effective control structures.
Since the column exhibits input multiplicity with the dual process objectives of
ETBE RD (isobutene conversion and ETBE purity), inferential variables are
selected. A control structure that organizes a sensitive tray temperature in the
stripping section using the reboiler duty and maintains the temperature differ-
ence of reactive trays using the reflux flow, is found to be most suitable. A decen-
tralized PI controller and constrained Model Predictive Controller (MPC) are
implemented, and performances are compared for set point tracking and distur-
bance rejection. MPC control algorithms are implemented in MATLAB and inter-
faced with HYSYS. Constrained MPC (CMPC) is found to be effective for load
disturbance rejection, which frequently occurs in the single feed configuration.
ether purity and isobutylene conversion as process objectives ficult. For satisfactory control, a carefully tuned interacting
and suggested the use of control configuration alone to manip- multivariable controller is required. Better results are obtained
ulate the reboiler duty [3]. As the one point control scheme by using a model predictive controller.
suffers from the disadvantage of low process gain between the Bisowarno et al. [14] investigated model gain scheduling for
temperature controller set point and the ether purity, they also inferential one point control of an ethyl tert-butyl ether reac-
studied two point control of the ETBE column. The combined tive distillation column. They studied the directionality of the
composition and conversion control scheme is implemented process gain, which cannot be well controlled by using stan-
on the ETBE column using the inferential conversion model dard PI control with fixed parameters, and found that the
and the LV control configuration. The authors found that a problem can be overcome for a wide range of operating condi-
two point control is more effective in feed disturbance rejec- tions by using a gain scheduled PI controller. However, model
tion and in optimizing the isobutylene conversion compared gain scheduling demands preprogramming or online identifi-
to one point control [4]. cation of the process gain.
Loperenal et al. [5] studied the control problem in the ethyl- Pattern based predictive control for ETBE on a pilot scale
ene glycol system. The presence of input multiplicities was RD column in which the maintenance of the purity of product
revealed. A first-order output-feedback compensator was (ETBE) is performed using pattern based fuzzy prediction has
designed, which was shown to be equivalent to a PI controller. been reported [15]. The authors used only single point control
Al-Arfaj and Luyben [6] reviewed the control of RD. They where the purity at the bottom is controlled using reflux flow.
explored the closed-loop control of an ideal two product RD. Kaymak et al. [16] compared control of conventional pro-
Six alternative control structures were evaluated via rigorous cesses with a RD process for the production of Butyl Acetate.
dynamic simulation. The interaction between design and con- For a selected plant wide control structure, both processes are
trol was illustrated by the impact of holdup in the reactive effectively controlled using conventional PI controllers that
zone. Stoichiometric amounts of fresh feeds are also desirable manage the addition of fresh feeds and stabilize recycle flow
for a double feed column. The authors studied real two prod- rates.
uct systems and basing the studies on three different control Recently, Khaledi and Young [17] employed two point con-
structures, they concluded that the tray temperature control trol of ETBE using model predictive control. The HYSYS 3.1
avoids nonlinearity, which normally occurs for composition simulator is used to simulate the column and the control is
control [7]. They demonstrated that adding additional trays in implemented by using inbuilt features such as the uncon-
a RD does not degrade performance, provided the specified strained DMC module in HYSYS. The authors showed that,
degrees of freedom are chosen appropriately [8]. Three chemi- for the variation of manipulated variables in certain regions,
cal systems (hypothetical, ETBE and methyl acetate) were cho- the reverse reaction occurs.
