The mass and thermal coupling makes the control of the reactive double dividing-wall distillation column(R-DDWDC) an especially challenging issue with a highly interactive nature. With reference to the separation of a...The mass and thermal coupling makes the control of the reactive double dividing-wall distillation column(R-DDWDC) an especially challenging issue with a highly interactive nature. With reference to the separation of an ideal endothermic quaternary reversible reaction with the most unfavorable ranking of relative volatilities(A + B ■ C + D with α_(A)>α_(C)>α_(D)>α_(B)), the operation rationality of the R-DDWDC is studied in this contribution. The four-point single temperature control system leads to great steady-state discrepancies in the compositions of products C and D and the reason stems essentially from the failure in keeping strictly the stoichiometric ratio between reactants A and B. A temperature plus temperature cascade control scheme is then employed to reinforce the stoichiometric ratio control and helps to secure a substantial abatement in the steady-state discrepancies. A temperature difference plus temperature cascade control scheme is finally synthesized and leads even to better performance than the most effective double temperature difference control scheme. These outcomes reveal not only the operation feasibility of the R-DDWDC but also the general significance of the proposed temperature difference plus temperature cascade control scheme to the inferential control of any other complicated distillation columns.展开更多
For dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs) separating a heavy-component dominated and wide boiling-point ternary(HCDWBT) mixture, a significant amount of excessive heat exists inevitably in stripping the heavy-comp...For dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs) separating a heavy-component dominated and wide boiling-point ternary(HCDWBT) mixture, a significant amount of excessive heat exists inevitably in stripping the heavy-component from the intermediate-component and it can be employed to initiate the development of vapor recompression heat pump(VRHP) assisted DWDC(VRHP-DWDC). Despite dividing wall may locate in the top, middle, and bottom, the optimum VRHP-DWDC is found to involve uniformlytwo VRHP circles. While the first one serves to compress and transform the excessive heat resulted from the separation of the heavy-component from the intermediate-component, the second one to compress and transform the overhead vapor stream of the light-component pre-heated sequentially with the condensate from the first one and the bottom product stream of the heavy-component, both releasing the temperature-elevated latent heat to the pre-fractionator's or common stripping section. The processing of two HCDWBT mixtures of benzene/toluene/o-xylene and n-pentane/n-hexane/n-heptane are selected to assess the derived optimum topological configurations of the VRHP-DWDC and their optimality is confirmed through detailed comparisons with the DWDC and two VRHP-DWDCs involving only one VRHP circle. The proposed strategy helps to tap the full potential of the VRHP-DWDC with considerably alleviated complication in process development.展开更多
Temperature inferential control (TIC) is studied for a reactive distillation column with double reactive sections (RDC-DRSs) processing a hypothetical two-stage consecutive reversible reaction (A + B■C + D, C + B■E ...Temperature inferential control (TIC) is studied for a reactive distillation column with double reactive sections (RDC-DRSs) processing a hypothetical two-stage consecutive reversible reaction (A + B■C + D, C + B■E + D with αD > αB > αC > αA > αE). Because of the complicated dynamic behaviors, the controlled stages by sensitivity analysis lead to great steady-state deviations (SSDs) in top and bottom product purities. Since TIC involves considerably reduced settling times in comparison with direct composition control, small SSDs in product qualities correspond generally to small transient deviations (TDs) in product qualities. An objective function that measures SSDs in product qualities is formulated to represent the performance of a TIC system and an iterative procedure is devised to search for the best control configuration. The application of the procedure to the RDC-DRS gives considerably suppressed TDs and SSDs in top and bottom product qualities as compared with the one by sensitivity analysis. The method is simpler in principle and less computationally intensive than the current practice. These striking outcomes show the effectiveness of the proposed principle for the development of TIC systems for complicated reactive distillation columns.展开更多
