Control of reactive distillation production of high-purity isopropanol

The process characteristics and control strategy of a high-purity IPA reactive distillation column were investigated. A robust nominal operation was found by maintaining an excess of propylene feed to the column and recycling the unreacted propylene to the feed instead of the top stage. Stage temperature and propylene composition with one-to-one relationship with reboiler duty and propylene feed are selected as controlled variables for maintaining bottom purity and feed ratio in the presence of possible measurement bias respectively. High nonlinearity between selected input–output pair was reduced by using variable transformation. Dynamic simulations demonstrated that such a control scheme with nonlinear transformed variable was capable of providing much superior control performance than the one using natural variable.     

基于进化算法的常减压装置模拟

提出了基于优选优生进化算法（Select—best and prepotency evolution algorithm，SPEA）的常减压装置模拟方法。以各塔的温度分布为目标，基于生产过程和分析数据，采用SPEA确定各塔板Murphree效率，从而精确描述各塔板平衡偏离程度。在实际应用中，获得具有良好精度的常减压装置模型。系统分析了SPEA算法的关键参数——优选领域大小与计算复杂性及寻优性能之间的关系，结果显示其取值为群体规模的10％最为合适。     

井下乳化/水热催化裂解复合降黏开采稠油技术研究

实验考察了胜利孤东稠油井下催化水热裂解和乳化/催化水热裂解降黏效果。所用催化剂为水溶性铁镍钒体系,Fe3+∶Ni2+∶VO4+=5∶1∶1,100 g稠油与30 g 0.5%催化剂水溶液在240℃反应24小时。原始黏度(50℃)11.0和8.36 Pa.s的两种稠油裂解并静置除水后,黏度降低76.2%和75.6%,室温放置60天后降黏率下降小于3个百分点,气相色谱显示裂解后轻组分明显增加,红外光谱显示稠油组分发生脱羧反应且芳环数减少。讨论了稠油催化水热裂解反应机理。所用化学助剂JN-A在油水中均可溶,耐温达250℃,耐矿化度达50 g/L,其水溶液以30∶100的质量比与稠油混合时形成低黏度的O/W乳状液。当水相含1.0%JN-A和0.5%催化剂时,两种稠油水热裂解后的反应混合物为O/W乳状液,黏度仅为319和309 mPa.s,静置除水后的稠油降黏率增加到86.5%和87.3%,其中的轻组分含量进一步增加。该井下乳化/催化水热裂解复合降黏法成功地用于孤东两口蒸汽吞吐井,稠油井作业后初期采出的原油黏度由~9 Pa.s降低到1 Pa.s左右,随采油时间延长而逐渐升高,约50天后超过4Pa.s。图2表6参5。     

Control strategies for reactive batch distillation

A batch reactor may be combined directly with a distillation column by distilling off the light component product in order to increase the reactor temperature or to improve the product yield of an equilibrium reaction. The same amount of the light product should be removed as the amount being formed by the reaction at any time. A linearized model has been developed which describes the process behaviour satisfactorily for control analysis purposes. The controllability of a combined batch reactor/batch distillation column is found to depend strongly on the operating conditions and on the time during the run. In general, controlling only the reactor temperature (one-point bottom control) is difficult since the set-point has to be specified below a maximum value in order to avoid break-through of an intermediate component in the ditillate. This maximum value may be difficult to know a priori. For the example considered in this study, control of both reactor temperature and distillate composition (two-point control) is also found to be difficult due to large interactions in the column. As with one-point bottom control, the reactor temperature has to be specified below a maximum value. However, energy can be saved since the heat duty can be decreased with time. Controlling the temperature on a tray in the column (one-point column control) is found to give good performance for the given process with no loss of reactant and a high reactor temperature, although no direct control of the reactor temperature is obtained.     

蒸汽减压站自控系统的巧设计

蒸汽是石油化工装置中最重要的物料。随着石油化工工业的迅猛发展 ,蒸汽在其中扮演着越来越重要的多重角色。因此 ,对蒸汽系统的平稳控制 ,对石油化工生产装置平稳、高效地运行是至关重要的。传统的蒸汽减压站自控系统基建投资大 ,紧急情况下靠人工手动操作稳定蒸汽压力系统 ,往往造成生产的波动或大面积的停车。针对传统蒸汽减压站自控系统的弱点 ,提出蒸汽减压站自控系统的优化设计方案 ,该方案得以在大型生产装置成功应用。新方案不但节省了大量的基建投资 ,而且取得了良好的生产效益     

Retaining maximum antioxidative potency of wheat germ oil refined by molecular distillation

A process of physical refining wheat germ oil using the technique of molecular distillation (MD) is presented in this work. Wheat germ oil was obtained from the germ by solvent extraction using hexane and also by cold pressing. The oil extracted with hexane was degummed and bleached before deacidification in order to modify the parameters of phosphorus and color. The goal in carrying out the stage of physical refining by MD was to preserve the maximum amount of original antioxidative potential obtained from extraction of the crude oil. The effect of evaporation temperature of one‐stage MD on the efficiency of free fatty acid elimination was studied. The antioxidant portion was followed by means of analytic determination of tocopherols by high‐performance liquid chromatography. Tocopherol retention up to 98% was achieved in the oil extracted by pressing, and yields of up to 96% were achieved in the oil extracted with hexane. Copyright © 2007 Society of Chemical Industry     

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF STATE OBSERVERS IN REACTIVE DISTILLATION

This study demonstrates that state observers can be developed and applied to infer the composition profiles of reactive distillation columns from noise-contaminated temperature measurements. The design and implementation of a Kalman filter (KF) and a Luenberger observer (LO) are carried out, and their performances are quantitatively assessed. The reliability, accuracy, and robustness of the two designs method are examined and compared quantitatively. The design and implementation of a Luenberger observer are simpler and easier to carry out than those of a Kalman filter. On the other hand, a Kalman filter is found to be more robust to a noisy measurements, erroneous initial estimates, and model uncertainties. A Luenberger observer could be used for composition estimation of reactive distillation when an ideal model of the system can reasonably approximate the real system; otherwise, a Kalman filter is recommended to be applied in more practical situations.     

Drying Kinetics of a Porous Spherical Particle and the Inversion Temperature

A model is presented for drying of a single porous particle with superheated steam and humid air. Experimental data for spherical porous ceramic particle reported in the literature were used for the validation of the model. An inversion temperature at which the evaporation rates within superheated steam and humid air are equal was predicted. The effect of thermophysical properties of the particle (permeability 10^-14 - 10^-17 m², diameter 3 × 10^-3 - 10 × 10^-3 m) and operating variables (gas mass flux 0.26 - 0.78 kg m^-2 s^-1, drying agent temperature 120-200°C) is tested. The inversion temperature is shown to be affected by the thermophysical properties of the porous particle and of the drying agent.