Design and Control of Thermally Coupled Reactive Distillation Sequence for Biodiesel Production

• Published in: 中国炼油与石油化工（英文版） Vol. 18; no. 2; pp. 21 - 32
• Main Author: Li Lumin;Sun Lanyi;Xie Xu;Tian Yanan;Shang Jianlong;Tian Yuanyu
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: State Key Laboratory of Heavy 0il Processing, China University of Petroleum, Qingdao 266580%SIN0PEC Research Institute of Petroleum Processing,Beijing,100083 01.06.2016
• Subjects: analysis; annual; biodiesel; cost;control; coupled; distillation; production; reactive; thermally; thermodynamic; total; biodiesel production; thermally coupled reactive distillation; thermodynamic analysis; control; total annual cost
• ISSN: 1008-6234

Decreasing petroleum reserves and growing alternative fuels requirements have promoted the study of biodiesel production. In this work, two thermally coupled reactive distillation designs for biodiesel production were investigated, and the sensitivity analysis was conducted to obtain the appropriate design values. The thermodynamic analysis and economics evaluation were performed to estimate the superiority of the thermally coupled designs over the base case. The proposed biodiesel production processes were simulated using the simulator Aspen Plus, and calculation results show that the exergy loss and economic cost in the two thermally coupled designs can be greatly reduced. It is found that the thermally coupled side-stripper reactive distillation design provides more economic benefits than the side-rectifier one. The dynamic performance of the thermally coupled side-stripper design was investigated and the results showed that the proposed control structure could effectively handle large feed disturbances.