Simulation and Control of Distillation Process

JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7, JULY 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING/ WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.
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Simulation and Control of Distillation Process

Asha Rani, Vijander Singh, and J.R.P Gupta Instrumentation and Control Engineering Division, Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, University of Delhi, Delhi
AbstractThe precise control of distillate quality is the objective of the present work and i s achieved by controlling the temperature profile of the distillation process. The generic mathematical models of multicomponent distillation and r eactive distillation processes are considered for simulation. The PID and f uzzy controllers are designed for both the processes. In case of multicomponent distillation process, the PID controller is designed with the help of Zeigler-Nichols tuning method and for reactive process the PID controller is designed using Tyreus-Luyben method. The PID controller is used to control the reboiler temperature of multicomponent distillation process. In case of reactive process the exothermic reaction takes place between the two feeds and the amount of heat generated depends upon the feed flow rate. Therefore the designed PID controller is used for controlling the feed flow rate which controls the temperature indirectly. The fuzzy controllers are designed for both the processes and are used for controlling the reboiler temperature and feed flow rate respectively. The results obtained from both the controllers are compared. It is observed from the results that the fuzzy controller performs better than the conventional PID controller. Index Terms Distillation column, Reactive Process, PID controller, Fuzzy controller.
1 INTRODUCTION
ISTILLATION is the separation process of two or more than two components of a mixture into its component fractions. It is the most widely used process in chemical industry. Distillation separates two or more liquid components of a mixture using the principle of relative volatility or boiling points. The greater the difference in relative volatility, the easier it is to separate the mixture using distillation [8], [16]. The quality of distillate product is controlled by using different control techniques like conventional control, intelligent control and inferential control [13], [14], [15]. A PID controller [13] is a generic control loop feedback mechanism. The PID controller calculates the "error" as the difference between a measured process variable and a desired set point. The controller attempts to minimize the error by adjusting the process control inputs. The PID parameters used in the controller must be tuned according to the nature of the system to get the desired results [3], [9]. The selection of proportional, integral and derivative constants is decided according to the nature and requirement of the process. The weighted sum of these three control actions is used by a control element such as the position of a control valve or the power supply of a heating element, to adjust the process output. The PID control scheme is named after its three correcting terms (proportional, the integral and derivative) [6],
whose sum constitutes the manipulated variable (MV) [3]. A.M.F. Fileti et al. in [2007][29] developed a PID fuzzy algorithm for the online control of some processes. PID fuzzy controllers were compared with conventional PID controller and found to be most suitable and reliable for the polymerization process. Since the average product flow rate was found to be higher when the batch column was under PID fuzzy control, the process became faster and demanded lesser energy. In spite of the nonlinear and unsteady behaviour of the batch process, the fuzzy controller was also able to follow variable set point strategies. C.R. Edger et al. in [2000][30] devised a new controller fuzzy-IMC which is based on internal model control and utilizes a non linear crisp consequent Fuzzy relational model at its core. It was observed that the proposed controller performed significantly better than multi-loop PID. ChiHuang Lu and Ching-Chih Tsai [31] in 2007 presented a methodology for predictive control of industrial processes via recurrent fuzzy neural networks. The results of numerical simulations and experiments show that the methodology is capable of controlling industrial processes with satisfactory performance under set point and load changes. The basic structure of the process to be controlled is described in the next section. 1.1 Multicomponent Distillation Process: The multicomponent distillation column under consideration is having 15 trays, a reboiler to vaporise the mixture and a condenser to cool the overhead vapour. Tray 5 is used as feed tray. In distillation, a liquid mixture is fed on the feed tray and the mixture is stored in reboiler. The heat is introduced in the reboiler to pro-
Asha Rani is with the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, University of Delhi, Delhi. Vijander Singh is with Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Uiversity of Delhi, Delhi. JRP Gupta is with Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, Uiversity of Delhi, Delhi.
JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7, JULY 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING/ WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.ORG
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duce vapour. The vapour starts flowing from the reboiler to top tray and then to condenser through stripping and rectifying section. During initial start-up period, the column operates under total reflux condition in which vapour from the top of the column is condensed and returned to the column through reflux drum. During the column operation under total reflux condition, the concentration of the lightest component builds-up on the upper trays of the column and the concentrations of the intermediate component and heaviest component decreases in the top of the column but increases in the still pot. When the concentration of the lightest component in the distillate reaches its specified purity level, then the distillate product withdrawal begins. The basic structure of distillation column is shown in Fig. 1.
Yi,j Hi hFi Fi XFi
Vi
Li+1 Xi+1,j hi+1
Mi
Vi-1 Yi-1,j Hi-1 Li Xi,j hi
Fig.2. Modelling of general tray-i
Where
= 1, + 1,
for j= 1,,NC;
i= 1,,NT
(4)
(iii) Component material balance for reboiler:
= 1 1, , (1 ),
, = , 1, ,
for j= 1,,NC;
(5) (6)
(b) Total Material Balance Equation For general tray-i

Fig.1. Basic Structure of Distillation Process
= +1 + 1 + for i=1,,NT
(7)
Mathematical Modeling: The mathematical model of distillation column, shown in Fig. 1, with the usual assumptions is considered for the present work. The mass and energy balance equations are obtained by applying conservation laws to each tray, condenser and reboiler. (a) Component Material Balance Equations (i) Concentration for condenser The change in reflux drum-level with time at steady state condition is zero i.e dMD / dt = 0 , because of the presence of reflux drum level controller, which gives equation (1). =
(c) Total Enthalpy Balance Equations: (i) Enthalpy balance for condenser

