Design And Control Of A Reactive Distillation System With Double Reactive Sections For Production Of Ethylene Glycol Diacetate

In this paper, a novel reactive distillation (RD) system with double reactive sections (RDDRS) is proposed for two-step consecutive reactions. A reactive distillation column for synthesis of ethylene glycol diactetate is studied to explain the procedures of designing RDDRS and explore the Both RDDRS and conventional RD system, which has only one reactive section, are designed for identical feeds and identical products. The two systems are optimized in terms of total annual cost (TAC). Through simulations using Aspen Plus Software, the effect of every design variable on TAC has been studied. Compared with a conventional RD system, RDDRS has more design degrees of freedom, allowing for future mass integration and heat integration between the separation and reaction process involved. The results obtained show that RDDRS consumes less energy and have better steady-state performance.Dynamics and control schemes are then investigated. Two temperature control schemes are applied for the two reactive distillation systems. It is demonstrated that process dynamics and controllability are improved greatly through arrangement of two reactive sections in a reactive distillation column.