Heat integration and dynamic control of reactive pressure-swing distillation for separation of tetrahydrofuran/ethanol/water.

• Heat integration and dynamic control of reactive pressure-swing distillation for separating tetrahydrofuran/ethanol/water were investigated. • Three generalized and robust control strategies that can resist ±20% feed disturbances were proposed for RPSD. • The TAC and exhaust emission (CO 2 , SO 2, and NO) were greatly reduced while the dynamic control performance was improved. In this paper, heat integration and dynamic control of reactive pressure-swing distillation (RPSD) for separating tetrahydrofuran/ethanol/water was investigated from the aspects of energy consumption, environmental protection and practical applications. By exploring the heat exchange between separating tetrahydrofuran and ethanol distillation columns, the full heat integration process (FHI) was designed. Robust control of heat and non-heat integrated processes was realized based on the dual temperature control structure. All processes were resistant to ±20% feed flow and composition disturbances. Finally, these processes were compared from three aspects: economy, environment and dynamic performance. The results show that compared with the non-heat integration process, the FHI process can reduce the total annual cost by 24.14%, the CO 2 emission by 20.21% and the SO 2 and NO emission by 34.38%, meanwhile, having the best dynamic performance. This study is valuable and instructive in promoting the integrated optimal and control design of the RPSD process. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]