Impact of mathematical model selection onprediction of steady state and dynamic behaviour ofa reactive distillation column

摘要

A reactive distillation column in general can exhibit multiple steady stateswhich reduce column operability and controllability during perturbations ofmanipulated variables and particularly during start-up and shut down. Theobjective of this paper was to compare the equilibrium (EQ) and nonequilibrium(NEQ) models of a reactive distillation column, focusing on the phenomenon ofmultiple steady states. In particular, isolated solution branches have been foundat several values of chosen reactant feed flow rate, making the column to beprone to operability and control problems. Certain perturbations in the reactantsfeed flow rate were found to cause transitions between parallel steady states.