sen for their studies. The authors showed that a simple single The control of RD columns has been performed using a
temperature PI structure provides effective control for ethylene decentralized PI controller, as well as an adaptive and fuzzy
glycol rather than using an advanced nonlinear inverse-based controller with single or dual composition control. It has been
controller [9]. They demonstrated that effective dynamic con- shown that a multivariable controller is necessary for satis-
trol is provided by a control structure that uses two tempera- factory operation. The product purity is controlled by main-
tures to maintain the purity of both product streams. They taining either temperature or composition. It has also been
also studied control of ETBE reactive distillation in which shown that for variations of manipulated variables in certain
Sneesby’s single feed configuration is optimized and control regions, reverse reactions takes place and RD exhibits input
structures for both double feed and single feed are studied multiplicity. Since the reverse reaction occurs for positive
[10]. They found that tray temperature management provides change in reboiler heat flow and negative change in reflux mo-
better control over composition for the single feed process. lar flow from nominal steady state values, it is necessary to im-
However, they used only single end control in order to main- pose constraints for better control. The advantage of using
tain ETBE purity. MPC in the processing industry is due to its multivariable ex-
A robust nonlinear control scheme consisting of a nonlinear tension and constraint handling capabilities. Moreover, MPC
state feedback and a robust observer has been designed [11]. has been applied previously without constraints on a single
In order to compensate for steady state observer offsets, an feed configuration of Sneesby’s column, which is a laboratory-
outer control loop with a simple PI controller was implemen- sized column. In this work, an industrial scale optimized single
ted. From the simulation studies, the authors found that the feed configuration having 30 trays is used [10], and mainly fo-
nonlinear controller exhibits better performance compared to cuses on control of single feed ETBE columns using a decen-
a well-tuned linear controller, even in the presence of unknown tralized PI controller and multivariable CMPC. The controller
input delays, thereby proving its robustness. performances are compared and evaluated.
Wang et al. [12] studied the effect of interaction multiplicity
on control system design for a MTBE reactive distillation col-
umn. Though the column exhibits steady state multiplicities, 2 ETBE Reactive Distillation
they explained that linear control is still possible by selecting
appropriately controlled and manipulated variable pairing. The reactive distillation process for ETBE differs from the con-
Engel and Frenholz studied the control of methyl acetate ventional process in the combination of the second reaction
reactive distillation [13]. They found that strong interactions stage (adiabatic) with the purification column and the elimi-
and process nonlinearity makes the control problem more dif- nation of some peripheral equipment. The pretreatment stage
is unaffected. The operation of the first reaction stage can also (CH3)2C=CH2 + H2O > (CH3)3COH (3)
remain unchanged. The RD column is, therefore, actually a
hybrid column that contains a reactive distillation section and However, this side reaction is essentially eliminated when
two non-reactive distillation sections. Under such conditions, ethanol is in excess over the isobutene.
the majority of the reaction (ca. 80 %) is performed in an iso-
thermal, tubular reactor operating at moderate temperature
conditions, ca. 65 °C. The feed to the RD column should, 2.2 Reaction Kinetics
therefore, be rich in ETBE but still contain some ethanol and
isobutene. The products from the bottoms and overheads of The reaction kinetics for the liquid-phase synthesis of
the reactive distillation column are ETBE with some ethanol, ETBE based on the Langmuir-Hinshelwood-Hougen-Watson
and non-reactive hydrocarbon with a small amount of isobu- (LHHW) model are given below [2]e].
