Development and application of linear process model in estimation and control of reactive distillation

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 the system is demonstrated. The effect of controller tuning on the performance of the estimator-based control system is explored. It is shown that effective controller tuning is necessary for a robust performance of a closed-loop reactive distillation system that relies on a state estimator. A robust linear state estimator can be developed and implemented in a feedback control system of a reactive distillation when the process can be approximated by a linear model.