(ii) Enthalpy balance for general tray-i
= +1 +1 + 1 +1 + for i=1,,NT

(8)
(9)
(1)
(iii) Enthalpy balance for reboiler
Component material balance around condenser is given by
(ii) Component material balance equation for tray-i is given by = +1 +1, + 1 1, + for j= 1,,NC; i= 1,,NT
= , ,
for j=1,,NC
(2)
At equilibrium the ith tray temperature is found by using the following bubble point relation: , , = for j= 1,,NC; i= 1,,NT
=
= 1 1 (1 ) +
(10)
(11)
(3)
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The bubble point above relationship is satisfied by an iterative procedure. The feed composition, flow rates, tray temperatures, column pressure and stage efficiencies are assumed to be specified for the simulation of distillation column. Simulation is done following the basic steps of the algorithm reflecting the simplified multi-component distillation column as in [15]. The second model used for application of PID and fuzzy controller is the reactive 1.2 Reactive Distillation Process: Reactive distillation shown in Fig. 3 is a process of chemical reaction and separation of the products in the common chamber. It is a highly nonlinear and complex process. The chemical industry has already acknowledged its significance due to its high gain and compact nature. Pre-installation optimal design of this process is of great concern because it is a onetime installation, but it requires constant supply of materials like fuel and reactants, out of which fuel is very costly. A saving in the design of an ideal reactive distillation column (Ideal RDC) without compromising any of the desired features would indeed be a great profit to the industry. In the chemical process industries, chemical reaction and purification of the desired products of distillation are usually carried out sequentially. In many cases, the performance of this classic chemical process can be significantly improved by integration of reaction and distillation in a single multifunctional process unit. This integration concept is called reactive distillation. RDC is an ideal two-reactant-two-product reactive distillation column proposed by Al-Arfaj and Luyben [20] and later developed into state space model [22]. It consists of a reactive section in the middle and nonreactive rectifying and stripping sections at the top and bottom respectively.
During the process of distillation, the reactant B which is one of the input feeds is recovered in the rectifying section from the output product C whereas the second feed i.e. reactant A, is recovered from output product D in the stripping section. The reactive section comprises the middle section of the reactive distillation column where the reactants A and B react to produce C and D. The reaction generates the heat which is then used for the distillation of the products. The products are separated to prevent any undesired reaction between reactants A and B and products C and D. The volatilities of the products and reactants are such that Where is the volatility of the jth component, j=a,b,c,d. It can be observed from the above relation that C is the lightest product with highest volatility, D is the heaviest product with lowest volatility and volatilities of A and B lie in between them. This relative volatility ensures that the products A and B have high concentration in the reactive section, which is typical example of an Ideal Reactive Distillation column. The three sections consist of trays that have different composition profiles, vapour profile, liquid profile and hold up. As shown in Fig. 3, two inputs are marked as feed A and feed B at the left side. The two input streams are fed as reactants A and B, the reactant A is lighter as compared to B, therefore A tries to go up and B being heavier tries to settle in the bottom part of the column. The quality of products C and D is controlled by manipulating the feed flow rates. The controllers in the process are termed as dual end composition control structure. The reflux drum level is controlled by manipulating the distillate flow rate. The purity of both products is maintained at 95%. The general mathematical modelling of the reactive distillation process is detailed in the next section. Mathematical Modelling: The net reaction rate for component j on tray i in the reactive zone is given by , = , , , , (14) > > > (13)
vapour in nature and is given by + +
(12)
Fig.3. Basic structure of reactive distillation column
The column consists of Reactive Trays (NRX) in the middle, Rectifying Trays (NR) in the top and Stripping Trays (NS) in the bottom. The trays of the column are numbered from reboiler to condenser. The reaction takes place in the reactive zone is exothermic liquid-
distillation process and is explained in the next section. The steady-state vapour and liquid rates are constant through the stripping and rectifying sections because equimolal overflow is assumed. However, these rates change through the reactive zone because of the exothermic reaction. The heat of reaction vaporizes some liquid on each tray in the reactive section; therefore, the vapour rate increases up through the reactive trays and the liquid rate decreases down through the reactive trays.
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= 1
The dynamic component balances equations for the column are as follows: Reflux drum:
(, )
= +1 +
(15) (16)
Rectifying and stripping trays:

( )
= , (1 + ),
The mathematical models of multicomponent distillation column and reactive distillation column described in this section are simulated in MATLAB and then used for control and analysis purpose. The control schemes applied to control the quality of product of both the processes are explained in next section.
, =
(26)
(17)
2 CONTROL SCHEMES:
In the present work two types of controllers are designed i.e. PID controller and Fuzzy controller. These two controllers are used for controlling the product quality of multicomponent distillation and reactive distillation process. 2.1 PID Controller: A close loop system is used to maintain output within desirable limits by means of a control action. Any deviation of the output from the reference input is detected by an error detector. The error signal is the difference between the reference input signal and the feedback signal obtained from the output. The error detected is then modified and applied as actuating signal to the system. In proportional control the actuating signal of the control action in a control system is proportional to the error signal. This controller is essentially an amplifier with an adjustable gain Kp. For the proportional plus derivative control action, the actuating signal consists of proportional error signal added with derivative of error signal. () = () +