tene and ethanol, respectively. The distillate products may or – Reaction equilibrium constant:
may not require further processing depending on the compo-
sition and the refinery configuration. The advantages of using 4060:59
ln KETBE 10:387 2:89055 lnT 0:0191544T
RD for ETBE manufacture in comparison to the conventional T
process are: 5:28586 10 5 T 2 5:32977 10 8 T 3 (4)
– RD produces a higher overall isobutene conversion for
ETBE, providing if some excess ethanol is used and the over-
all fuel purity (defined as the ether concentration plus the – Adsorption equilibrium constant:
ethanol concentration in the bottoms) is 97.89 %, which is 1323:1
comparable to the conventional process; lnKA 1:0707 (5)
T
– No additional reboiler duty is required for RD, since the
heat generated by the exothermic reaction offsets the reboi- – Reaction rate constant (mol/h/g of catalyst):
ler heat input and contributes to product separation;
60:4 103
– Additional savings can be realized from the effective elimi- krate 7:418 1012 exp (6)
nation of ethanol from the distillate product (reduced to RT
1–2 ppm compared to the conventional process). This is – Generalized rate equation (mol/h):
potentially a decisive advantage of RD since it removes the
requirement to install ethanol recovery equipment. aETBE
Mcat krate a2EtOH aiBut
KETBE
rETBE (7)
1 KA aEtOH 3
2.1 Process Description
ai = cixi (8)
The ETBE synthesis reaction is the reversible etherification of
ethanol and isobutylene on an acid catalyst, such as the acidic where ai is the activity, ci is the liquid activity coefficient, xi is
ion-exchange resin, Amberlyst 15, see Eq. (1). The reaction is the liquid mole fraction, R is the gas constant (J/mol K), Mcat
equilibrium limited at high temperatures (above 80 °C) and is the mass of the catalyst (g), and T is the temperature (K).
very slow at low temperatures (below 60 °C): Since the chemical reaction is very fast in the case of ETBE,
the heterogeneous reaction kinetic model can be neglected as
(CH3)2C=CH2 + C2H5OH > (CH3)3COC2H5 (1) it will not create any modeling error [17]. Chemical equilibri-
um is expected in all reactive trays, which can be defined by
ETBE in RD can be synthesized by using either a single feed the reaction equilibrium constant given by Eq. (4).
or double feed configuration. In double feed, two fresh reac-
tant streams are used, whereas in the single feed configuration,
the majority of the reaction is performed in an isothermal, 2.3 Steady State Profile from Aspen HYSYS 2004
tubular reactor operating at moderate conditions. This removes
the significant quantity of heat liberated in the reactor itself In this work, the optimal single feed, industrial scale steady
rather than affecting the reaction equilibrium in the distillation, state design is used [10]. The column consists of 30 trays
and therefore, also reduces the catalyst loading in the trays. (including partial reboiler and total condenser). There are
Two side reactions exist in ETBE synthesis. One is the di- 7 reactive stages present in between 7 rectifying trays and
merization of isobutylene to form diisobutylene (DIB) with 14 stripping trays, as shown in Fig. 1. The feed stream from
the chemical structure [(CH3)2C=CH2]2. In the presence of the upstream chemical reactor enters the column just below
any water traces in the reaction environment, another side re- the reactive trays. The steady state simulation is performed
action is the hydration of isobutylene to form isobutene (iso- using Aspen HYSYS 2004 [18]. The fluid package used is the
butyl alcohol) with the chemical structure (CH3)3COH. The UNIQUAC model for the liquid phase and ideal gas for the
side reactions are expressed by the following equations: gaseous phase, and the UNIFAC parameter are also used by
setting a binary coefficient. The steady-state simulation is per-
(CH3)2C=CH2 + (CH3)2C=CH2 > [(CH3)2C=CH2]2 (2) formed by using a sparse continuation solver. The equilibrium
0.7 ETBE
0.6 i-butene
0.5 The controlled variable, which is used to ensure that the
1-butene
0.4 column consistently meets the process objectives, should have
ethanol
0.3 several characteristics, i.e., linearity, sensitivity, and responsive-
0.2 ness. Linearity refers to the relationship between the selected
0.1 controlled variable and the manipulated variable. Sensitivity
0
refers to the extent that the controlled variable must be
0 5 10 15 20 25 30
changed to vary the overall column operating condition. Re-
Stage number
sponsiveness refers to the relationship between the controlled
