Residue curve maps are a powerful tool for the preliminary design of Reactive Distillation (RD). In this study, residue curve maps of the n-butyl acetate synthesis reaction were calculated based on the Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson kinetic and UNIQUAC models to calculate the physical properties of the system. The results showed that the unstable node branch emerged from the n-butyl ace...

This paper presents a modern modeling approach for reactive distillation processes with potential phase splitting. It is based on a classical model (pseudo-homogeneous) in connection with a robust and reliable phase splitting algorithm (through homotopy-continuation method), performed at each simulation step. Model validation stage and a simple case-study (by applying the new approach to a reac...

Fatty acid esterification is increasingly realized as a reactive distillation (RD) process because of its formation being affected by the chemical equilibrium. The reactive distillation column performance for the production of isopropyl palmitate by esterification of the palmitic acid with isopropanol has been studied in the present research. The reaction was catalyzed in the presence of zinc a...

A reactive distillation column in general can exhibit multiple steady states which reduce column operability and controllability during perturbations of manipulated variables and particularly during start-up and shut down. The objective of this paper was to compare the equilibrium (EQ) and nonequilibrium (NEQ) models of a reactive distillation column, focusing on the phenomenon of multiple stea...

A new approach for start-up of empty cold reactive distillation columns by means of feedback control strategies is presented. In this paper, the discontinuous stage of startup is taken into account. This stage begins with the fill-up and heating process of the empty cold column and ends if vapour reaches the condenser. A corresponding model for the start-up process is developed. The control str...

This paper deals with robust low-order controller design for a medium-scale pilot reactive distillation column. In the first step, a linear model of the column which is identified from experiments is used to compute the attainable control performance. In this step, actuator limitations and model uncertainty resulting from a priori knowledge as well as confidence intervals provided by the identi...

Reactive distillation is an attractive option for equilibrium limited reactions. For highly nonideal systems, the selection of liquid phase activity model considerably influences the model predictions. In this work, activity models proposed in literature and available in RADFRAC module of Aspen Plus are compared for ethyl acetate production through reactive distillation. Also, a hybrid modellin...

This paper presents a comprehensive formulation of a linearized state space process model for a generic two-reactant-two-product reactive distillation system. The development of the model requires the knowledge of the desired steady state design data, including liquid holdups and composition profiles. The application of the developed linear process model in composition estimation and control of...