Reactive trays:
(, )
= +1 +1, + 1 1, , , + ,
= +1 +1, + 1 1, , ,
(18)
(19)
Feed trays:
,
Column base:
(, )
= +1 +1, + 1 1, , , + , + = 1 1, , ,
/
(20)
(21)
() = ()
(27)
(22) , = (23) , = / Temperature of the ith tray is calculated by the following expression: = /[ ln( / , ) ] =1 (24)
The forward and backward specific reaction rates on ith tray:
(28)
With the equimolal overflow mentioned above, all the vapour rates ( ) throughout the stripping section are equal to , and all the liquid rates ( ) are equal to . Analogously, all beginning from the top of the feed tray throughout the rectifying section and total condenser are and all are equal to . The ideal vapourliquid equilibrium is assumed. Column pressure P is optimized for each tray. With pressure P and tray liquid composition , known at each tray, the temperature and the vapor composition , can be calculated. This bubble point calculation can be solved by a Newton-Raphson iterative convergence method. = , =1 (25)
The derivative control action has an anticipatory character and is effective only during transient periods i.e. it adds damping to the system. For the proportional plus integral control action the actuating signal consists of the proportional error signal added with integral of the error signal. This reduces the offset or steady state error of the system. (29) () = () + ()
The combination of the three control actions i.e. proportional, integral and derivative makes the PID controller. In the present work the PID controller is designed to control the two processes namely multicomponent distillation process and reactive distillation process as discussed in the following sections. 2.1.1 PID control of Multicomponent Distillation Process: The quality of distillate depends upon the temperature profile of the distillation column. The temperature profile of distillation column may be controlled by feed flow, reflux flow and reboiler temperature. The reboiler
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temperature is the main factor which controls the temperature profile of the distillation process because the reboiler is the nearest source of heat generation. Therefore the distillate quality can be controlled by regulating the reboiler temperature using PID controller. The conventional PID controller is designed with the help of ZeiglerNichols method. The procedure of designing the PID controller is as follows: 1. Turn on the controller to proportional mode i.e. turn off both integral and derivative mode. 2. Vary the controller gain slowly and observe the output response of the system. When output response shows sustained oscillations (Fig.4), mark that gain as K c and the period of oscillations as T. 3. The settings of K p T i and T d for different types of controller suggested by Zeigler-Nichols [22] are shown in table 1. Table-1: Zeigler-Nichols method Type of Controller PI controller PID controller Kp 0.45K c 0.6K c Ti 0.83T 0.5T Td 0 0.125T
These values of K p , T i and T d are then used for controlling the temperature of reboiler. The controlled reboiler temperature is shown in Fig. 5. The set point for the process is 202 F. It is observed from Fig. 5 that the reboiler temperature reaches at steady state after 164 iterations. It is also observed that the transient response of the process is oscillatory. The PID controller is also applied to control the distillate quality of the reactive distillation process and is explained in the next section. 2.1.2 PID control of Reactive Distillation Process: Several control structures have been proposed for reactive distillation process. The appropriate control structure depends on the flow sheet and on the type of reactions occurring in the column. If two reactants are involved and desired to operate the process without the excess of reactants then it is necessary to manage the fresh feed streams so that the stoichiometry is exactly balanced.To control the distillate quality, it needs to be measured which can be done with the help of composition analyser. However, if there are two products, it may be possible to avoid the use of an analyser by using inferential control. In this scheme the composition is inferred from the temperature profile of the process. The temperature profile is controlled by manipulating feed flow rate. This control structure is known as The Eastman structure shown in Fig. 6.
With the help of above chart the following values are obtained for proportional, integral and derivative controllers [21].
203 202.5 202 TB(F) 201.5 201 200.5 1 34 Fig.4. Sustained oscillation with period 67 100 133 iterations 166 199 232
202.20 202.00 TB(F) 201.80 201.60 201.40 201.20
Fig. 6 Eastman Control Structure
Fig. 5 Reboiler temperature control using PID controller
= 0.069, = 49 = 12.25
iterations
The temperature profile of the process can be controlled by regulating the temperature of the most sensitive tray. The suitable tray is selected by the gain analysis. In this case the feed flow rate is changed by a small amount and corresponding change in the temperature is measured. The gain is defined as the ratio of the change in the temperature to the change in feed flow rate. The tray which shows the maximum gain corresponding to change in feed flow is considered as the most sensitive tray. A small disturbance in the feed of A-component is provided and it is observed from Fig. 7 and Fig. 8 that the 6th tray is most sensitive corresponding to change in the feed of A-component and the 14th tray is most sensitive tray corresponding to
1 16 31 46 61 76 91 106 121 136 151 166 181 196 211 226
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change in the feed of component-B respectively. Therefore 6th and 14th tray temperatures are required to be controlled to regulate the product quality. As the reaction is exothermic and depend on the two feeds, the respective tray temperature can be controlled by variation in feeds of component A and B to get the desired purity of the product. The feed flow rate is controlled to achieve the desired product quality with the help of PID controller. The PID controller is designed using Tyreus-Luyben tuning method. The values of gain K c and sustained oscillations period T are obtained using the same procedure as for Zeigler-Nichols method. K p , T i and T d calculated using Tyreus-Luyben chart (table-2) are as follows. Table-2: Tyreus-Luyben Chart Type of controller Kp PI controller K c /3.2 PID controller K c /2.2 Ti 2.2T 2.2T Td T/6.3
served from Fig. 9 that the steady state temperature, 390.534K is obtained after 400 iterations. Thus the steady state error obtained is 0.006 K. Fig. 10 shows the temperature control of 14th tray using the PID controller. The set point of tray 14 is kept at 392.12 K. It is observed from Fig. 10 that the transient response is oscillatory and steady state obtained after 400 iterations has the offset error.
Fig. 10 Temperature of 14th tray (With PID controller)
Fig. 7 Gain A = T/FoA Fig.9. Temperature of 6th tray (With PID controller)
As observed from the above results for the two processes, the PID controller is sluggish and there are oscillations in the transient response. The results also depict that a finite steady state error exists which must be reduced to zero. To obtain the precise control of distillate quality, it is desired to control the tray temperature in a more efficient manner and for that purpose an advanced control technique i.e. fuzzy controller is proposed which is discussed in the next section.
Fig. 8 Gain B = T/FoB Kp 1.235 2.94 Ti 122.27 113.182 Td 42.698 39.524
Table-3: Tuning parameters