Figure 2. Steady state compositional profile for different trays. variable and the manipulated variable, which is used to pro-
vide that control, and is a measure of both the dead time and rates that give the same conversion and composition in the
dynamic lags between the two variables. ETBE system, respectively, thus exhibiting input multiplicity
with both the process objectives. The presence of multiplicities
is common in reactive distillation and has been reported for
3.2.1 Steady State Multiplicities many RD columns [19]. The more economical design is the
one with the lower reflux flow rate and lower reboiler heat in-
The ETBE process exhibits the phenomenon of multiple steady puts (lower energy consumption). Although, Aspen HYSYS
states, which increases the difficulties for operation and con- 2004 is used, as discussed in Sec. 3.3, the comparable steady
trol. Multiplicity of steady states normally occurs as either in- state profile of Al-Arfaj and Luyben [10] is obtained. The con-
put multiplicity or output multiplicity. Input multiplicity oc- sequences of input multiplicity are not as severe as output
curs when two or more sets of input variables produce the multiplicity. However, input multiplicity results in a change in
same output condition. Output multiplicity occurs when one the sign of the process gain around the nominal operating con-
set of process input variables results in two or more sets of dition, leading to control instability. Directionality of a chemi-
process output variables. cal process means that a vector of inputs is amplified in a dif-
The presence of input and output multiplicities may cause ferent manner depending on the direction. Directionality of
operation and control problems. The control structure chosen the process gain has been known to create a considerably com-
must avoid output multiplicities to ensure that the column plex design of the control system for multivariable processes.
does not drift from a high conversion steady state to a low As the ETBE purity and conversion exhibit bidirectionality of
conversion steady state. However, it will be shown that even process gain and nonlinearity for changes in reboiler duty,
though the states of the column exhibit multiplicities, simple alternate control variables are required. Also, the direct mea-
linear control is still feasible, if both controlled and manipu- surement of isobutene conversion is not recommended as it
lated variables with a one-to-one relationship can be identi- requires complex feed, bottom and top composition analyzers
fied. and a calculation module.
Figs. 3 and 4 are obtained by changing the reflux flow
(1 kg mole/h) and reboiler heat duty (50 kW) in open-loop. It
shows that there are two reboiler heat inputs and reflux flow 3.2.2 Selection of Inferential Variable for ETBE Purity
50
ETBE purity 0.85 reboiler temperature has a strong correlation with the ether
Bottom ETBE mole fr
100 0.95
140
90
ibutene conversion( % )
Conversion
130
80 0.9
Bottom ETBE mole fr
ETBE purity
120
Temperature ( C )
70
60 0.85 110
50 100
40 0.8 90
30
80
20 0.75
10 70
0 0.7 60
515 520 525 530 535 540 50
Reflux flow (kgmole/hr) 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Stage number
Figure 4. Input multiplicity of reflux molar flow with conversion
and purity. Figure 5. Temperature profile on different trays.
of different stripping stage temperatures are monitored and it lated variable (reboiler heat) is varied around the operating
is found that the sensitivity decreases with increases in tray point. From the response shown in Fig. 7, a one-to-one rela-
number. For the entire stripping tray above stage 5, the tem- tionship exists between these two variables and has positive
perature has a much larger dead time, and hence, low respon- gain. This graph shows that temperature is a nonlinear func-
siveness. Thus, even though tray 1 is more sensitive, tray 3 is tion of reboiler duty, but the gain is constant over the range of
selected as the optimal tray, having appreciable sensitivity. interest (64–71 °C). On analyzing the correlation between the
The selected inferential variable should be linear, sensitive process objective (ETBE purity) and the controlled variable
and unidirectional in nature with the manipulated variable (tray 3 temperature), Fig. 8, a one-to-one relationship exists
and process objective. In order to achieve this, the manipu- around the operating range of 64–71 °C and has unidirectional
gain. Therefore, the stage 3 temperature is an appropriate con-
trolled variable to infer the bottom product ETBE purity.