Reactive dividing-wall column(RDWC) technology plays a critical role in the energy saving and high efficiency of chemical process.In this article, the process of co-producing ethyl acetate(EA) and n-butyl acetate(BA) ...Reactive dividing-wall column(RDWC) technology plays a critical role in the energy saving and high efficiency of chemical process.In this article, the process of co-producing ethyl acetate(EA) and n-butyl acetate(BA) with RDWC was studied.BA was not only the product, but also acted as entrainer to remove the water generated by the two esterification reactions.Experiments and simulations of the co-production process were carried out.It was found that the experimental results were in good agreement with the simulation results.Two kinds of RDWC structures(RDWC-FC and RDWC-RS) were proposed, and the co-production process operating parameters of the two types of RDWC were optimized by Aspen Plus respectively.The optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-FC were determined as follows: 0.6 of the reflux ratio of aqueous phase(RR), 0.66 of the vapor split(R_V) and 0.51 of the liquid split(R_L).And the optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-RS were shown as follows: RR was 0.295 and R_V was 0.61.Furthermore, the energy saving analysis of the co-production process was based on the annual output of 10000 tons of EA, compared with the traditional reaction distillation(RD) to prepare EA and BA, the reboiler duty of the RDWC-FC column could save 20.4%, TAC saving 23.6%; RDWC-RS reboiler energy consumption could save 17.0%, TAC 22.2%.展开更多
Due to the topological structure of double columns and multiple separating sections in dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs),the development of vapor recompressed dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDC-VRHPs)repr...Due to the topological structure of double columns and multiple separating sections in dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs),the development of vapor recompressed dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDC-VRHPs)represents a challenging issue with great complexities and tediousness.For the separations of light-component dominated and wide boiling-point ternary mixtures,because the purification of the light-component from the intermediate-and heavy-components incurs the primary energy dissipation,the application of vapor recompressed heat pumps(VRHP)should be aimed to reduce the irreversibility and this leads to the generation of the optimum topological structures of the DWDC-VRHPs,i.e.,a DWDC plus a two-stage VRHP.The first-stage VRHP is to preheat feed,not only taking the advantages of the small temperature elevation available but also favoring the mass transfer between the vapor and liquid phases through feed splitting.The second-stage VRHP is to reduce further separation irreversibility.The philosophy can be applied to any DWDCs no matter where the dividing wall locates.Two case studies on the separations of ternary mixtures of benzene,toluene,and o-xylene and n-pentane,n-hexane,and n-heptane demonstrate the economic optimality of the proposed DWDC-VRHPs and reveal the inherent interplay between internal and external process integration.展开更多
Isoamylene from the Fischer-Tropsch syncrude can be transformed to valuable fuel oxygenate additives through an equilibrium limited etherification reaction with methanol. A reactive distillation process is established...Isoamylene from the Fischer-Tropsch syncrude can be transformed to valuable fuel oxygenate additives through an equilibrium limited etherification reaction with methanol. A reactive distillation process is established to increase isoamylene conversion. Facing the challenge of improving product purity at the same time, an equilibrium stage model based design methodology is proposed and illustrated step-by-step for converting the Fischer-Tropsch C_5 olefins to tert-amyl methyl ether(TAME) process by using Aspen Plus. Under the guide of the proposed methodology, the design leads to a TAME product purity of higher than 95% and an isoamylene conversion of higher than 90%. The etherification kinetics over Amberlyst 35 is also studied within a temperature range of 60 ℃ to 75 ℃ to shed more light on the feasibility of process development. The methodology provides an effective reactive distillation column design to achieve the target reactant conversion and product purity simultaneously.展开更多
In this work,the impact of internal heat integration upon process dynamics and controllability by superposing reactive section onto stripping section,relocating feed locations,and redistributing catalyst within the re...In this work,the impact of internal heat integration upon process dynamics and controllability by superposing reactive section onto stripping section,relocating feed locations,and redistributing catalyst within the reactive section is explored based on a hypothetical ideal reactive distillation system containing an exothermic reaction:A + BC + D.Steady state operation analysis and closed-loop controllability evaluation are carried out by comparing the process designs with and without the consideration of internal heat integration.For superposing reactive section onto stripping section,favorable effect is aroused due to its low sensitivities to the changes in operating condition.For ascending the lower feed stage,somewhat detrimental effect occurs because of the accompanied adverse internal heat integration and strong sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.For descending the upper feed stage,serious detrimental effect happens because of the introduced adverse internal heat integration and strong sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.For redistributing catalyst in the reactive section,fairly small negative influence is aroused by the sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.When reinforcing internal heat integration with a combinatorial use of these three strategies,the decent of the upper feed stage should be avoided in process development.Although the conclusions are derived based on the hypothetical ideal reactive distillation column studied,they are considered to be of general significance to the design and operation of other reactive distillation columns.展开更多