Tray No. 6 14
The tuned PID controllers are used to control the process. The set point for 6th tray is 390.54 K. It is ob-
2.2 Fuzzy Controller: Fuzzy control provides a formal methodology for representing, manipulating, and implementing a humans heuristic knowledge to control a system. To design the fuzzy controller, the control engineer must gather information on how the artificial decision maker should act in the closed-loop system. Sometimes this information can be obtained from heuristics, while at other times from the knowledge base and a set of rules are written for controlling the system. The fuzzy controller block diagram is shown in Fig. 11, where a
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Fig.11. Fuzzy controller architecture
membership functions respectively. The plot of these membership functions are shown graphically in Fig. 12, Fig. 13 and Fig. 14 and in the form of tables in Table 4, Table 5 and Table 6. The rule base is selected based upon the error, change in error and output results of simulation as shown in Table 7. The Mamdani inference technique is used to infer the results from rule base and centroid method is used for defuzzification of the inferred output of the controller. Then the fuzzy controller is tested for the distillation process.
fuzzy controller is embedded in a closed-loop control system. The plant output is denoted by y(t), its input is denoted by u(t), and the reference input to the fuzzy controller is denoted by r(t). The fuzzy controller has four main components: 1. The fuzzification interface simply modifies the inputs so that they can be interpreted in the form of fuzzy sets. 2. The rule-base holds the knowledge, in the form of a set of IF-THEN rules to control the system. 3. The inference mechanism finds the relevant control rules at the current time and provides the fuzzified output. 4. The defuzzification interface converts the fuzzy output concluded by the inference mechanism into the actuating input to the plant. Fuzzy control system design involves following steps. 1. Choose the fuzzy controller inputs and outputs. 2. Choose the pre-processing that is needed for the controller inputs and possibly post processing that is needed for the outputs. 3. Design each of the four components of the fuzzy controller shown in Fig. 11. The main part of the fuzzy controller design is the rule-base. In the present temperature control problem, a control engineer regulates the plant output manually and uses this information for designing the rule base. For instance, one rule that a human expert may use is IF the product quality is lower than the set-point, THEN correct the heat input. A rule that would represent more detailed information to regulate the output would be IF the output is lower than the set-point AND the output is approaching the set-point very fast, THEN decrease the heat input by a small amount. The second rule characterizes the knowledge to make sure that response does not overshoot the desired goal (the set-point temperature). Generally if a very detailed expertise into the rule-base is obtained, one can enhance its chances of obtaining better performance. The fuzzy controller described above is used to control the distillate quality of the distillation process. 2.2.1Fuzzy Control of Multicomponent Distillation Process: The simulations of the mathematical model of the multicomponent distillation process are used to design the four components of fuzzy controller. The error, change in error and output are fuzzified using 13, 9, and 8
Fig.12. Membership function of error for fuzzy controller
Table 4: Error limits

Name VVESP VESP ESP VVSP VSP SP NP LP VLP VVLP ELP VELP VVELP Lower limit -------0.005 -0.0025 0.00 0.0025 0.005 0.0075 0.01 0.0125 0.015 0.0175 0.02 0.0225 Medium -0.005 -0.0025 0.00 0.0025 0.005 0.0075 0.01 0.0125 0.015 0.0175 0.02 0.0225 0.025 Higher limit -0.0025 0.00 0.0025 0.005 0.0075 0.01 0.0125 0.015 0.0175 0.02 0.0225 0.025 -----
Fig.13. Membership function of rate of change of error
Table 5: Table for change in error

Name VESD ESD VSD SD ND LD VLD ELD VELD Lower limit --------15 x10-3 -12.5 x10-3 -10 x10-3 -7.5 x10-3 -5.0 x10-3 -2.5 x10-3 0.0 2.5 x10-3 Medium -15x10-3 -12.5 x10-3 -10 x10-3 -7.5 x10-3 -5.0 x10-3 -2.5 x10-3 0.0 2.5 x10-3 5.0 x10-3 Higher limit -12.5 x10-3 -10 x10-3 -7.5 x10-3 -5.0 x10-3 -2.5 x10-3 0.0 2.5 x10-3 5.0 x10-3 ----
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Table 6: Change in temperature for fuzzy controller

