Control of a reactive distillation column with double reactive sections for two-stage consecutive reactions

In this study, the control performance of a reactive distillation column with double reactive sections is evaluated. The reactions taking place in the column are two-stage consecutive reversible liquid-phase reactions. A hypothetical ideal reaction system is selected as case study. Different control structures including temperature and/or composition control loops are developed and tested for different load disturbances. The closed loop results of different control structures demonstrate that a workable control structure should include direct control of compositions. A control structure with two temperature controllers and two composition controllers provides an effective control for the column with double reactive sections.