A “MINLP” formulation for optimal design of a catalytic distillation column based on a generic non equilibrium model

Abstract

Abstract This contribution proposes a Mixed Integer Non Linear Programming (MINLP) formulation for optimal design of a catalytic distillation column based on a generic non-equilibrium model (NEQ). The solution strategy for the global optimization combines Simulated Annealing (SA) and Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP) in order to minimize the objective function. The solution of this MINLP problem yields the optimal values for the temperature, composition and flow rate profiles, tray geometry, column diameter, reflux ratio, reboiler duty, feed tray location, number of trays and catalytic stage location. Hydraulic constraints (entrainment flooding, down-flow flooding, weeping-dumpling) are also considered. For the example, the production of ETBE (Ethyl tert-butyl ether) is presented here.