Name VESC ESC VSC SC NC LC VLC ELC Lower limit -----10 x10-3 -7.5 x10-3 -5.0 x10-3 -2.5 x10-3 0.0 2.5 x10-3 5.0 x10-3 Medium -10 x10-3 -7.5 x10-3 -5.0 x10-3 -2.5 x10-3 0.0 2.5 x10-3 5.0 x10-3 7.5 x10-3 Higher limit -7.5 x10-3 -5.0 x10-3 -2.5 x10-3 0.0 2.5 x10-3 5.0 x10-3 7.5 x10-3 ----
Fig.14. Membership function of change in temperature
Table 7: The rule base

ek de k VESD ESD VSD SD ND LD VLD ELD VELD VVESP VESC VESC VESC VESC VESC VESC ESC VSC SC VESP VESC VESC VESC VESC VESC LC LC LC LC ESP VESC VESC VESC VESC VESC SC NC LC VLC VVSP VESC VESC VESC VESC NC NC NC ELC ELC VSP VESC VESC VESC VESC LC LC VLC ELC ELC SP ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC NP ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC ESC LP VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VLP VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VSC VVLP NC NC NC NC NC NC NC NC NC ELP NC NC NC NC NC NC NC NC NC VELP VLC VLC VLC VLC VLC VLC VLC VLC VLC VVELP ELC ELC ELC ELC ELC ELC ELC ELC ELC
Comparison of Results: The designed PID and fuzzy controllers are applied to control the reboiler temperature and results are compared. The variations reboiler temperature using fuzzy controller is shown in Fig. 15. It is observed from Fig.15 that the reboiler temperature reaches at steady state after 41 iterations where as in case of PID controller the reboiler temperature settles after 164 iterations. It is observed from Fig. 16 that in case of fuzzy controller there is no overshoot and the settling time is highly reduced as compared to PID controller.
202.00 201.80 201.60 201.40 201.20 1 9 17 25 33 41 49 57 65 73 81 89 97 105 113
The distillate and bottom product quality of the process is controlled by manipulation of the reboiler temperature. The distillate composition obtained after application of two controllers is shown in Fig. 17-21. The set point of reboiler temperature is 202 to obtain 98% of distillate quality of component, X D2 . It is observed from the results of distillate product that by using fuzzy controller peak overshoot is reduced thus decreasing the settling time.
XD1 (% mole fractions)
0.0178 0.0177 0.0176 0.0175 0.0174 0.0173 0.0172 0.0171 1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193
TB(F)
Iterations
iterations
FUZZY
Fig.15. Reboiler temperarure using fuzzy controller 202.2 202 201.8 201.6 201.4 201.2 1 21 41 61 81 iterations 101 121
PID
Fig. 17. Liquid composition of distillate X D1 with iterartion XD2 (% mole fractions)
0.9822 0.982 0.9818 0.9816 0.9814 1 15 29 43 57 71 85 99 113 127 141 155 169 183 197 PID
TB(F)
iterations
PID
Fuzzy controller
FUZZY
Fig.16. Reboiler temperature using PID and Fuzzy Controller
Fig. 18. Liquid composition of distillate X D2 with iterartion
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The fuzzy controller thus provides the best controlled output with minimum transient time and less oscillation as compared to conventional PID controller.
8.24E-05 8.24E-05 8.24E-05 8.24E-05 8.23E-05 8.23E-05 8.23E-05 8.23E-05 1 15 29 43 57 71 85 99 113 127 141 155 169 183 197
not shown as its composition is negligible. It is observed from the results of the bottom products (Fig. 22 Fig.25) that the fuzzy controller acts much faster than the conventional (PID) controller and reaches at the steady state earlier than the conventiaonal controller. Fuzzy controoller designed for reactive distillation process is explained in the next section.
0.049 0.0488 0.0486 0.0484 0.0482 0.048 0.0478 0.0476 0.0474 0.0472 1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193
iterations
PID
FUZZY

4.93E-05 4.93E-05 4.93E-05 4.93E-05 4.92E-05 4.92E-05 1 14 27 40 53 66 79 92 105 118 131 144 157 170 183 196
XB3 (% mole fractions)
iterations
PID FUZZY
Fig. 23. Liquid composition X B3 with iteration
iterations
PID
0.8375 0.837 0.8365 0.836 0.8355 1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193
FUZZY
6.62E-10 6.61E-10 6.6E-10 6.59E-10 6.58E-10 6.57E-10 1 14 27 40 53 66 79 92 105 118 131 144 157 170 183 196
iterations
PID FUZZY
Fig. 24. Liquid composition X B4 with iteration iterations

