Computer Simulation Of The Separation Of Ethanol-n-propanol And The Realization Of Data Acquisition System

The separation of ethanol-n-propanol by distillation was studied and simulated using ASPEN PLUS,An automatic monitoring and control system of distillation based on MCGS configuration software was researched and developed, the real-time on-line displaying and automatically data collection and control of the process of distillation can be realized by using this system.The results showed that: when the calefaction voltage is 130V, the feed flow of 1.51/h, the percentage of enthanol in the feed is around 0.25, the reflux ratio is 4, can reach the best separation effects. The mole fraction of enthanol in the top tower can reach 0.86. By using MATLAB software, solved distillation column theoretical tray number with graphical method and calculated the efficiency of the tray, the efficiency can reach 0.90.The process of distillation was simulated by ASPENPLUS software. A model based on RADFRAC block using WILS-2 property method was established. The effects of reflux ratio, the percentage of enthanol in feed, and the total feed flow on the mole rate of enthanol in the top tower were experimentally investigated. The simulation results show that the calculated results agree satisfactorily with experimental data. At the same time, The operation parameters of the distillation column, such as reflux ratio, feed stage and distillate to feed rate were optimized on the basis of sensitivity analysis, gained the variation rules of parameters and the optimum operation condition, which would be useful for the farther work. What's more, The profiles of temperature, vapor and liquid flow rate, vapor and liquid composition along with stages of column were obtained, which could not be obtained during the experiment.MCGS is one of commonly used industrial-controlled software in the industrial process at present. The control and monitoring system interface of distillation experiment was developed by using MCGS. realized the control and real-time on-line system for displaying the flow,temperature,the reflux ratio,calefaction voltage and the function of data processing after experiment and so on. The actual running results show that the developed system has friendly interface and perfect functions. It is convenient for operation. The system can fulfill the supervision and local data acquisition effectively and it is helpful for data acquisition and analyzing the experimental data exactly. The system presented in this paper will have wide applications in the future.