RD-toolbox: A computer aided toolbox for integrated design and control of reactive distillation processes

Abstract

Control and operation of intensified processes are inherently difficult due to a reduced region of controllability, which originates from a high degree of interaction between the design-control parameters. As a result, a design with feasible steady-state operation may be dynamically inoperable due to the inability to ensure stability in the open-loop or closed-loop. To address these issues, an integrated design-control toolbox, which is tailor-made for reactive distillation (RD) processes, is proposed in this work. Given a set of design-control parameters, this RD-Toolbox links in-house tools to required external tools and guides the user to set-up steady-state and dynamic simulations and perform controllability analysis. To demonstrate the range of functionalities of the RD-Toolbox, two case studies are presented, i.e., ethyl tert-butyl ether (ETBE), and ethyl acetate production. For the ETBE case study, the design-control parameters are obtained through two integrated design-control methods, namely the superstructure optimization method and the driving force-based method. In terms of controllability, both designs for the ETBE system could efficiently reject feed disturbances. For the ethyl acetate case, the suggested set of design-control parameters corresponding to the maximum driving force-based design could exhibit satisfactory control performance. The results illustrate the advantages of using the RD-Toolbox for fast, reliable, and efficient solution and analysis of RD processes.