Implications of Distillation Column Design on Ill-Conditioning

Abstract

The effects of major engineering design choices on the ill-conditioning of distillation columns are presented in this paper. A sensitivity analysis of the column ill-conditioning vs reflux ratio, number of stages and operating pressure is presented in order to relate the engineering guidelines to control considerations. Closed-loop simulations of different columns are reported to show the effect of the plant ill-conditioning on the control performance in the presence of input uncertainty.