Adaptive Control of an ETBE Reactive Distillation Column

Reactive distillation is a favourable alternative to conventional series of reaction-separation processes. It can reduce both operating costs as well as capital investments. However, its control is challenging due to its complex dynamics resulting from its integrated functionality of reaction and separation. Linear, e.g. PID, control with fixed parameters has been shown not to be satisfactory to handle its high nonlinearity. It needs to be re-tuned adequately over a wide range of operating conditions. In this work, the application of two adaptive PI control strategies, e.g. non-linear PI (NPI) and model gain-scheduling (MGS), is investigated for an ETBE reactive distillation column. Their control performance to handle the nonlinearity and reduce the unwanted variability is discussed. The simulation results show that the proposed control strategies outperform a standard PI controller in both set-point tracking and disturbance rejection.

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