A novel "feed-backward" control structure for on-demand control of distillation column sequences.

The typical conventional plantwide control structure sets the flow rate of the fresh feed entering the process. Sometimes marketing or safety requirements dictate that the flowrate of the product leaving the process must be flow controlled. This structure is called "on-demand." Important examples of chemicals that must be supplied on an "as-needed" basis include hydrogen, oxygen, synthesis gas, toxic hydrogen cyanide and explosive nitrotoluene. Since the output flow is fixed in an on-demand control structure, the material balance loops controlling liquid levels and gas pressures must work their way back upstream through the process to eventually adjust the fresh feed streams. A novel on-demand control structure is developed in this paper that reduces peak dynamic disturbances throughout the process by immediately changing upstream flow rates in a "feed-backward" manner when the product flow rate is changed. ● A new on-demand control structure is proposed and its performance evaluated for throughput and feed composition disturbances. ● The numerical example is the ethyl benzene process that features two reactors, two distillation columns and two liquid recycle streams. ● Comparisons are made of a conventional plantwide control structure with several on-demand control structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]