In this work,the dynamics and operation of the totally reboiled reactive distillation columns are visualized in terms of transfer function based process models.This kind of processes is found to be characterized by un...In this work,the dynamics and operation of the totally reboiled reactive distillation columns are visualized in terms of transfer function based process models.This kind of processes is found to be characterized by underdamped step responses due to the special topological configuration and the intricate interplay between the reaction operation and the separation operation involved.The under-dampness can be substantially alleviated through the tight inventory control of bottom reboiler and this presents beneficial effects to process dynamics and operation.Two totally reboiled reactive distillation columns,separating,respectively,a hypothetical synthesis reaction from reactants A and B to product C,and a real decomposition reaction from 1,4-butanediol to tetrahydrofuran and water,are employed to demonstrate these uncommon behaviors.The results obtained give full support to the above qualitative interpretation.Despite the strong influences of reaction kinetics and thermodynamic properties of the reacting mixtures,the totally reboiled reactive distillation columns are generally considered to present such unique behaviors and require tight inventory control of bottom reboiler to facilitate their control system development.展开更多
Dividing-wall columns(DWCs)are widely used in the separation of ternary mixtures,but rarely seen in the separation of petroleum fractions.This work develops two novel and energy-efficient designs of lubricant-type vac...Dividing-wall columns(DWCs)are widely used in the separation of ternary mixtures,but rarely seen in the separation of petroleum fractions.This work develops two novel and energy-efficient designs of lubricant-type vacuum distillation process(LVDP)for the separation of hydroisomerization fractions(HIF)of a hydrocracking tail oil(HTO).First,the HTO hydroisomerization reaction is investigated in an experimental fixed-bed reactor to achieve the optimum liquid HIF by analyzing the impact of the operating conditions.A LVDP used for HIF separation is proposed and optimized.Subsequently,two thermal coupling intensified technologies,including side-stream(SC)and dividing-wall column(DWC),are combined with the LVDP to develop side-stream vacuum distillation process(SC-LVDP)and dividing-wall column vacuum distillation process(DWC-LVDP).The performance of LVDP,SC-LVDP,and DWC-LVDP are evaluated in terms of energy consumption,capital cost,total annual cost,product yields,and stripping steam consumption.The results demonstrates that the intensified processes,SC-LVDP and DWC-LVDP significantly decreases the energy consumption and capital cost compared with LVDP.DWC-LVDP further decreases in capital cost due to the removal of the side stripper and narrows the overlap between the third lube oils and fourth lube oils.This study attempts to combine DWC structure into the separation of petroleum fractions,and the proposed approach and the results presented provide an incentive for the industrial implementation of high-quality utilization of HTO through intensified LVDP.展开更多
基金the financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (21878011)。
文摘The mass and thermal coupling makes the control of the reactive double dividing-wall distillation column(R-DDWDC) an especially challenging issue with a highly interactive nature. With reference to the separation of an ideal endothermic quaternary reversible reaction with the most unfavorable ranking of relative volatilities(A + B ■ C + D with α_(A)>α_(C)>α_(D)>α_(B)), the operation rationality of the R-DDWDC is studied in this contribution. The four-point single temperature control system leads to great steady-state discrepancies in the compositions of products C and D and the reason stems essentially from the failure in keeping strictly the stoichiometric ratio between reactants A and B. A temperature plus temperature cascade control scheme is then employed to reinforce the stoichiometric ratio control and helps to secure a substantial abatement in the steady-state discrepancies. A temperature difference plus temperature cascade control scheme is finally synthesized and leads even to better performance than the most effective double temperature difference control scheme. These outcomes reveal not only the operation feasibility of the R-DDWDC but also the general significance of the proposed temperature difference plus temperature cascade control scheme to the inferential control of any other complicated distillation columns.
