ON-LINE OPTIMIZATION OF DISTILLATION COLUMNS IN SERIES

This paper presents an on-line optimization algorithm for distillation columns which consists of a steepest descent technique based on a simple model of product recovery with on-line estimation of the critical model parameter. The algorithm is developed for a single column and then for a two-column train. A dynamic programming approach is used to reduce the optimization problem to a single parameter search for each column in the train. The resulting algorithm is simple and computer resource requirements are small. The algorithm has been successfully used in two industrial applications, one consisting of two columns in series and the other of three columns in series.