No abstract

The dynamic behavior of a multiple dividing‐wall column pilot plant is evaluated by means of dynamic simulation. Three different control structures are developed or adapted from the literature, which are constrained by the actual design features of the pilot plant column. Since in the present case the design of the column was chosen such that very different mixtures can be separated, it cannot be optimally designed for each of these potential mixtures. Rather, the design focused on the flexibility of the plant. All three investigated control structures were tested on feed flow rate and feed composition disturbance and allowed a robust control of the pilot plant, whereby control structure 2 is slightly better than others in terms of steady‐state deviations and less pronounced fluctuations during the dynamic phase. The transferability of control structure 2 to other variants of multiple dividing‐wall columns is easily possible.

Despite the attractive savings potential of multiple Dividing Wall Columns (mDWC), there are no reports in the open literature of an existing application so far. In this perspective, the control of mDWCs has been a rather little-investigated field. Pilot plants are a necessary step needed to further expand the application window of this sustainable distillation technology. This contribution aimed to show that mDWCs are sufficiently flexible, providing stable operation, even with suboptimal control structures arising from design limitations imposed by equipment. For this purpose, the pilot column design was assessed using dynamic simulation to evaluate its operability in case of different disturbances as well as different feed mixtures. The results showed that, in all cases, the column could be stabilized and product purities maintained. This suggests that even complex configurations such as mDWCs offer sufficient amount of flexibility to allow for the application of one design in different services.

P57U ovom radu istražuju se mogućnosti vođenja kompleksne konfiguracije destilacijske kolone s razdjelnim stijenkama (KRS) za četiri proizvoda. Simulacijski su ispitane dvije izvedbe sustava za vođenje. Na temelju statičkog modela destilacijske kolone razvijene su dinamičke simulacije tih dviju izvedba, a njihov učinak testiran je uvođenjem poremećaja u sustav. Rezultati pokazuju da je za uspješno vođenje i postizanje zahtijevane kvalitete proizvoda potrebna vrlo čvrsta regulacija temperaturnih profila unutar kolone, ali i da je to moguće postići konvencionalnim metodama vođenja, odnosno primjenom regulacije PID. Kolona s razdjelnom stijenkom, vođenje, PID regulacija