Multi-variable dynamic control of distillation column with side reactors for methyl acetate production

The distillation column with side reactors (SRC) process allowing a more flexible way of coupling reaction and separation leads to the increase in the freedom of the system and the number of design variables, which consequently increases the difficulty in the process simulation, optimization and dynamic control. For smooth operation and automatic control of the SRC process, with the SRC integration technique in the production of methyl acetate production process as an example, the steady-state optimization, dynamic control and simulation are discussed in the paper. To obtain the optimum integrated structure and the steady-state simulation of SRC for methyl acetate production, the systematic design approach based on the concept of independent reaction amount is applied to the process of SRC for methyl acetate production. Then multivariable control schemes based on product quality control with variable ratio control are designed and SRC of methyl acetate dynamic simulation based on process simulation software Aspen is used to verify the effectiveness of the control scheme. The simulation results show good control precision, robustness and dynamic follow performance of the control scheme.