PID
FUZZY
0.1084 0.1083 0.1082 0.1081 0.108 0.1079 0.1078 1 15 29 43 57 71 85 99 113 127 141 155 169 183 197 iterations
PID FUZZY
0.0073 0.0072 0.0071 0.007 0.0069 0.0068 0.0067 0.0066 0.0065 1 13 25 37 49 61 73 85 97 109 121 133 145 157 169 181 193
iterations
PID
FUZZY
The liquid composition of bottom product corresponding to the reboiler set point of 202 F is shown in Fig. 22 to Fig. 25. The quality of bottom product is observed using conventional as well as intelligent controller. The composition of first component of bottom product is
2.2.2 Fuzzy Control of Reactive Distillation Process: The quality of product C and D is controlled by the PID controller but the response achieved is not up to the mark. Therefore a fuzzy controller is designed with the help of the simulated mathematical model of the reactive distillation process as discussed earlier. Here, the error, change in error and output are fuzzified using 3, 7 and 3 membership functions for the 6th tray and 10, 7 and 7 membership functions for the 14th tray respectively. These membership functions are shown in tables 8, 9, 10, 12, 13 and 14. The rule base is selected for the temperature control of the 6th tray and the 14th tray with the help of the simulation results.
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The corresponding rule base for the trays is shown in tables 11 and 15 respectively. Mamdani inference technique is selected for inferring the results and centroid method is used for defuzzification. The designed fuzzy controller is tested and results are obtained. Table 8: Membership functions and rule base defined for 6th tray
Membership function SP NP LP Lower limit -0.019 0 0.019 Middle limit 0 0.019 0.039 Higher limit 0.019 0.039 0.058
Table 12: Membership functions and rule base defined for 14th tray
Membership function ESP VVSP VSP SP NP VNP LP VLP VVLP ELP Lower limit -0.0150 0 0.0150 0.03 0.045 0.06 0.075 0.09 0.105 0.12 Middle limit 0 0.0150 0.03 0.045 0.06 0.075 0.09 0.105 0.12 0.135 Higher limit 0.0150 0.03 0.045 0.06 0.075 0.09 0.105 0.12 0.135 0.15
Table 9:
Membership function ESD VSD SD ND LD VLD ELD Membership function SC NC LC Lower limit -0.0256 -0.0100 0.0048 0.0352 0.0508 0.0656 0.0812 Lower limit -0.05 0 0.05 Middle limit -0.0100 0.0048 0.0204 0.0508 0.0656 0.0812 0.0960 Middle limit 0 0.05 0.1 Higher limit 0.0048 0.0204 0.0352 0.0656 0.0812 0.0960 0.1116 Higher limit 0.05 0.1 0.15
Table 13:
Membership function ESD VSD SD ND VND LD VLD Lower limit -0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 Middle limit -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 Higher limit 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
Table 10:
Table 14:
Membership function ESC VSC SC NC VNC LC VLC Lower limit -0.1 -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 Middle limit -0.05 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 Higher limit 0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 0.25 0.3
Table11: Rule Base

Mem. Funcions SP NP LP ESD VSD SC SC SC SC SC NC SD NC NC NC ND NC NC LC VND NC NC LC LD NC LC LC VLD LC LC LC ELD LC LC LC
Table 15: Rule Base

Mem Functions ESD VSD SD ND VND LD VLD ESP ESC VSC LC NC NC NC VLC VVSP ESC NC LC NC NC NC VLC VSP ESC VSC VLC LC VNC NC VLC SP VSC VSC VLC LC VNC VLC VLC NP VSC SC VLC VLC LC VLC VLC VNP VSC SC VLC VLC VLC VLC LC LP VSC NC VLC LC VLC VLC LC VLP SC NC VLC LC VLC VLC VNC VVLP SC NC LC LC LC VLC VNC ELP NC VNC LC LC LC LC NC
Comparison of Results: In case of reactive distillation process the temperature of 6th and 14th tray is controlled separately by using the conventional PID and fuzzy controllers to achieve the desired product quality. The controlled temperature of 6th and 14th tray using the controllers is shown in Fig. 26 and Fig. 27. It is observed from Fig. 26 and Fig. 27 that the fuzzy controller controls the temperature more efficiently as the steady state error is negligibly small. The steady state error in case of PID controller is of
order of 0.144 and while in case of fuzzy controller it is order of 0.0001, hence fuzzy controller gives more accurate results. It is also observed that in case of fuzzy controller the settling time is less as compared to conventional PID controller.
58
390.57 390.56 390.55 390.54 390.53 390.52 390.51 390.5 390.49 390.48 1 28 55 82 109 136 163 190 217 244 271 298 325 352 379 406 433 460 487
iterations
Conventional PID Fuzzy Controller Set point
Fig.26. Comparison of results for 6th tray