基金The financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China (21878011)。
文摘For dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs) separating a heavy-component dominated and wide boiling-point ternary(HCDWBT) mixture, a significant amount of excessive heat exists inevitably in stripping the heavy-component from the intermediate-component and it can be employed to initiate the development of vapor recompression heat pump(VRHP) assisted DWDC(VRHP-DWDC). Despite dividing wall may locate in the top, middle, and bottom, the optimum VRHP-DWDC is found to involve uniformlytwo VRHP circles. While the first one serves to compress and transform the excessive heat resulted from the separation of the heavy-component from the intermediate-component, the second one to compress and transform the overhead vapor stream of the light-component pre-heated sequentially with the condensate from the first one and the bottom product stream of the heavy-component, both releasing the temperature-elevated latent heat to the pre-fractionator's or common stripping section. The processing of two HCDWBT mixtures of benzene/toluene/o-xylene and n-pentane/n-hexane/n-heptane are selected to assess the derived optimum topological configurations of the VRHP-DWDC and their optimality is confirmed through detailed comparisons with the DWDC and two VRHP-DWDCs involving only one VRHP circle. The proposed strategy helps to tap the full potential of the VRHP-DWDC with considerably alleviated complication in process development.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21376018,21576014,21676011,21808007,and 21878011)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(ZY1837)China Postdoctoral Science Foundation(2017M620587)
文摘Temperature inferential control (TIC) is studied for a reactive distillation column with double reactive sections (RDC-DRSs) processing a hypothetical two-stage consecutive reversible reaction (A + B■C + D, C + B■E + D with αD > αB > αC > αA > αE). Because of the complicated dynamic behaviors, the controlled stages by sensitivity analysis lead to great steady-state deviations (SSDs) in top and bottom product purities. Since TIC involves considerably reduced settling times in comparison with direct composition control, small SSDs in product qualities correspond generally to small transient deviations (TDs) in product qualities. An objective function that measures SSDs in product qualities is formulated to represent the performance of a TIC system and an iterative procedure is devised to search for the best control configuration. The application of the procedure to the RDC-DRS gives considerably suppressed TDs and SSDs in top and bottom product qualities as compared with the one by sensitivity analysis. The method is simpler in principle and less computationally intensive than the current practice. These striking outcomes show the effectiveness of the proposed principle for the development of TIC systems for complicated reactive distillation columns.
基金Supported by the National Key R&D Program of China(2017YFB0602500)the Key Basic Research Items in Application Basic Research Program of Hebei Province,China(16964502D)
文摘Reactive dividing-wall column(RDWC) technology plays a critical role in the energy saving and high efficiency of chemical process.In this article, the process of co-producing ethyl acetate(EA) and n-butyl acetate(BA) with RDWC was studied.BA was not only the product, but also acted as entrainer to remove the water generated by the two esterification reactions.Experiments and simulations of the co-production process were carried out.It was found that the experimental results were in good agreement with the simulation results.Two kinds of RDWC structures(RDWC-FC and RDWC-RS) were proposed, and the co-production process operating parameters of the two types of RDWC were optimized by Aspen Plus respectively.The optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-FC were determined as follows: 0.6 of the reflux ratio of aqueous phase(RR), 0.66 of the vapor split(R_V) and 0.51 of the liquid split(R_L).And the optimal operating parameters of the RDWC-RS were shown as follows: RR was 0.295 and R_V was 0.61.Furthermore, the energy saving analysis of the co-production process was based on the annual output of 10000 tons of EA, compared with the traditional reaction distillation(RD) to prepare EA and BA, the reboiler duty of the RDWC-FC column could save 20.4%, TAC saving 23.6%; RDWC-RS reboiler energy consumption could save 17.0%, TAC 22.2%.
基金financial financial support from National Natural Science Foundation of China(218780112167601121808007)。
文摘Due to the topological structure of double columns and multiple separating sections in dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDCs),the development of vapor recompressed dividing-wall distillation columns(DWDC-VRHPs)represents a challenging issue with great complexities and tediousness.For the separations of light-component dominated and wide boiling-point ternary mixtures,because the purification of the light-component from the intermediate-and heavy-components incurs the primary energy dissipation,the application of vapor recompressed heat pumps(VRHP)should be aimed to reduce the irreversibility and this leads to the generation of the optimum topological structures of the DWDC-VRHPs,i.e.,a DWDC plus a two-stage VRHP.The first-stage VRHP is to preheat feed,not only taking the advantages of the small temperature elevation available but also favoring the mass transfer between the vapor and liquid phases through feed splitting.The second-stage VRHP is to reduce further separation irreversibility.The philosophy can be applied to any DWDCs no matter where the dividing wall locates.Two case studies on the separations of ternary mixtures of benzene,toluene,and o-xylene and n-pentane,n-hexane,and n-heptane demonstrate the economic optimality of the proposed DWDC-VRHPs and reveal the inherent interplay between internal and external process integration.