Change in temp per change in qr
50
45
40 3.2.3 Selection of an Inferential Variable for Conversion
35
30 An inferential variable for conversion can either be the top
25 product composition or tray temperature. For the double feed
20 configuration, ethanol is selected instead of conversion, as the
15 control variable to control the impurity at the top [10]. How-
10 ever, for the single feed configuration, the ethanol mole frac-
5 tion exhibits bidirectionality and multiplicity in the operating
0 range of reflux flow, as shown in Fig. 9. Also, tray temperature
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 in the rectification section is not sensitive, as shown in Fig. 5.
Stage number Another inferential variable for isobutene conversion
Figure 6. Steady state temperature sensitivities (From open-loop analyzed is the reaction zone temperature difference [17]. From
step test). Fig. 10, the reactive zone temperature difference (DT = T21–
T15), has a linear relationship in the region between 0.6 °C–
135
125 0.18 0.0000003
distillate-
0.16
115 ibutene 0.00000025
Ethanol mole fr
0.14
ibutene mole fr
distillate-
105 0.12 0.0000002
T3 ( C )
ethanol
95 0.1
0.00000015
85 0.08
0.06 0.0000001
75
0.04
65 0.00000005
0.02
55 0 0
2900 3100 3300 3500 3700 3900 4100 510 515 520 525 530 535 540
Reboiler heat( KW ) Reflux flow (kgmol/hr)
Figure 7. Relationship between the manipulated variable (qr) Figure 9. Input multiplicity of reflux flow with ethanol impurity
and the selected inferential variable (T3). and isobutene at top.
1 100
0.9 90
0.8
Purity ( mass frac)
80
0.7 70
conversion
0.6 60
0.5 50
0.4 40
0.3 30
0.2 20
0.1 10
0 0
60 80 100 120 140 0 10 20 30 40
T3 ( C ) DT( C)
Figure 8. Relationship between the process objective (purity) Figure 10. Relationship between inferential variable (DT) and
and the selected inferential variables (T3). process objective (conversion).
25
20 Relative gain array (RGA) proposed by Bristol is a means of
15 measuring steady state interaction. The RGA for this process is
10 found be (2.26 –1.26;–1.26 2.26). It can be seen from the RGA
5 values that the interaction in the selected control structure is
0 severe. However, from the Niederlinski index (NI = 2.26), the
495 515 535 555 575 595 pairing in a diagonal fashion is a closed stable loop [22].
Reflux Rate Hence, the selected control structure is appropriate. Thus, the
Figure 11. Relationship between manipulated variable (reflux ETBE purity in the bottom is maintained by controlling T3 in
flow) and selected inferential variable (DT). the stripping zone by manipulating the reboiler heat flow, and
flow (kgmol/hr)
Reflux Reflux
DT ( C )
500
400
Tp(min),Kp(%/%)
Kp-DT
300 Tp- DT
Kp-T3
200
Tp-T3
100
0
-2 0 2 4 6
-100
-200
a) Reflux change(%)
1400
1200
Td-T3
1000
Td- DT
Deadtime(min)
800
600
400
200
0
Figure 14. Open-loop step negative 5 % change in reboiler heat
-2 0 2 4 6 flow; a) step response of DT; b) step response of stage tempera-
-200
ture.
b) Reflux change(%)
Figure 13. Transfer function parameters for different molar reflux – isobutene conversion is maintained by controlling the reac-
flow rates; a) time constant & gain; b) dead time.
tion zone temperature difference in the reaction zone by
manipulating the reflux molar flow at the top.