392.13 392.12 392.11 392.1 392.09 392.08 392.07 392.06 392.05 392.04 1 28 55 82 109 136 163 190 217 244 271 298 325 352 379 406 433 460 487
iterations
Conventional controller Set point Fuzzy controller
Fig.27. Comparison of results for 14th tray
CONCLUSIONS
The generic mathematical models of multicomponent distillation and reactive distillation process are considered in the present work. These mathematical models are simulated with the help of MATLAB. The PID and fuzzy controllers are designed for both the processes. In case of multicomponent distillation process, the PID controller is designed with the help of ZeiglerNicholas chart and for reactive process the PID controller is designed using Tyreus-Luyben method. In the multicomponent distillation process, the PID controller is used to control reboiler temperature and hence the distillate quality. In case of reactive process the designed PID controller is used to regulate the feed flow rate which in turn controls the temperature indirectly. The fuzzy controllers are also designed for the control of multicomponent distillation and reactive distillation process. The results obtained from PID and fuzzy controllers are compared for multicomponent distillation and reactive process. It is observed from the comparison of the results that fuzzy controller provides fast response, negligibly small offset error without much oscillation. Thus, the fuzzy controller outperforms the conventional PID controller.
Abbreviations: yB,j Vapour composition of reboiler of component (%mole Fraction) Hl Liquid enthalpy on 1st tray (Btu/lb m ) v HB Vapour enthalpy in reboiler (Btu/lb m ) L1 Liquid flow rate leaving 1st tray (lb-mole/h) QR Reboiler heat (Btu/h) VB Vapour flow rate leaving reboiler (lb-mole/h) x1,j Liquid composition on 1st tray of component (%mole Fraction) Activation energy for backward reaction (Btu/mole) Activation energy for forward reaction (Btu/mole) Input feed flow rate (lb-mole/h) 1 Vapour enthalpy on ( 1) tray Liquid enthalpy on tray (Btu/lb m ) Vapor enthalpy on tray (Btu/lb m ) +1 Liquid enthalpy on ( + 1) tray (Btu/lb m ) Liquid flow rate leaving tray (lb-mole/h) Molar holdup on tray (lb-mole) , Rate of reaction on the tray Temperature on ith tray ( F) Vapour flow rate leaving tray (lb-mole/h) 1 Vapor flow rate leaving ( 1) tray (lb-mole/h) Backward specific reaction rate on tray Forward specific reaction rate on tray Stoichiometric coefficient of component j Liquid composition in reflux drums of component , Liquid composition on tray in component , Mole fraction of component A on tray (%mole Fraction) , Mole fraction of component B on tray (%mole Fraction) , Mole fraction of component C on tray (%mole Fraction) , Mole fraction of component D on tray (%mole Fraction) , Vapour composition on tray in component (%mole Fraction) 1, Vapour composition on (NT-1)th tray of component (%mole Fraction) A vp Antione constant for component A B Bottom flow rate (lb-mole/h) B vp Antione constant for component B D Distillate flowrate (lb-mole/h) L Liquid flow rate (lb-mole/h) NC Number of component NT Total number of trays P Pressure in the column (psia) Pure vapour pressure of components j (psia) R Reflux flowrate (lb-mole/h) V Vapour flow rate (lb-mole/h) Relative volatility Heat of vaporization (Btu/lb m ) Heat of reaction (Btu/lb-mole)
Temperature(K)
Temperature(K)
REFERENCES
[1] Chen, G and Ying, H, BIBO Stability of Nonlinear Fuzzy PI Control Systems International Journal of Intelligent Control System, vol. 5, pp. 321, 1997.
59
[2] Clarke D., Automatic Tuning of PID Regulators Expert Systems and Optimization in Process Control Technical Press, Aldershot, England, 1986 [3] F. Greg Shinskey PID Control copyright 2000 CRC Press LLC. www.engnetbase.com [4] Jan Jantzen, Tuning of Fuzzy Controllers, Technical university of Denmark, Department of Automation Bidg 326, DK-2800Lyngby, Denmark tech report on 98H871(fpid)30 Sep,1998. [5] Katsuhiko Ogata Modern Control Engineering university of Minnesota, prentice hall, Upper Saddle River. New Jersey 07458. [6] Kevin M. Passini and Stephen Yurkovich Fuzzy Control Department of Electrical Engineering, The Ohio State, University, copyright 1998 Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. [7] Lotfi A. Zadeh, Berkeley C. A Fuzzy Logic Toolbox for use with MATLAB copyright 1995-2002 by The Math Works, Inc [8] Page S. Buckley, William L. Luyben and Joseph P. Shunta Design of Distillation column systems Production by Publishers creative Services Inc., New York, 1985. [9] Seema Chopra, R. Mitra and Vijay Kumar Fuzzy Controller: Choosing an Appropriate smallest Rule Set international journal of computational cognition, vol. 3, No 3 December 2005. [10] Tang K. S., Man K.F., Chen G. and Kwong S, An Optimal Fuzzy PID Controller, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, vol. 48, No. 4, pp.757-765, 2001. [11] Timothy J. Ross Fuzzy logic with engineering Application University of New Mexico, USA, copyright 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [12] Tso, S.K and Fung, Y.H, Methodological development of fuzzy-logic controllers from multivariate linear control, IEEE transaction of systems and cybernetics, vol. 27(3), pp.566-572, 1997. [13] Vijander Singh, Indra Gupta and H.O Gupta, ANN Based Estimator for Distillation-Inferential Control, Chemical Engineering and Processing, vol.44, Issue 7, pp. 785-795, July 2005. [14] Vijander Singh, Indra Gupta and H.O Gupta, ANN Based Estimator for Distillation Using LevenbergMarquardt Approach, special issue on Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Process Systems Engineering, of Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Elsevier Science, vol.20, pp.249-259, 2007. [15] Vijander Singh, Indra Gupta and H.O Gupta, Inferential Control of a Distillation Column using an Online Estimator, Chemical Product and Process Modelling, bepress, vol. 3, Issue 1(49), 2008. [16] Vu Trieu Minh and Ahmad Majdi Abdul Modeling and Control of Distillation Column in a Petroleum Process Mechanical Engineering Department, University Technology PETRONAS, Bandar Seri Iskandar, 31750 Tronch, Perak Darul Ridzuan Malaysia, 23 September 2009. [17] William L. Luyben Process Modelling and Simulation and Control for Chemical Engineers McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, International Edition 1996.
[18] Edgar, Himmelblau and Lasdon, Optimization of Chemical Processes, McGraw-Hill, 2001. [19] K. Sundmacher and A. Kienle, Reactive Distillation: Status and future Directions, Weinheim: WILEY-VCH, 2003. [20] M. A. Al-Arfaj and W. L. Luyben, Comparison of alternative control structures for an ideal two-product reactive distillation column Industrial Engineering Chemical Research, vol. 39, pp.3298-3307, 2000. [21] S. Melles, J. Grievink, Stany M. Schrans Optimisation of the conceptual design of reactive distillation columns Chemical Engineering Science 55, pp. 20892097, 2000. [22] O. M. Jide Development and Application of Linear State Estimators in Control of Reactive Distillation, Masters Thesis, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals, May 2005. [23] R. Taylor and R. Krishna, Modelling of reactive distillation Chemical Engineering Science, vol. 55, pp. 5183-5229, 2000. [24] A. R. Ciric, and D. Gu, Synthesis of nonequilibrium reactive distillation processes by MINLP optimization, 2000. [25] M. F. Doherty and G. Buzad, Reactive distillation by design Transactions of the Institution of Chemical Engineers, Part A, vol. 70, pp. 448-458, 1992. [26] X. Zhu, S. Adzand, K. Horvat, Stability Analysis of SISO Fuzzy Controller, 47th International Symposium ELMAR, Zadar, Croatia, 2005. [27] Timothy J. Ross, Fuzzy logic with engineering application. John Wiley & Sons, 2007. [28] Kuljaca, O., Tehjak, S., Vukic, Z., Describing Function of Mamdani Type Fuzzy Controller with Input Signals Derived From Single System Input and Singleton Output membership Functions, Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE Hong Kong Symposium on Robotics and Control, Volume I, HmRC '99, pp. 327- 331, Hong Kong, 1999. [29] A.M.F. Filetti, A.J.B. Antunes, F.B. Silva, V. Silveira Jr. and J.A.F.R Pereira, Experimental Investigation on Fuzzy Logic for Process Control, Control Engineering Practice, Elsevier Science, vol.15(2007), pp.1149-1160. [30] C.R. Edger, B.E Postlethwaite, and B.A. Gormandy, Control of MIMO dead time Processes using fuzzy relational models, ESIT (2000) 14-15 September, 2000, Germany. [31] Chi-Huang Lu and Ching-Chih Tsai, Generalized predictive control using recurrent fuzzy neural networks for industrial processes, Journal of Process Control, vol. 17, Issue 1, January 2007, pp.83-92.