基金financial support from the National High Technology Research and Development Program 863(2011AA05A204)National Natural Science Foundation of China(U1361202)
文摘Isoamylene from the Fischer-Tropsch syncrude can be transformed to valuable fuel oxygenate additives through an equilibrium limited etherification reaction with methanol. A reactive distillation process is established to increase isoamylene conversion. Facing the challenge of improving product purity at the same time, an equilibrium stage model based design methodology is proposed and illustrated step-by-step for converting the Fischer-Tropsch C_5 olefins to tert-amyl methyl ether(TAME) process by using Aspen Plus. Under the guide of the proposed methodology, the design leads to a TAME product purity of higher than 95% and an isoamylene conversion of higher than 90%. The etherification kinetics over Amberlyst 35 is also studied within a temperature range of 60 ℃ to 75 ℃ to shed more light on the feasibility of process development. The methodology provides an effective reactive distillation column design to achieve the target reactant conversion and product purity simultaneously.
基金Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21076015,21376018,21576014)the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(ZY1503)
文摘In this work,the impact of internal heat integration upon process dynamics and controllability by superposing reactive section onto stripping section,relocating feed locations,and redistributing catalyst within the reactive section is explored based on a hypothetical ideal reactive distillation system containing an exothermic reaction:A + BC + D.Steady state operation analysis and closed-loop controllability evaluation are carried out by comparing the process designs with and without the consideration of internal heat integration.For superposing reactive section onto stripping section,favorable effect is aroused due to its low sensitivities to the changes in operating condition.For ascending the lower feed stage,somewhat detrimental effect occurs because of the accompanied adverse internal heat integration and strong sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.For descending the upper feed stage,serious detrimental effect happens because of the introduced adverse internal heat integration and strong sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.For redistributing catalyst in the reactive section,fairly small negative influence is aroused by the sensitivity to the changes in operating condition.When reinforcing internal heat integration with a combinatorial use of these three strategies,the decent of the upper feed stage should be avoided in process development.Although the conclusions are derived based on the hypothetical ideal reactive distillation column studied,they are considered to be of general significance to the design and operation of other reactive distillation columns.
基金Supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China(21076015,21376018,and 21576014)The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities(ZY1503)
文摘In this work,the dynamics and operation of the totally reboiled reactive distillation columns are visualized in terms of transfer function based process models.This kind of processes is found to be characterized by underdamped step responses due to the special topological configuration and the intricate interplay between the reaction operation and the separation operation involved.The under-dampness can be substantially alleviated through the tight inventory control of bottom reboiler and this presents beneficial effects to process dynamics and operation.Two totally reboiled reactive distillation columns,separating,respectively,a hypothetical synthesis reaction from reactants A and B to product C,and a real decomposition reaction from 1,4-butanediol to tetrahydrofuran and water,are employed to demonstrate these uncommon behaviors.The results obtained give full support to the above qualitative interpretation.Despite the strong influences of reaction kinetics and thermodynamic properties of the reacting mixtures,the totally reboiled reactive distillation columns are generally considered to present such unique behaviors and require tight inventory control of bottom reboiler to facilitate their control system development.
基金funded by Shanghai Sailing Program (No.19YF1410800)National Natural Science Foundation of China(No. 21908056)。
文摘Dividing-wall columns(DWCs)are widely used in the separation of ternary mixtures,but rarely seen in the separation of petroleum fractions.This work develops two novel and energy-efficient designs of lubricant-type vacuum distillation process(LVDP)for the separation of hydroisomerization fractions(HIF)of a hydrocracking tail oil(HTO).First,the HTO hydroisomerization reaction is investigated in an experimental fixed-bed reactor to achieve the optimum liquid HIF by analyzing the impact of the operating conditions.A LVDP used for HIF separation is proposed and optimized.Subsequently,two thermal coupling intensified technologies,including side-stream(SC)and dividing-wall column(DWC),are combined with the LVDP to develop side-stream vacuum distillation process(SC-LVDP)and dividing-wall column vacuum distillation process(DWC-LVDP).The performance of LVDP,SC-LVDP,and DWC-LVDP are evaluated in terms of energy consumption,capital cost,total annual cost,product yields,and stripping steam consumption.The results demonstrates that the intensified processes,SC-LVDP and DWC-LVDP significantly decreases the energy consumption and capital cost compared with LVDP.DWC-LVDP further decreases in capital cost due to the removal of the side stripper and narrows the overlap between the third lube oils and fourth lube oils.This study attempts to combine DWC structure into the separation of petroleum fractions,and the proposed approach and the results presented provide an incentive for the industrial implementation of high-quality utilization of HTO through intensified LVDP.