isobutene conversion is maintained by controlling the reaction
zone temperature difference (DT) by manipulation of the re-
flux molar flow, (L), at the top. 4 Control System Studies
Morari Indexes of Integral controllability (MIC) given as
MIC=kG
0 , where k[G] = Eigen values of the matrix G and
4.1 Decentralized PI Controller
G
0 = a plant steady-state gain matrix, with the sign adjusted
so that all diagonal elements have positive signs [23]. If all the Most industrial control systems use the multi-loop SISO diag-
SISO controllers contain integral action and have positive loop onal control structure or decentralized controller, since it has
gains, a negative value of any of the Eigen values of G
0 shows
the most simple and understandable structure. Operators and
that the variable pairing will produce an unstable closed-loop plant engineers can use it and modify it when necessary. It
system. MIC for this system are found to be 0.0082 and does not require an expert in applied mathematics to design
2.5392. The positive values of the Eigen values show that the and maintain it. In addition, the performance of these diago-
pairing will produce a stable closed-loop system. nal controller structures is usually quite adequate for process
By calculating the condition number of the system at steady control applications. Decentralized PI control is a desirable
state, it can be determined whether or not the system is ill- controller structure for multivariable systems because of its
conditioned [22]. The condition number is defined as the ratio corresponding hardware and design simplicity [23]. Decentra-
between the maximum and minimum singular values of the lized control systems can also be designed to achieve levels of
system. The singular values are s1 =0.0333 and s2 = 0.0038 and fault tolerance that may be difficult to obtain in a centralized
the condition number is 8.7632. Since the condition number is multivariable control system. The decentralized PI controller
not too large, the system is not ill-conditioned. Thus, the final for the ETBE column is synthesized by using the relay feed
control structure is: back method [20] and is implemented in HYSYS as shown in
– ETBE purity in the bottom is maintained by controlling the Fig. 16. Using the ultimate gain and frequency obtained, the
3rd stage temperature in the stripping zone by manipulating Ziegler Nichols setting is applied, to obtain the diagonal con-
the reboiler heat flow; trollers.
600 6000
500 5000
Kp-DT
K p ( % /% ) , T p ( m in )
Td-DT
200 2000
100 1000
0 0
-6 -4 -2 -6 -4 -2 0 2
-100 0 2
-1000
a) qr change(%) b) Reboiler heat flow change(%)
Figure 15. Transfer function parameters for different reboiler heat flows; a) time constant & gain; b) dead time.
Table 1. Tuning parameters for constrained MPC. and the gradient vector is:
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 18. Negative set point change in DT. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) isobutene Conver-
sion; d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).
The initial tuning parameters for DMC are obtained using Similarly, a negative set point change is also introduced, where
Shridhar and Cooper tuning procedures [25]. They are fine the DT is stepped to 0.8 °C. The CMPC controller tracks the
tuned by trial and error and the optimal parameters are given set point moderately faster than the PI controller. The over-
in Tab. 1. shoot is greatly reduced in CMPC for the Stage 3 temperature.
However, for CMPC the set point tracking is not smoother for
positive changes. The process variables are controlled in a sim-
5 Results and Discussion ilar fashion for both the controllers. A similar response is ob-
served for a negative step change in the DT, as shown in
5.1 Comparison of PI and CMPC Controllers Fig. 18. For negative step changes, overshoot and undershoot
in process variables are very much less for CMPC.
The performance of CMPC is evaluated and compared with
that of decentralized the PI controller for the RD column. Both
set point tracking and disturbance rejection responses are con- 5.1.2 Set Point Tracking of Stage 3 Temperature
sidered and the responses of the two controllers are compared
for these disturbances based on Integral Square Error values. For a set point change in stage 3 temperature (T3), the CMPC
is sluggish when compared with the PI controller. CMPC also
has a high overshoot for positive changes in T3 (67.49–71 °C)
5.1.1 Set Point Tracking of Reaction Zone Temperature as shown in Figs. 19a)–19d). But for negative changes in T3
Difference (67.49–64 °C), the CMPC settles faster but the response is
In order to check the performance of a controller for set point oscillatory and has high overshoot as shown in Figs. 20a)–
tracking, a positive set point change is introduced, where the 20d). Here the purity increases with increases in T3, and vice
reaction zone temperature difference (DT) is stepped to 1.6 °C. versa.
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 19. Positive set point change in T3. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) isobutene Conver-
sion; d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 20. Negative set point change in T3. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) isobutene Conver-
sion; d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).