Simulation and Control of Distillation Process

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JOURNAL OF COMPUTING, VOLUME 3, ISSUE 7, JULY 2011, ISSN 2151-9617 HTTPS://SITES.GOOGLE.COM/SITE/JOURNALOFCOMPUTING/ WWW.JOURNALOFCOMPUTING.

Simulation and Control of Distillation Process

Yi,j Hi hFi Fi XFi

Li+1 Xi+1,j hi+1

Fig.2. Modelling of general tray-i

(iii) Component material balance for reboiler:

(b) Total Material Balance Equation For general tray-i

Fig.1. Basic Structure of Distillation Process

(ii) Enthalpy balance for general tray-i

(iii) Enthalpy balance for reboiler

Component material balance around condenser is given by

vapour in nature and is given by + +

Fig.3. Basic structure of reactive distillation column

Rectifying and stripping trays:

The forward and backward specific reaction rates on ith tray:

202.20 202.00 TB(F) 201.80 201.60 201.40 201.20

Fig. 6 Eastman Control Structure

Fig. 5 Reboiler temperature control using PID controller

1 16 31 46 61 76 91 106 121 136 151 166 181 196 211 226

Fig. 10 Temperature of 14th tray (With PID controller)

Table-3: Tuning parameters

Fig.11. Fuzzy controller architecture

Fig.12. Membership function of error for fuzzy controller

Table 4: Error limits

Fig.13. Membership function of rate of change of error

Table 5: Table for change in error

Table 6: Change in temperature for fuzzy controller

Fig.14. Membership function of change in temperature

Table 7: The rule base

Fig.16. Reboiler temperature using PID and Fuzzy Controller

Fig. 18. Liquid composition of distillate X D2 with iterartion

Fig. 19. Liquid composition of distillate X D3 with iterartion

XB3 (% mole fractions)

XD4 (% mole fractions)

Fig. 23. Liquid composition X B3 with iteration

XB4 (% mole fractions)

Fig. 20. Liquid composition of distillate X D4 with iterartion

XD5 (% mole fractions)

Fig. 24. Liquid composition X B4 with iteration iterations

Fig. 21. Liquid composition of distillate X D5 with iterartion

XB5 (% mole fractions)

XB2 (% mole fractions)

Fig. 25. Liquid composition X B5 with iteration

Fig. 22. Liquid composition X B2 with iteration

Table11: Rule Base

Table 15: Rule Base

Fig.26. Comparison of results for 6th tray

Fig.27. Comparison of results for 14th tray

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