5.1.3 Rejection of Feed Rate Disturbances 5.1.5 Rejection of Feed Composition Disturbances
In order to check the performances of disturbance rejection, The composition disturbance is introduced where the isobu-
± 10 % changes in feed molar flow are introduced to the ETBE tene molar fractional composition increases from 0.07–0.15.
column. The control performances are illustrated in From Figs. 25a)–25d), both the controllers settle almost at the
Figs. 21a)–21d) and in Figs. 22a)–22d). For both the changes, same time but the CMPC has less overshoot compared with
the CMPC has a shorter settling time, though the response is PI. The conversion drops drastically to 20 % and the purity is
not smoother. The overshoots in DT are similar for both con- increased to 85 % for both controllers. Similarly, negative
trollers, but with CMPC, the overshoot in T3 is smaller. Both change in isobutene is introduced by increasing the ethanol
the process objectives are maintained around the set point. composition. The CMPC settles faster than the PI controller
Undershoot for purity is greatly reduced in CMPC. and the overshoot is same for both the controllers.
The feed stream comes from the upstream reactor and also the The Integral Square Error (ISE) for different set points and
reaction is exothermic in nature. This causes frequent feed load disturbances for DT and T3 are calculated and tabulated
temperature disturbances in the column. For ± 20 % change in in Tab. 2. In set point tracking, the closed-loop performance
feed temperature, the responses of different controllers are of the decentralized PI is better for set point change in stage 3
plotted in Figs. 23a)–23d) and Figs. 24a)–24d). The CMPC temperature, but is poor for set point change in reaction zone
controller is aggressive for feed temperature disturbances caus- temperature. For load disturbances, which occur more fre-
ing shorter settling time but higher overshoot. quently in chemical processes, CMPC effectively rejects the
feed rate disturbances and feed composition disturbances.
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 21. Positive step change in feed. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) isobutene Conversion;
d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).
6 Conclusions one can see that ISE values are lower for CMPC. As the feed
stream is coming from the upstream reactor, feed disturbances
In this study, steady-state analyses are performed to synthesize will occur frequently in reactive distillation. Hence, it is re-
the control strategy of an ETBE reactive distillation column. quired that the controller should reject the load disturbances
The key points to controlling the column are to maintain the effectively. CMPC rejects the load disturbances effectively ex-
quality of the bottom product, and to maintain isobutene con- cept for feed temperature disturbances. However, the feed tem-
version. Although input state multiplicities occur in the col- perature is cooled to ca. room temperature before entering the
umn, linear control is still possible since suitably controlled column and thus, the effect of this disturbance is less in the
and manipulated variable pairings are found, which exhibit no column. Therefore, the CMPC controller is recommended for
multiplicities. the control of a reactive distillation process as it is effective for
A decentralized PI controller is implemented using the both set point and load disturbance rejection.
HYSYS subroutine. The CMPC algorithm is implemented in
MATLAB, which is linked with HYSYS using the COM princi-
ple. Since HYSYS and MATLAB contain such links, it is possi-
ble to use both links simultaneously. Thus, any type of control Acknowlegements
algorithm can be implemented for better design and control of
chemical processes. The performances are compared for the set T. K. Radhakrishnan thanks the TEQIP, NPIU, Government of
point tracking and load disturbances. The decentralized PI India for the support given to him to complete the work at the
controller is effective for set point tracking except for set point National Taiwan University, Taiwan. The discussions with Prof.
change in reaction zone temperature difference. From Tab. 2, C. C. Yu are gratefully acknowledged.
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 22. Negative step change in feed molar flow rate. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) isobu-
tene Conversion; d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 23. Positive step change in feed temperature. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) isobutene
Conversion; d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 24. Negative step change in feed temperature. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) isobutene
Conversion; d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).
a) b)
c) d)
Figure 25. Positive step change in feed molar composition. a) Reaction zone temperature difference; b) stage 3 temperature (T3); c) iso-
butene Conversion; d) ETBE purity (Bottom product).